Tuesday, March 30th 2010
XFX Abandons GeForce GTX 400 Series
XFX is getting cozier with AMD by the day, which is an eyesore for NVIDIA. Amidst the launch of GeForce GTX 400 series, XFX did what could have been unimaginable a few months ago: abandon NVIDIA's high-end GPU launch. That's right, XFX has decided against making and selling GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards, saying that it favours high-end GPUs from AMD, instead. This comes even as XFX seemed to have been ready with its own product art. Apart from making new non-reference design SKUs for pretty-much every Radeon HD 5000 series GPU, the company is working on even more premium graphics cards targeted at NVIDIA's high-end GPUs.
The rift between XFX and NVIDIA became quite apparent when XFX outright bashed NVIDIA's high-end lineup in a recent press communication about a new high-end Radeon-based graphics card it's designing. "XFX have always developed the most powerful, versatile Gaming weapons in the world - and have just stepped up to the gaming plate and launched something spectacular that may well literally blow the current NVIDIA offerings clean away," adding "GTX480 and GTX470 are upon us, but perhaps the time has come to Ferm up who really has the big Guns." The move may come to the disappointment of some potential buyers of GTX 400 series, as XFX's popular Double Lifetime Warranty scheme would be missed. XFX however, maintains that it may choose to work on lower-end Fermi-derivatives.
Source:
HardwareCanucks
The rift between XFX and NVIDIA became quite apparent when XFX outright bashed NVIDIA's high-end lineup in a recent press communication about a new high-end Radeon-based graphics card it's designing. "XFX have always developed the most powerful, versatile Gaming weapons in the world - and have just stepped up to the gaming plate and launched something spectacular that may well literally blow the current NVIDIA offerings clean away," adding "GTX480 and GTX470 are upon us, but perhaps the time has come to Ferm up who really has the big Guns." The move may come to the disappointment of some potential buyers of GTX 400 series, as XFX's popular Double Lifetime Warranty scheme would be missed. XFX however, maintains that it may choose to work on lower-end Fermi-derivatives.
199 Comments on XFX Abandons GeForce GTX 400 Series
rename/republish the same product 3 times, and then wont even get punished for it? Priceless. ;-)
Thing is, I don't see where Fermi's performance is really that respectable for a card that's 6 months late to the game and has been over-hyped. I half expected Fermi to be more on par with Hemlock . . . or, at least, that's what nVidia were wanting everyone to believe. As it stands, especially in the larger display res arena, the card is really not too much better than Cypress - even more-so if we factor in the price these cards are going to enter at; I'm 100% certain that either right before, or right after, the 480's release, ATI will drop their prices by nearly 25% (also one of their current tactics).
Why do you think I haven't bought a 5870 yet? I would only gain lower power usage (low on my considerations list), and DX11 (higher on my considerations list, but not high enough to essentially cross-grade performance wise).
And I take w1z's word on it over consumption, vs some random guys on forums making claims that ZOMG, FERMI KILLED MY PSU!!!!!!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I think the 5k series is absolutely amazing, it just doesn't fit my need for more performance in my price range. I would love to grab 5970 tho, but it is simply out of my price range. I think I'm gonna have to sit this one out until the next gen.
Just like G80/R600, I too will be sitting this round out, there it isn't enough of a gain to drop what I have now and spend serveral hundred dollars for next to no noticeable performance improvement.
And newteckie your known to be pretty nv flavored in your opinions just like I'm amd opinioned in mine
Reason I consider it an upgrade (just a few): runs cooler, fan only needs to run 35% max during games compared to ~60% to keep temperatures down, no crossfire profiles to be concerned about, better options for aftermarket cooler if I ever decide to
Thanks to the 5870, my setup is pretty much silent even when playing games. Not really thought about much until you're playing BC2 and trying to hear the guy around you that just shot at you.
Biggest thing on the list of considerations for me is performance. I will not upgrade unless my upgrade gives me more performance. 5870 does not accomplish that. Fermi does, but has too many negatives to worry about right now. Thus the reason many of us like minded people have decided to sit this one out. The only exception would be stumbling across a really killer deal.
On the other hand ATI have even from a cheap 5770 to 5970 with EyeF6 support, that support 6 monitors and default freqs/temp on desktop use. (Launched yesterday...)
. . . although, I'm not opposed to recieving free green-camp hardware, I just won't spend my money on it :p
Regarding the 4870x2, 100% agreed. Even though I could get by with one, I'm a stickler for consistent smooth frame rates, hence my doubling up. My next upgrade will be to a form of hardware that 100% outperforms just one of my current cards . . . and 5970 is the only one capable of that ATM . . .
. . . and supply is still non-existent. :ohwell:
I got rid of any Crossfire micro stutter created from the 4870x2 being a Crossfire setup in one card.
Plus with that said in real world performance..... they are a lot closer than you think. As far as loss of FPS. In the real world I bet I lost about 5% if that. Which an 5870 can easily Clock to that with out a problem.
Now that I am getting rid of my 5870 and going to a 5850 Crossfire I really have gained allot.
For someone with a 4870x2 .... I can definitely see why it is not a priority to upgrade to a 5870 setup. But at the same time.... if you did it....it wouldn't be a waist of time or money at all.
Paying $400 for little to no performance gains is a waste of time and money by my standards.
Besides, if I did decide to go with something from this gen, it would probably be nV. If anything, it's time for a change for me.
The only thing that is stopping me though is worrying that these cards because they run so hot..... might only last a year at tops if I need to keep them for a long time.
Coming from a 5870 that did on Auto fan a max temp of 70c (While playing Crysis and other Highend games) Those temps are pretty high.
Considering that a 5870 is more powerful that a GTX 470. You would think that a GTX 470 would be the cooler one.
Not to mention my 5850's never run that hot.
But no pain no gain.... and this problem has still not deterred me from thinking about this decision. Ahhh choices choices.....
But I have been reading allot up on Physx lately and I didn't realize that I could be missing a fair amount in games with out it. That is the other factor here making me wonder if I should go for it.
But if you say they are not running that hot anymore.... maybe I will try to find some reviews
talking about that aspect. I'll Check it out.... If they got those temps down around 70c on Auto fan.... I would definitely check a GTX 470 SLI setup out :)