An Interesting Question to debate on...

[paul_h_amiga 0]

It seems that whenever a new graphics card, sound system or whatever comes out I see a lot of posts on forums (not just this one) saying that they simply have to have them becuase it is a tiny bit faster than what they have now be it a the ATI Washing powder or the Nvidia Geforce.

 

I recently got the Geforce 4 Ti 4600, because of upcoming releases such as Doom III and Unreal II which would be better played on such a card rather than the Geforce 2 GTS which inhabited my system, and which was serving me very well, right up to the very end.

 

I really had to spend some money over the last year or so as the Celeron 500 system I had for 2 years was no longer cutting it. That really is my only reason, and what I have now will siut me for a long time yet it seems.

 

My Question is this:

Why is everyone so obsessed with having the very latest kit when there is nothing that will take advantage for a long time to come?

[Jerry Atrik 0]

every couple a years i buy a monster machine. the fastest u can get. then im good for a couple a years... seriously. my current box with my ti4200 is faster than most peeps with a ti4600 or whatever is coming out in the near future.

[clutch 1]

Reason 1. I got a cheap Intel 1.6GHz Northwood and a Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra and cranked it up to 2.4GHz. It also has a GF Ti4600 and some other spiffy things. I use it for some parasolid modeling in Solidworks (CAD app), Visual Studio.NET and DB Development, and games. The most expensive part was the 1GB of DDR333 Mushkin RAM, but it was worth it. It's nice having Outlook, 5 or more IE sessions, VS.NET, SQL Server Manager, McAfee, Trillian, etc all running in the background and then deciding to play Q3A or America's Army without having an appreciable drop in performance.

 

Reason 2. Because I can.

[yakkob 0]

Quote:

It's nice having Outlook, 5 or more IE sessions, VS.NET, SQL Server Manager, McAfee, Trillian, etc all running in the background and then deciding to play Q3A or America's Army without having an appreciable drop in performance.

Damn right there Clutch, I love my dual rig for that.

Quote:

Reason 2. Because I can.

hehe

[DosFreak 2]

What APK said.

 

and

 

"Why is it that people always complain when other people buy better hardware and then they state that nothing takes advantage of said hardware.". I personally have never seen anything NOT take advantage of a peice of hardware that I have bought....unless of course it didn't work.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

yep yep

i can copy cd 2 cd while doing a virus scan

and play rtcw

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by paul_h_amiga
My Question is this:
Why is everyone so obsessed with having the very latest kit when there is nothing that will take advantage for a long time to come?

there is PLENTY to take advantage of it!! trust me
try ripping a DVD on a p4 2.5 - it still takes for ever.

try rendering a 1280 x 1024 Bryce image with like 15 glass sphers in it and numerous reflective surfaces. - 1 image i did took over 28 hours on My vaio system below!

So yes, there are PLENTY of things which use ALL of todays power if you do that sort of thing, and games now are hitting that level as well, many games will only play well on top of the line systems.

[embj 0]

I am not obsessed with the new technology. I just buy it when it comes on sale.

[BladeRunner 0]

Sorry, couldn't resist

I am not obsessed with the new technology. I just buy it when it comes on sale

 

AMD Athlon 1400+

256mb SDRAM (BOO!!!)

S3 ProSavage Graphics Card

 

So which new technology bits are you buying? :-P

 

A great majority of people just like to see a new score in all their benchmarks.

All these 3DMark2001 people will go out and buy the latest and greatest, score an amazing benchmark and then post to the world.

Unfortunately loads of people then swoon and talk to the person as if they were some god - Oh man, you benchmarks rock!

 

Personally there are some things I try to stay on the ball with and others that I don't.

Also the old "Can your current system do everything you need it to do" question, and that works quite well.

I'm still using a GF3 Ti200.

I've only actually got one of these because my GF2 Ultra died about a month after the warranty ran out, forcing me into an upgrade situation.

 

I usually play games in 1024x768, sometimes 1280x1024.

These are sweet resolutions as things are not too small so as you cannot see what is going on.

FOr this reason my current setup is more than capable of running everything I throw at it.

If I felt benchmark scores were important, kind of life or death.

If I felt that the only way to play games was in 1600x1280 then I too would be upgrading every six months when these hardware manufacturers release something new and know full well lots of people will spend release-date prices on the things.

However as everything in my system is more than enough, I personally shall miss out the GF4 and go straight to the next gen, I will never buy a graphics card and only get six months of use from it.

Graphics cards are arguably one of the most expensive devices in your machine, if I'm going to be forced into spending a lot of money for one then 12-18 months of use minimum is what I expect.

[bimmerm3m5 0]

Quote:

"Why is it that people always complain when other people buy better hardware and then they state that nothing takes advantage of said hardware.". I personally have never seen anything NOT take advantage of a peice of hardware that I have bought....unless of course it didn't work.

Take a look at some of anand's tests. If I buy a Geforce4 Ti4600, and throw it in a pentium II 266, that's not using full potential. Right now, I have a 800mhz P3 with a Rage 128 Pro 16MB card. Even if I put a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz chip in my box, the rage pro would be limiting gaming performance considerably.

[dave.green1 0]

I'll be purchasing a new machine soon.....because the PIII 500 I've had for 4 years doens't cut it anymore....

 

So I'll wait until the Radeon 9700 is available and that will be my VidCard for the next little while...

 

I think Upgrading every 3 months is a little ridiculous...I don't have that kind of money...

 

However....

 

When I do upgarde, it is top of the line stuff....

 

I'm thinking P4, 2.4 GhZ...

1 GB Ram...

Radeon 9700...

2 120 GB HD...

Whatever network card (I don't really care about it)

Soundblaster Xtigy (?)

21" Flat screen monitor...

 

Yes/No?

[embj 0]

BladeRunner look at my age. You will see how lucky that I am. That system without the all of the accessories and the second hard drive only cost $400. Including the monitor.

[BladeRunner 0]

It was meant in jest my friend.

Sorry if offence was given, certainly wasn't intended.

[jdulmage 0]

Quote:

It seems that whenever a new graphics card, sound system or whatever comes out I see a lot of posts on forums (not just this one) saying that they simply have to have them becuase it is a tiny bit faster than what they have now be it a the ATI Washing powder or the Nvidia Geforce.

I recently got the Geforce 4 Ti 4600, because of upcoming releases such as Doom III and Unreal II which would be better played on such a card rather than the Geforce 2 GTS which inhabited my system, and which was serving me very well, right up to the very end.

I really had to spend some money over the last year or so as the Celeron 500 system I had for 2 years was no longer cutting it. That really is my only reason, and what I have now will siut me for a long time yet it seems.

My Question is this:
Why is everyone so obsessed with having the very latest kit when there is nothing that will take advantage for a long time to come?

For one simple reason:

To show off

I don't have the latest, jesus, I am running a 650 Mhz system here, 512 MB RAM, only 20 GB drive (most have like 40 or better)...granted, my monitor is 19 inches, but it does what I have to do and I would love a bit faster system, but I don't need the latest and greatest.

So yeah, I just wanted to say that I'm one of the few that doesn't need to show off.

[jdulmage 0]

Quote:

Damn right there Clutch, I love my dual rig for that.



hehe

He's right, now that's a good reason.

But to purchase the best just to say "I have the best" is dumb.

Reasons damn it REASONS!
.
.
.
.
Mighty Chocolatey....Mighty Riesen

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

as said.........

 

those poeple who are obbessed with scores, well, no offence, but perhaps u need to get out more often, cause a month later, your scores won't mean anything, yeah, it may seem kew to have soemthing that just came out. but still.

 

I got my G4 4600 cause i needed a new card, over the crap 32mb TNT2 card that came with this vaio, was not doing what i wanted.

 

 

as said,

 

if your omputer can do what u want it to, great, don't upgrade, but if your system is not doing what u want, upgrade, simple.

 

u don't see people running out, well, maybe u do,

but buying the newest years model of a car every year.

 

 

and if u can afford it, go for it, just personally i can think of better things to spend my money one as opposed to buying something that will be out of date by next month, and just beaten by something new.

[jdulmage 0]

Quote:

as said.........

those poeple who are obbessed with scores, well, no offence, but perhaps u need to get out more often, cause a month later, your scores won't mean anything, yeah, it may seem kew to have soemthing that just came out. but still.

I got my G4 4600 cause i needed a new card, over the crap 32mb TNT2 card that came with this vaio, was not doing what i wanted.


as said,

if your omputer can do what u want it to, great, don't upgrade, but if your system is not doing what u want, upgrade, simple.

u don't see people running out, well, maybe u do,
but buying the newest years model of a car every year.


and if u can afford it, go for it, just personally i can think of better things to spend my money one as opposed to buying something that will be out of date by next month, and just beaten by something new.

Great of you to say, as I see 3 beefed up systems sitting in your signature

Jesus, I still got a 650 Mhz machine, granted it has 512 of RAM, but man, this does me fine...for now.

I play to buy good **** soon, cuz some of it is outdated, and I want a new case

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

LOL

 

3 beefed up, hardly..LOL

 

and to explain

 

the first system, the 533 was the VERY first computer i ever built over 3 years ago. (it had my ati all in wonder 32mb card in it)

 

the p4 1.3....... i had promised my mom i would build her a computer (she had never had one, and wanted one), so it was either buy a brand new one,and build it, or give her my old one, so, i gave her my old 533 - but i still consider it mine, as it was my first computer ever built! And i got a p4 1.3 cause i got the 1.3 for $70, so i figured buy it, then threw an ATI 7000 radeon in my moms comp , and kept the ati in my 1.3, as my mom had no use for such a card.

 

AND, now i do not live in toronto, i moved to Antigua a year ago, so, when i moved here, i did not trust having my computer shipped down here, so i did not have a computer, and i wanted / needed one at home, so this VAIO was offered to me for $1500 US (new), so i grabbed it.

 

i did not "run" out to buy the latest stuff at all. I got a better video card for this one, my vaio, cause the tnt 2 32mb card was crap that came with it and did not do what i wanted it too, so i thought i would finally spoil myself with a new G4 card , cause i know it will last me a few years. i buy to last, not to hold me over until the next best thing comes out.

[IOU1Galaxy 0]

Dunno 'bout the rest of you guys, but well, I want bigger better faster more - RIGHT NOW!

[paul_h_amiga 0]

Well these posts were a fair response, and too be honest some surprised me, ripping a dvd while playing Wolfenstein? Geez....

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

Quote:

Well these posts were a fair response, and too be honest some surprised me, ripping a dvd while playing Wolfenstein? Geez....

it is nice to havea system that good


on my old one, the 533, i could

burn a cd
ICQ
MSN
4, 5 IE open surfing around
FTP running with about 5 users on
downloading anywhere from 3 - 8 ftps to my comp


-

but i don't dare do this on my 1.8 i got now, cause it faq's up everytime, makes no sense, and 1.8 with 512 mem, and i can't even open one IE window!

but on win 2k, with a 533, i only had 512 back then, and i could do all the above!

oh well

my next big investment is maybe a dual system if more apps are made ot take advantage of it