[CP5670]

The 8800 line came out earlier today as expected. These are some of the better articles:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2870&p=1
http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/11211

The GTX is a monster, fixing all the problems with the 7 series and adding much more with roughly doubled performance over previous cards. I would be tempted to get one if there wasn't a complete lack of new games to play on it, which is reflected in the above benchmark choices to some degree. All the good upcoming games (Crysis, UT2007, Bioshock, etc.) are still several months off and it's hard to justify the purchase of these things right now. The only recent title I can think of is Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which I'll pick up next weekend.

The GTS is somewhat less impressive for its pricepoint but still faster than any previous card and is reportedly overclocking very well. Both cards are readily available and although not exactly cheap, don't exhibit much of price gouging usually seen with such releases.

(note to admins: I put this in here since it's mainly of interest in a gaming context; move it if needed)

[Nix]

THIS is what I've been waiting for.  It's about pointless to upgrade a 9800XT to anything less than a dx10 card for what I do. 

[Fury]

I don't see much point in upgrading to 8800GTX or GTS cards, their prices are just way too steep. I'll be waiting for 7900GT/7950GT replacements and 8600 series to see which card offers the best price/performance ratio. I'll also wait and see how ATI's equivalents performs and costs. I think we'll see the mainstream cards sometime march-may.

Intel's Bearlake and AMD's Barcelone motherboard chipsets should come out around same time as well, overall a good time to build a new rig to replace my current one which turns three years old in april.

Edit: To make full use of DX10 cards you would need to use Vista too, XP won't be getting DX10.  Any rumors you've heard about DX9.0L coming to XP are more than likely false because full DX10 support requires the new WVDDM driver model, DX9.0L is DX9 for Vista.

[Turnsky]

I don't see much point in upgrading to 8800GTX or GTS cards, their prices are just way too steep. I'll be waiting for 7900GT/7950GT replacements and 8600 series to see which card offers the best price/performance ratio. I'll also wait and see how ATI's equivalents performs and costs. I think we'll see the mainstream cards sometime march-may.

Intel's Bearlake and AMD's Barcelone motherboard chipsets should come out around same time as well, overall a good time to build a new rig to replace my current one which turns three years old in april.

Edit: To make full use of DX10 cards you would need to use Vista too, XP won't be getting DX10.  Any rumors you've heard about DX9.0L coming to XP are more than likely false because full DX10 support requires the new WVDDM driver model, DX9.0L is DX9 for Vista.

well, such a top of the line card is a worthy purchase if you don't have the last generation of cards, i.e folks with older models radeons/geforce cards.. albeit it's expensive, the mere fact that it'll be a decent card for a while means that the expense will be factored into its overall life..

mind you, most card companies make most of their money from the obsessive-compulsive gamer who feels the need to upgrade their machine at least once every couple of months. 

[Fury]

I disagree, buying the very expensive GTX or GTS is only wise if you also have or will get a monitor that supports high resolutions such as 1600x1200 or 1680x1050. More conservative resolutions will do fine with even slower cards as GTS. A 20" or bigger monitor and a GTX or GTS combined costs nearly as much as a new computer would.

I'll save my money and a get a card in the price range of X1950 Pro & 7900GS - X1900XT & 7950GT. Spending less on a graphics card means that I'll be able to upgrade to a DX10.1 or 10.2 cards sooner.

I'd prefer GTS prices to drop to these levels after ATI's DX10 cards are out though.

Edit: About DX10.1: http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=103&Itemid=29

[Nix]

I just think that it's worth upgrading to be DX10 compliant.  If every new game will be using DX10 in the future, I know I'd want to take advantage of it.  There's nothing worse in my opinion about using hardware without the software to support it or vice versa.  (SATA boards that don't support NCQ1/2, and your hard drive is an NCQ drive, for example)   I got a Geforce 4400 just because it was a DX8 compliant card and everything that was out at the time was DX8, going into DX9.  Upgrading to the DX10 card and unified shader model will be a fantastic upgrade from any DX9 card on the market right now.  I'll wait for prices to drop a bit of course, and probably let a few months pass to see exactly what's going to happen once DX10 is out in full-swing.  Who knows?  We might have another FX series on our hands here once DX10 comes out. 

[CP5670]

I think the biggest reason to pass up these cards is the dearth of games lately. They seem to be winners in almost every way (they're actually better than a lot of previous gen cards even on price/performance ratios), but there has been maybe one graphically intensive release this year (Oblivion, which doesn't even look that good) and all the upcoming games with next gen engines have been delayed several months into 2007. If we had some of those games released this year as they were originally expected to, I was going to get a GTX in a week or two once the prices stabilize. The ebay people are a little slow to react to these launches and I could still get around $300 for my X1900XTX there, but there is simply nothing worth upgrading for.

[Triple Ace]

I'll wait a year or two to upgrade when the prices come down and more games that support dx10. Last month I experienced dx9 features for the first time. So I'm set for now anyway.

[Sandwich]

I disagree, buying the very expensive GTX or GTS is only wise if you also have or will get a monitor that supports high resolutions such as 1600x1200 or 1680x1050.

*waves*

Anyway, I was gonna be upgrading from an old Radeon 9800 Pro, but the fan died on me while I was out all day and the card burnt out. So now I'm upgrading from my brother's old Radeon 9500 Pro. And considering my monitor, I'd say that either the GTS or GTX are quite justifiable.