Were ATI X1800 Users Ripped Off?

sablabra · 11 Feb 2006 at 22:40

I bought mine x1800xt a week ago, an x1900xt is about 100£ more, which I believe it wasn't worth.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Feb 2006 at 22:47

Alty said:
Is anyone else hoping to go X1800XT crossfire though or leave it to just the one card?

I was going to further down the line, but now im sticking to the one card, im not going to be forced in to buying the master card now just because they aint made anymore, so if i don't buy now then thats it as they'll be gone soon.

Alty · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:06

I suppose it aint worth throwing even more money on the X1800 series. It would be simply be a waste wouldnt it

Am simply gutted tho about this and at least it will make me think more carefully before my next purchase. It's just a shame cards dont last long anymore. My GF4 Ti4600 lasted me over 2 years before I replaced it with a 6800GT. That only lasted me a year before upgrading to the X1800XT. I'll be damned if I am gonna upgrade this one after 2/3 months!!!

**EDIT** I have paid over £1000 for just those 3 cards over the years - bloomin ada it makes u think!

marc2003 · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:12

Alty said:
It's just a shame cards dont last long anymore.

they still do but only on 17-19in screens.

you're constantly going to be fighting a losing battle trying to play the latest games at the native res of your dell tft...

Alty · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:13

Its funny you mention that because I loved my 19" Sony TFT. Since I got this Dell I wonder if I made the right decision!

mdjmcnally · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:20

I'm sure I read about the X1900/R580 being taped out before the X1800/R520 even hitting the shelves.

Seriously there was a lot of info saying that the X1800 was going to have a short shelf life before it hit the stores. What with the blatantly unpublished delays (sarcasm) of the x1800 I am quite suprised anyone bought an x1800

As a long term buyer of PC compenents I would have to say that unless you are buying out of date hardware you are paying top wack for it. When I look at what I paid for my 6800Ultra and NEC 2080UX+ compared to what the price is now, however I have had them for 16 months now and looking to upgrade. (2080UX+ replace by Dell 2405 last August)

Having said that I am fully expecting to get gouged next month when I buy a pair of 7900 cards, and apart from the debit card complaining, I won't be. If you want Value for Money buy Games Consoles, don't expect value from PC hardware. You possibly get better value buying a brand new car.

ps3ud0 · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:21

marc2003 said:
you're constantly going to be fighting a losing battle trying to play the latest games at the native res of your dell tft...

Q.F.T.

Ive got a 2405FPW and considering getting another 19" for just playing FPSes - I never regret getting it though, far too useful for office apps, multimedia and slower games...

ps3ud0 :cool:

LoadsaMoney · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:36

I still don't see what the problem is, you don't see the 512mb GTX owners complaining, they have paid more, and their card has lasted less than the x1800, it didn't come into stock until after christmas, and thats been phased out after about 1x shipment where as the x1800's have been shipping in good quantities for about 2 months.

Newb1e · 12 Feb 2006 at 01:29

it's all academic anyway, i'd see no more benefit in running a pair of 7900's, as i'd still be CPU limited - even on this x2 4800

Metalface Mark · 12 Feb 2006 at 01:58

Im delighted with mine, and delighted loadsamoney non stop raving convinced me to buy it, i have to admit to paying the lower price (about £270 i think it was) and had the choice of 1900 or 1800, but took the same opinion that there wasnt much point shelling out on the 1900. Of course now ive upgraded my monitor so the native res is 1600x1200, but thankfully it scales well if i come across something that cant manage it, but i can even play Q4 with full detail and get great frame rates at that, so its definetly a great card.

The Asgard · 12 Feb 2006 at 03:05

LoadsaMoney said:
I still don't see what the problem is, you don't see the 512mb GTX owners complaining, they have paid more, and their card has lasted less than the x1800, it didn't come into stock until after christmas, and thats been phased out after about 1x shipment where as the x1800's have been shipping in good quantities for about 2 months.

The GTX 512 commands a far greater price 2nd hand. Sold mine for £450 you won't get that for a x1800. There is still a big demand for GTX 512 hence why you don't see people complaining

ACESHIGH · 12 Feb 2006 at 07:09

The X1800XT are still great cards with performance close to that of the X1900XT cards, so if you baught the card to play games with then yeah its a good purchase because they still do that well.

Personally i would be gutted if i baught a 7800GTX 512MB card for £587.44 or £646.19 when you could get the faster X1900XTX cards for only £399.44.

blackbull · 12 Feb 2006 at 12:31

marc2003 said:
they still do but only on 17-19in screens.

you're constantly going to be fighting a losing battle trying to play the latest games at the native res of your dell tft...

Very true I have a 17" CRT Monitor and I feel that it pays to be behind the times in some ways. I have recently bought a PowerColor X850XT for £150 it was a "this week only" special price and I was being told it was a poor purchase because it was "last year's technology" but at the resolution I played games at 1078x768 it would capable of playing all the latest games (including the GFX card crippling F.E.A.R.)

I know it doesn't have SM3 shading but its such a step up from where I have come from it was irrelevent. As it is I have now gone up to the unheard of resolution of 1280x1024 and run with everything maxed out on the games I play most HL2, DOD and Far Cry, all look fabulous to me.

It seems we are all so wrapped up in getting the latest piece of kit common sense goes out the window at times. Graphics cards are always moving forward we all know that. In the month or so before I bought my X850XT (to replace an OEM X600 Pro) I had to refamilarlised myself with the state of play in the market (the last graphics card I had actually bought being a Voodoo 5500 PCI in 2000!!) but during that four week period even I learnt about the the delays to the X1800 series and the imminent arrival of the X1900 it wasn't kept a secret!!

It seems to me the best value for money lies with recently superceded models hence my purchase decision. If a X1800XL can be had for £160 that absolutely brilliant value (I would buy that rather than a X1900 XT everytime, no matter the extra performance of its replacement. I am sure the extra performance is not worth the extra £200.

Things maybe different with introduction of the next generation of cards but till then all you X1800 owner still have ownership of fantastic pieces of kit.

jezsoup · 12 Feb 2006 at 12:44

Alty said:
Im just wondering how fellow X1800 users feel having paid premium prices for their cards only to have the X1900 series released so soon after. I'm a lil miffed to say the least as the money I spent about a mere few months ago coulda just about paid for X1900XT.

How long were the X1800 out for before the X1900 came along anyway? I'll be damned if I am gonna be upgrading to the new series any time soon but whats annoyed me most is now there will be a shortage of X1800 XT Master Edition cards so I may not even get a chance to run Crossfire once I can afford to

you choose to buy it mate!! You didnt have to buy it so no they arnt at fault really, its like saying McDonalds made me fat by selling Big Macs!!

matt100 · 12 Feb 2006 at 13:18

jezsoup said:
you choose to buy it mate!! You didnt have to buy it so no they arnt at fault really, its like saying McDonalds made me fat by selling Big Macs!!

lol..

I was also going to add that components have never been a good investment

About a month after I bought my sli gtxs the 512mb gtx arrived.. how long were you expecting it to be top for? Agreed the 1900 came along quite quickly but you're looking 4 or 5 months tops for anything top of the range to stay top of the range.

D.P. · 12 Feb 2006 at 13:28

On a 6 month product cycle and a product is delayed by 6 months why is it surprising to have the next prodsuct release close to the first?

It was blatently obvious that the X1900 was being released in january, that was known een before the X1800 was released. You only have youself to blame if you purchased an X1800 and would have preffered a X1900.

HighlandeR · 12 Feb 2006 at 13:43

Must confess I saw the X1900 rollout info but just didnt belive it...its still shocking I reckon.

I know if they had released an 7900GTX that ran cooler/quieter/faster and cheaper in Jan..... id be sharpening my blade with a brittle pad.

And further more if Nvidia did do something like that this would be at least on the 10th page.....

chaparral · 12 Feb 2006 at 13:53

The first xt1900xt-x buyers like myself are no better off..The card has lost £70 value in a few weeks...(£399 to £329 in about two weeks)

I remember buying my voodoo 5500agp for £230 some years ago and the company then went bust or whatever a few weeks later..That meant no more updated drivers etc.

LoadsaMoney · 12 Feb 2006 at 14:07

chaparral said:
The first xt1900xt-x buyers like myself are no better off..The card has lost £70 value in a few weeks...(£399 to £329 in about two weeks)

I remember buying my voodoo 5500agp for £230 some years ago and the company then went bust or whatever a few weeks later..That meant no more updated drivers etc.

I remember about 2x days after they arrived they were put in the 'This Week Only', that must have been gutting for those who bought them on the day, then about 2x days later they are price cut.

There is still a big demand for the 512mb GTX, but even so those ppl are still not complaining, as they know the card they aint got in their posession yet has been phased out, where as x1800 owners have had their cards in their machines for about 2x months, and some are complaining, id be more gutted knowing a card i aint even got yet had been pahsed out, well done those ppl.

Thanks InwardSinging, it is a cracking card, as i said the x1900 needs its shader intensive games to really show what it can do, but seen as those are going to be a long, long way off, then all it is is a speed bumped x1800, and by the time the shader intensive games are there for the x1900, chances are those ppl with them would have upgraded again anyway as theres no way those games are going to appear on mass before G80/R600 DX10 cards in the summer, the real next gen cards, and theres no way they will have flooded out before the gen after that either, new cards appear all the time, every few months or so, games can take ******* years lol.

Look at SM3.0, started with the 6 series, and still those games are nowhere, hardly any of those about is there.

Subtlesnake · 12 Feb 2006 at 15:09

I wouldn't say shader intensive games are a long way off. AoE3, SC:CT, F.E.A.R, B&W2, and HL2: Lost Coast are all shader intensive games available now, and the X1900 XT is about 30% faster than the X1800 XT in them. This gap is only going to widen over time, especially with the release of UT2k6 in the summer.