Holiday 2006 Shopping Guide: GPUs
by Jarred Walton on December 13, 2006 5:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Entry Level GPUs
The next step up from the budget GPUs is going to be the Entry Level category, with prices ranging from $75-$125. You will also see more expensive versions of the Ultra Budget graphics cards, either due to extra features, factory overclocking, or even the manufacturer's name. We're going to focus primarily on the new GPUs that become available with the increased budget, rather than continuing to mention slightly faster clocked versions of the Ultra Budget offerings.
At the lower end of this price range, ATI has the X1300 XT, which is simply a renamed version of the X1600 Pro. Right now the X1600 Pro (128bit version) is slightly cheaper, but that will likely change in the future. Driver optimizations since the launch of the X1600 Pro have improved performance quite a bit, but in reality the card isn't a whole lot faster than the GeForce 6600 GT cards, which are really quite outdated these days. Certain titles will prefer ATI hardware, but in terms of value in we would definitely take the cheaper 7300 GT cards over the X1600 Pro/X1300 XT.
The X1600 XT is better, with clock speeds that are quite a bit higher - the X1650 Pro is practically the same, coming with a negligible 10/20 MHz increase on the GPU/memory - but despite the more impressive sounding specifications the X1600 XT is really only slightly faster than the GeForce 7600 GS. At the top of the price spectrum, the least expensive GeForce 7600 GT cards are definitely the best way to go. Prices currently start at about $130, but you can find $20 mail-in rebates on the EVGA cards that drop the final price down to $110. Even without the rebate, we would still recommend spending the extra money to get a 7600 GT over any of the other cards at the top of this price bracket - at least if graphics performance is important to you.
The AGP market continues to be relatively unimpressive, with prices that are typically $20 more than the equivalent PCI-E graphics cards - at least where cards are available on both platforms, which isn't all that common. GeForce 7600 GS cards might be worth a thought at the top end, along with the X1600 Pro and X1300 Pro ATI models. Perhaps because demand for AGP cards is really starting to diminish, there are currently a lot of mail-in rebates available that might make some of the AGP cards worth considering as a final upgrade. Keep in mind that everything short of a 7600 GT is usually going to be slower than something like a GeForce 6800 GT/GS card (or X800 Pro), so if you already have such a card it might not be worth upgrading to anything faster.
As we did with the Ultra Budget GPUs, here is a quick breakdown of the features and specifications of the various Entry Level GPUs we've mentioned. Again, we have sorted the table roughly in order of increasing performance. When you consider the clock speeds of the 7600 GS, it really is surprising that the much higher clocked X1600 XT isn't able to outperform it by a large margin - which is of course why ATI went back to the drawing board and created the X1650 XT, but more on that when we get to the Midrange GPUs on the next page.
The next step up from the budget GPUs is going to be the Entry Level category, with prices ranging from $75-$125. You will also see more expensive versions of the Ultra Budget graphics cards, either due to extra features, factory overclocking, or even the manufacturer's name. We're going to focus primarily on the new GPUs that become available with the increased budget, rather than continuing to mention slightly faster clocked versions of the Ultra Budget offerings.
At the lower end of this price range, ATI has the X1300 XT, which is simply a renamed version of the X1600 Pro. Right now the X1600 Pro (128bit version) is slightly cheaper, but that will likely change in the future. Driver optimizations since the launch of the X1600 Pro have improved performance quite a bit, but in reality the card isn't a whole lot faster than the GeForce 6600 GT cards, which are really quite outdated these days. Certain titles will prefer ATI hardware, but in terms of value in we would definitely take the cheaper 7300 GT cards over the X1600 Pro/X1300 XT.
The X1600 XT is better, with clock speeds that are quite a bit higher - the X1650 Pro is practically the same, coming with a negligible 10/20 MHz increase on the GPU/memory - but despite the more impressive sounding specifications the X1600 XT is really only slightly faster than the GeForce 7600 GS. At the top of the price spectrum, the least expensive GeForce 7600 GT cards are definitely the best way to go. Prices currently start at about $130, but you can find $20 mail-in rebates on the EVGA cards that drop the final price down to $110. Even without the rebate, we would still recommend spending the extra money to get a 7600 GT over any of the other cards at the top of this price bracket - at least if graphics performance is important to you.
The AGP market continues to be relatively unimpressive, with prices that are typically $20 more than the equivalent PCI-E graphics cards - at least where cards are available on both platforms, which isn't all that common. GeForce 7600 GS cards might be worth a thought at the top end, along with the X1600 Pro and X1300 Pro ATI models. Perhaps because demand for AGP cards is really starting to diminish, there are currently a lot of mail-in rebates available that might make some of the AGP cards worth considering as a final upgrade. Keep in mind that everything short of a 7600 GT is usually going to be slower than something like a GeForce 6800 GT/GS card (or X800 Pro), so if you already have such a card it might not be worth upgrading to anything faster.
As we did with the Ultra Budget GPUs, here is a quick breakdown of the features and specifications of the various Entry Level GPUs we've mentioned. Again, we have sorted the table roughly in order of increasing performance. When you consider the clock speeds of the 7600 GS, it really is surprising that the much higher clocked X1600 XT isn't able to outperform it by a large margin - which is of course why ATI went back to the drawing board and created the X1650 XT, but more on that when we get to the Midrange GPUs on the next page.
| Entry Level GPUs | |||||||
| GPU | Pixel Shaders |
Vertex Shaders |
ROPs | Core Speed |
RAM Speed |
Memory Interface |
Price |
| X1300 XT | 12 | 5 | 4 | 500 | 800 | 128bit | $108 |
| X1600 Pro | 12 | 5 | 4 | 500 | 800 | 128bit | $91 |
| 6600 GT | 8 | 3 | 4 | 500 | 1000 | 128bit | $85* |
| X1600 XT | 12 | 5 | 4 | 590 | 1380 | 128bit | $119 |
| X1650 Pro | 12 | 5 | 4 | 600 | 1400 | 128bit | $105 |
| 7600 GS | 12 | 5 | 8 | 400 | 700 | 128bit | $109 |
| 7600 GT | 12 | 5 | 8 | 560 | 1400 | 128bit | $135 |
* - Prices for these parts are prone to fluctuation, as these are discontinued products.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, December 14, 2006 - link
Fair enough - I added a Midrange Overclocking for you. It's still more like $165 according to the prices I found at Newegg and ZipZoomFly, unless you're seeing something cheaper?Noya - Saturday, December 16, 2006 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...JarredWalton - Saturday, December 16, 2006 - link
Got a better one for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">Sapphire X1900 GT v2Sure, it's the slower clocked version of the GT, but no rebate and $141 shipped is quite tasty. This wasn't available two days ago, I can say that for sure.
TechLuster - Thursday, December 14, 2006 - link
The 7600GT (and GS as well I think) has 8 ROP's, not 6. Jarred, you may want to fix this.And, though I have no resource to back this up, I have a hunch that the 6600GT has 8 (not 4) also.
JarredWalton - Thursday, December 14, 2006 - link
You're correct on the 7600 GT, but there are quite a few places that agree 6600 has 4 ROPs, like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_Output_unit">Wiki for example.TechLuster - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
According to this articlehttp://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=...">http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=...
the 6600GT has 8 ROP's. Perhaps the Wiki is referring to the vanilla 6600, but I still doubt that NVIDIA broke with the 1:1 pixel pipe:ROP ratio with any version of the 6 series.
JarredWalton - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
I know some places say 8 ROPs, but I think more say 4.http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/geforce-6200/...">TechReport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_6_Series">Another Wiki Link
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=536">Legion Hardware
http://www.behardware.com/articles/514-1/nvidia-ge...">BeHardware - why 8 ROPs isn't necessarily a good idea
Basically, the way I see it is that it probably doesn't matter too much either way - X1900 and 78/7900 have both shown that 16 ROPs for more pixel shaders is fine - and the idea was to make a more budget oriented part. One of the ways to do that is to cut unnecessary extras like additional Render Output Pipelines. As for 6600 vs. 6600 GT, those are the same chip with different clock speeds, so they have the same number of functional units.
Even if 6600 does have 8 ROPs (I can't find anything official from NVIDIA), the important thing is that a 6600 GT is now slower than a lot of the newer ~$100 cards. :) But hey, if someone gets a specific answer from NVIDIA, I can update. I can also fire off an email just to verify, but it might take a bit to get an answer (if they answer at all).
microAmp - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Not sure if this is worth a mention in the article or not, but Dell.com currently has 15% off which can be used on the XFX 8800 GTS/X cards. If you can dig up a another coupon, Dell sent me one via email for 10% off, the deal can be even sweeter.I got the 8800 GTS for $382.50 and free shipping. Sweet deal for others not living in Texas like me. About $420 with tax.
Only reason I mention this is because you mention using MIR on the EVA 8800 GTS.
LoneWolf15 - Thursday, December 14, 2006 - link
I did the same thing. Mine came out to $404 after tax here in Michigan.XFX also has a double-lifetime warranty; that is, a lifetime warranty which applies to the first owner, and a second owner, should the first resell the card. You have to make sure you register the card, but it's a neat feature.
SonicIce - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
So I guess it's RIP AGP. :(