About two years ago I bought a GF3Ti500. When I decided to go on my next card, the current cards GF4 and r9700 had started to get old.
I stuffed money in an envelope and decided to wait for the next-gen.
Then came 9800 and 5800 and the market turned to ATI's favor. However, ATI have known issues with many games I play, so I decided to wait for 5900. 5900 got good reviews, so I bought it with the nearly one-year old envelope.

So what will happen now?

There are three inevitable events coming up. Each one may be a blessing or a curse against NVidia or ATI. Det50, HL2 and D3.
Whatever happens, I am well aware that I will need to grab a new card somewhere in the first or second quarter 2004.

My question is, can someone point me to information about NVidias upcoming cards, and ATI's upcoming cards, so that I may start to plan my purchase?

ATI next GPU is not canfirm yet but there are rumors tell that the next card will call the 9900 or 9800 tx something like that, and one good thing is that it is bundle with HL2 (rumors). Cause ATI and Valve wanted to help each other to expend their product, and attract more customers. While Nvidia next GPU is not clear yet not even rumors.

I am like you i have bought a Radeon 9600pro, but i think i might need a new card in the mid 2004 cause the 9600pro may not be up to the task anymore. Between that another problem that bother me is the PCI Express base video card although i don't know when it will release. The PCI Express for sure will set a new standard and AGP may become old likewise today AGP VS PCI. The PCI Express has greater bandwidth compare with AGP but the problem is that no clear date stated for the released. It may still be a long process but i am scare that they will release PCI express card after i bought the TOP END AGP card.
As for my suggestion for you is to wait cause you have GEforce 5900, this card will last you longer and it is not worth for a upgrade yet. The are no specifice articles for upcoming card yet, everything for now is just rumors

Do anyone know anything about PCI Express?

"ATI have known issues with many games I play"
what issues in what games...
or ar oyou basing your knowledge on what issues ati had when you bought your gf3?

No. Primarly Neverwinter Nights, but also some projects that interests me, such as Tenebrae and Xeon.

the neverwinter nights issues with radeon was fixed seceral catalysts/gamepatches ago

Your not the lawyer for ATI el_coyote, the kid asked for questions about upcoming cards.

Dont hate..


That never gets old.

Theirs not too much about the next gen cards flying around. except speculations.

From what ive heard the next radeon will be based on the 9800 core. It will have GDDR2 and a higher clock rate plus a higher level of pixel shaders. So its an improvement on the current card.

Nvidia's next is about the same GDDR2 @ 1.5 GHZ ( speculation ) core @ 750mhz ( or something insane like that )
From all the reveiws I read, the 5900 was the improved version of the 5800. The next gen card might be an improvement, well they will definaly release an improved 5900u. But their next gen card is supposed to be based on games release today and stuff like that, unlike before they are shooting for the future with cinematic gaming. Now they are shooting for a 3d monster, like they have in the past with the gf1 - 4 series.

Just wait a month or 2 when stuff really develops. Guarantee'd by winter well see shit flying.

hihi... While I dont have perfect track of upcoming ATI products, I still wouldnt consider me a kid in neither age or insight.

But my mind have been focused on NV30/NV35 r300/r350 and then I just dropped my interest in future products after I finally settled for a nv35 after about a year of waiting.

I guess that NVidia is going for 'NV40' that is in public considered 'bugfix' or 'moneymaker' and will be advertised by nvidia as 'double the speed', but I have no idea when it is supposed to be here. And since r350 or 9800 pro, I have no track on ATI at all.

I guess they are going for a 'r400' now, but I have seen no info or speculation about it.

Anyone else realised that both companies have named their products with the exact same numbers, except for an extra '0'.

Best Regards
JemyM

If i have the right to name nvidia next generation card i would probably stop using the Geforce name. I would name it Riva TNT 3, how's that?
I like the name riva tnt much more then Geforce. Have nvidia forgoten the name or what.

I don't think you can "win" in this technology at all because it's primarily based on what Microsoft does with DirectX (as well as the OpenGL standard). As they evolve THAT technology (the world of 3D graphics and sound), so goes the hardware support for it and that's a never ending cycle. You MAY be good for a year ... at the most ... but within a year (or less) of purchasing a product (whether it's from ATi or NVidia), you're doomed because it WILL be obsolete.

Every time Microsoft comes out with a new version of DirectX, the hardware vendors start to scramble to create a new chip to support that *new* functionality within the DirectX API. And that's how it SHOULD be.

You can speculate all you want about what hardware is coming down the road and what it will or won't do. What you SHOULD be watching though is when Microsoft announces the next version (10.0?) of DirectX. That's when the hardware will make another quantum leap to support it (DirectX).

Until then, ATi and NVidia are simply trying to optomize their [driver] support for DirectX 9 and are waiting for the next announcement from Microsoft's DirectX division about their next version of the API. NOBODY knows when that will happen ... but it will. THAT you can take to the bank.

SO ... don't let the hardware vendors put the carriage before the horse. It doesn't work that way. Microsoft decides when it's time for new hardware. NOT ATi or NVidia.

Later.

Well since DX9 is quite new I think we can safely wait for ATi or Nvidia for the moment