The 2009 Guide to Gaming PC Specs
Looking AheadPC market never stays still and that means our suggestions won't stay current for too long. The overall price you pay for a solid gaming PC generally won't move much, but you end up getting more for your money. Right now there are no obvious upcoming models right around the corner that would replace any of our suggested components, but there are some things we can say about upcoming bits. Current rumors around the internet indicate that ATI is working on a small upgrade to the current Radeon HD48x0 series under codenames "RV740" and "RV790" in 40nm. RV740 most likely turns out to be a lower end chip that doesn't really interest gamers, but RV790 will most likely end up changing the high end. Very little is known yet, but if it turns out to be faster than GeForce GTX 285, it would be a nice coup for ATI and in any case the move to 40nm will inevitably bring down the prices. NVIDIA is also hard at work with something codenamed "GT206", "GT212" and/or "GT218" - something which is supposed to be a die shrink of the current GTX series. It remains to be seen how big upgrades any of these chips are at the high end. In the long term, the next truly new video card generation won't be here until late 2009 when DirectX 11 arrives and it may well be that what we have today will stay quite competitive at least until then. NVIDIA is also busy rolling out a few other "new" models under G1x0, GT1x0 and GTS2x0 brands, but they are all low end models and most are strictly re-names of existing GeForce 9x00 series models. For example, GeForce GTS 250 is really just a GeForce 9800GTX+ with a new sticker. None of these cards really interest a serious gamer, save the GTS 250 which is okay for the low end, especially if the price keeps falling from the current $160 level. But all this is based on rumors - we'll know a lot more after Cebit 2009 (between March 3 and March 8). On the CPU side, it's obvious that AMD will be rolling out new Phenom IIs and Intel new Core i7s, but not enough hard data about models and prices is yet available. AMD's next move is to roll out DDR3-based AM3 Phenom IIs and motherboards, but since the only difference is the memory bandwidth, I am doubtful the benefits outweigh the fact that the required DDR3 RAM kit is still almost twice as expensive as a comparable DDR2 kit. As soon as DDR2 and DDR3 get closer in price, then the AM3 version becomes a no-brainer, but before that all you would be doing is paying for the potential ability to re-use your RAM in a future motherboard - never mind that by the time you upgrade again, the RAM modules will be faster and you are probably tossing in 2x4GB or 3x4GB sets anyway. Unless you upgrade more than once a year, you almost inevitably replace motherboard and RAM with your CPU anyway. Intel is also planning on a new Core i5 line together with a new cheaper motherboard chipset to replace current Core 2 Quads, but the current rumors say that it might be 2010 before we see them in the stores and there is still far too little information to say if they will be competitive or just another way to say "Celeron". Beyond that... it remains to be seen how the price war between Intel and AMD will heat up again - as soon as Phenom IIs make a dent to Intel's Core 2 Quad sales, you can expect changes in pricing.
Prices and models mentioned in this article are current as of 5th of February 2009. Prices are based on data from CNET and Pricegrabber, and do not include taxes or shipping.
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