where are the current deals on high end video cards?

[nomadgamer]

looking to upgrade, i do all my computer modifications myself and i'm tech savvy.

currently using two 6800GTO 256mb in SLi

shooting for maybe two BFG 285 GTX, or anything 1gb dedicated that I can SLi in PCI-e format.

what is a deal of the week as far as higher end video cars?

[Graffix]

BFG Geforce GTX 285 OCZ 1gb NVidia PCI Express 2.0 Videocard 276 AR (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=730019&t=1551521)

BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC 1GB for $279.99 at BestBuy (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=730019&t=1524915)

[nomadgamer]

ty, purchased two, USED ones on eBay are even more expensive!

[dacrazydude]

Not too bad. Seems like it's been awhile since any good graphics card deals have come out. I want another 260 for SLi.

[cheapo1234]

I see these 8800 768 mb ultra etc. cards still going for 500$. What gives? I thought that a better performing card (like a 4890) would make 8800 series obsolete, hence CHEAP. This seems strange and does not make me feel like buying any new cards if they are only marginally better than old stuff. It just seems like an endless cycle of "give me your money and I will make you feel about the same as last time but maybe only slightly better". Or maybe i'm not understanding the economics of old tech.
The 8xxx series(from what I hear) was better than or very very very similar to the 9xxx series (people were saying 9800 was just an 8800 with a different name and suffered more from some microstuttering problem or what not and suffered at higher resolutions etc etc.). Why pay for new tech then? Greed from nvidia/ati? Video card penis envy? What else?

[cheapo1234]

I see these 8800 768 mb ultra etc. cards still going for 500$. What gives? I thought that a better performing card (like a 4890) would make 8800 series obsolete, hence CHEAP. This seems strange and does not make me feel like buying any new cards if they are only marginally better than old stuff. It just seems like an endless cycle of "give me your money and I will make you feel about the same as last time but maybe only slightly better". Or maybe i'm not understanding the economics of old tech.
The 8xxx series(from what I hear) was better than or very very very similar to the 9xxx series (people were saying 9800 was just an 8800 with a different name and suffered more from some microstuttering problem or what not and suffered at higher resolutions etc etc.). Why pay for new tech then? Greed from nvidia/ati? Video card penis envy? What else?
PS. I wish hardware reviewers would test cards on the SAME game year after year and maybe add a game to test on each year. Say they test all future cards on some game like doom 3 or half life 2 always, instead of just testing the card on the newest flavor of the week FPS (although crysis seems to stick around as a benchmark far longer than I would've expected)

[dhc014]

PS. I wish hardware reviewers would test cards on the SAME game year after year and maybe add a game to test on each year. Say they test all future cards on some game like doom 3 or half life 2 always, instead of just testing the card on the newest flavor of the week FPS (although crysis seems to stick around as a benchmark far longer than I would've expected)

Reviewers need to use games which will actually stress the video card. Current video cards shred through games like HL2 and Doom 3 and then the benchmark results end up being affected more by the CPU than the video card. They also want to be able to show the great new eye candy that new cards are capable of when paired with modern games.

[cheapo1234]

Reviewers need to use games which will actually stress the video card. Current video cards shred through games like HL2 and Doom 3 and then the benchmark results end up being affected more by the CPU than the video card. They also want to be able to show the great new eye candy that new cards are capable of when paired with modern games.

But then you get this whole debacle of nvidia being allowed to optimize for games like batman arkham asylum while ati whines about some deal and not being included in the process. How much of the eye candy is game specific optimizations and how much is actually tackling the general domain of problems like antialiasing, phong shading, etc etc etc.