that was ATi... AMD could have bought them, but it is a totally different company now.
Radeon 9700 and 9800 generation really were the best products at the time. Even the drivers were better than counterpart's.
You're missing the point entirely. These upscaling technologies from both AMD and Nvidia are akin to cheating, and they're trying to sell this to us the consumers as a "feature".
I've seen both in action and I'm not impressed. With upscaling (DLSS, FSR, etc) enabled, everything is noticeably more blurry and the FPS gain is not impressive unless you really turn that minimum resolution slider down to like 30-50% - certainly doesn't warrant the drop in image quality. And if the game doesn't look very nice, I can just wait and play it in a few years on newer faster hardware, rather then compromise on image quality or performance... or my wallet.
I've had all these cards in my hands and played with most of them. I collect PC hardware and sometimes I get PCs in for repairs and/or maintenance, despite the fact that this is no longer my main source of revenue - I also sometimes get review samples sent if from friends who work in the tech press - who also happen to collect retro computer hardware, or friends who work for a big hardware importer/reseller and have access to all sorts of hardware, some sent in for demo stations or showcases... So I loan them something rare(ish) like say a voodoo 5 5500, or a Volari V8 duo, and they loan me a 4090 for a few days. And I have to say, that thing is bloody fast, but not 2100-2200 euro (tax included) fast. Unless I had an income of 6000-7000 euro / month (after tax) I wouldn't be considering such a product, and even then I'd still ponder if that money might be better spent somewhere else, since in a few years time that video card will be obsolete and worth a mere fraction of what I would pay for it new.
Maybe you guys are right, and I'm too old for this $h|t, but just remember, just 10 years ago 600$ would buy you a top of the line model that would just perform - no bull$h|t DLSS, FSR or gimmicks like RT that tank performance for a little bit of extra shiny. Now you need to pay 2000$ for the same privilege - and that's without TAX.
Again, 6800XT price TODAY is low because of low demand.
I’m speaking about launch price…
Yes, today 6800XT price is very nice, but that’s for a reason, and for that specific reason I wouldn’t buy one even at that good price. If you are happy with the card, good for you. I’m not going to try to convince you of anything different. I just don’t put it in any of my customer’s PC.
Yeah I'll take the 550$ 6800XT over the 750$ 3080 any day - that's just a no brainer. Nothing other then pure performance is worth the extra 200$, and it's just not there. Only bullshit marketing and some people are falling for it in droves. I'm sorry, but unless the 6800XT was completely broken or it performed 25% slower then the 3080 the price gap is unjustified. The only reasons I see to get a card that is ~27% more expensive but performs largely the same are fanboyism, more money then sense or down-right lack of interest in hardware.
Fanboyism is a unfortunately part of us as a species and is costing all consumers dearly, since corpos have learned how to exploit and weaponize it.
And where is that "low demand" seen? Not in my neck of the woods. The 6800, RTX 4090, 6800XT and sometimes the 6700xt are out of stock 1-2 weeks after e-tailers get a new shipment. RX6600XT and RTX 3060 stock vary wildly from week to week - sometimes MSI and Powercolor products are in stock, next week it's Palit and Sapphire.... The 7900XT, 3070, 3080 and 4080 are in stock all the time. What does that say about demand? Of course, a 3080 here costs as much as 6900XT so nobody will touch them, and the 4090 is so expensive, e-tailers probably stocked very very few of them knowing the average wage here and the willingness of the average Ion to spend car-money on a video card - but maybe it's different where you live.
Oh well, to each his own. The only reason I'm being so vocal is to try (most likely a pointless effort) to get manufacturers to understand that these price hikes are unacceptable, and that they will lose customers - and sometimes to try and nudge people so that they will look into performance / dollar and not red vs green.
, even DDU wasn’t enough).
