Holiday 2006 Shopping Guide: GPUs
by Jarred Walton on December 13, 2006 5:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Performance Overview
Now that we've covered all of the various graphics cards that are currently available, you might be wondering which solution is really best for your needs. Users looking to upgrade to a faster graphics card might also be wondering how their current hardware compares to newer hardware, and how much money they might need to spend on an upgrade. One of the critical factors in determining how much graphics power you need is going to be your display. If you don't run at high resolutions with antialiasing, you really don't need a ton of horsepower for most games. Running tons of benchmarks with most of the graphics cards we've mentioned on a variety of games is beyond the scope of this article; however, we've created a rough summary of what sort of resolutions and detail settings you should be able to get from the various GPUs on the latest games. (Older titles are less demanding, so you should be able to crank up the details/resolution.)
This is of course somewhat ad hoc, and individual opinions about what is acceptable will vary, but you should be able to get some general guidelines of what to purchase - either for a new system or as an upgrade to your current hardware.
You can see in most instances that two slower GPUs will end up offering a worse price/performance ratio than a single faster GPU. That's why we've downplayed multi-GPU configurations throughout this article. Why buy two 7300 GT cards when you can get a single 7600 GT for less money? Until you max out the single GPU options, there's not much point in buying two GPUs.
In terms of the recommended settings, we generally feel that you should disable antialiasing and increase your resolution first, and only when you are running at your monitor's maximum/native resolution would we begin to worry about turning on antialiasing. That is especially true with LCDs, as running at anything less than the native resolution will tend to create a blurry effect. If you disagree and prefer lower resolutions with antialiasing, on average turning on 4xAA will have the same impact on performance as increasing the resolution one or two notches, i.e. 1024x768 4xAA will often run about as fast as 1280x1024-1600x1200 0xAA. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but it should serve as a good baseline estimate.
The recommended settings listed on the table above are basically an estimate of what settings more recent/demanding games will allow you to use - games like Prey, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2, Company of Heroes, etc. There are a lot of overlapping resolutions listed, which is to be expected. For example, the difference between an X1800 XT and an X1800 XTX isn't going to be so great that the latter allows you to run higher detail settings. If you are looking at upgrading your graphics card, you'll want to get something that opens the possibility of running clearly improved resolutions/settings. As another example, we wouldn't recommend upgrading from a GeForce 6800 GT to a GeForce 7600 GT, because even though the latter is faster they are fundamentally similar in terms of performance. You would be better off spending a bit more money to get something like a Radeon X1950 Pro instead, so that you would truly notice a difference in performance.
Now that we've covered all of the various graphics cards that are currently available, you might be wondering which solution is really best for your needs. Users looking to upgrade to a faster graphics card might also be wondering how their current hardware compares to newer hardware, and how much money they might need to spend on an upgrade. One of the critical factors in determining how much graphics power you need is going to be your display. If you don't run at high resolutions with antialiasing, you really don't need a ton of horsepower for most games. Running tons of benchmarks with most of the graphics cards we've mentioned on a variety of games is beyond the scope of this article; however, we've created a rough summary of what sort of resolutions and detail settings you should be able to get from the various GPUs on the latest games. (Older titles are less demanding, so you should be able to crank up the details/resolution.)
This is of course somewhat ad hoc, and individual opinions about what is acceptable will vary, but you should be able to get some general guidelines of what to purchase - either for a new system or as an upgrade to your current hardware.
| Approximate Performance Ranking | |||
| GPU | Resolution | Detail | Price |
| Radeon X300 SE | 640x480-800x600 | Minimum-Med; 0xAA | $38 |
| GeForce 6200 TC | 640x480-800x600 | Minimum-Med; 0xAA | $38 |
| Radeon X300 LE | 640x480-800x600 | Minimum-Med; 0xAA | $70 |
| GeForce 7100 GS | 640x480-800x600 | Minimum-Med; 0xAA | $49 |
| Radeon X550 HM | 640x480-1024x768 | Low-Med; 0xAA | $47 |
| Radeon X550 | 640x480-1024x768 | Low-Med; 0xAA | $60 |
| Radeon X700 | 640x480-1024x768 | Low-Med; 0xAA | $75 |
| GeForce 7300 LE | 640x480-1024x768 | Low-Med; 0xAA | $52 |
| GeForce 7300 GS | 640x480-1024x768 | Low-Med; 0xAA | $59 |
| Radeon X1300 | 800x600-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $52 |
| GeForce 6600 LE | 800x600-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $66 |
| Radeon X1300 Pro | 800x600-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $75 |
| GeForce 7300 GT | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $75 |
| Radeon X1300 XT | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $108 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Low-High; 0xAA | $91 |
| GeForce 6600 GT | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $85* |
| Radeon X1600 XT | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $119 |
| Radeon X1650 Pro | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $105 |
| Radeon X800 | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $85* |
| GeForce 6800 | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $90* |
| GeForce 7600 GS | 1024x768-1280x1024 | Med-High; 0xAA | $109 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro CF | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $182 |
| Radeon X800 Pro | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $125* |
| GeForce 6800 GT | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $175* |
| GeForce 6800 GS | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $135* |
| GeForce 6800 SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $170* |
| GeForce 6600 GT SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $170* |
| GeForce 7300 GT SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $150 |
| GeForce 6800 Ultra | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $175* |
| Radeon X850 XT | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $135* |
| GeForce 7600 GT | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $135 |
| Radeon X1650 XT | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $156 |
| GeForce 7800 GS | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $230 |
| GeForce 7600 GS SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $218 |
| Radeon X1600 XT CF | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $238 |
| Radeon X1650 Pro CF | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-2xAA | $210 |
| Radeon X1800 GTO | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $145 |
| GeForce 7900 GS | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $186 |
| Radeon X1800 XL | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $240* |
| Radeon X1900 AIW | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $220 |
| GeForce 7800 GT | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $185* |
| GeForce 6800 GS SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $270* |
| GeForce 6800 GT SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $350* |
| GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI | 1024x768-1600x1200 | Med-High; 0x-4xAA | $350* |
| GeForce 7800 GTX | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $250* |
| Radeon X1800 XT | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $300* |
| Radeon X1900 GT v2.0 | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $176 |
| GeForce 7900 GT | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $246 |
| Radeon X1900 GT | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $176 |
| Radeon X1650 XT CF | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $312 |
| GeForce 7600 GT SLI | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 0x-4xAA | $270 |
| GeForce 7950 GT | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $249 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX 512 | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $460* |
| Radeon X1950 Pro | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $206 |
| GeForce 7900 GTO | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $310 |
| Radeon X1900 XT 256MB | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $275 |
| GeForce 7800 GS SLI | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $460 |
| GeForce 7800 GT SLI | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $370* |
| GeForce 7900 GS SLI | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $372 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $430 |
| Radeon X1900 XT | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $335 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $400 |
| Radeon X1950 XT 256 | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $259 |
| Radeon X1950 XTX | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $378 |
| Radeon X1900 GT CF | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $352 |
| Radeon X1800 XT CF | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $600* |
| Radeon X1950 Pro CF | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $412 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX SLI | 1280x1024-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $500* |
| GeForce 7900 GT SLI | 1600x1200-1920x1200 | High; 2x-4xAA | $492 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 0x-4xAA | $465 |
| GeForce 8800 GTS | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 0x-4xAA | $455 |
| GeForce 7950 GT SLI | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 0x-4xAA | $498 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX 512 SLI | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 0x-4xAA | $920* |
| GeForce 7900 GTO SLI | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 0x-4xAA | $620 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 QSLI | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 2x-4xAA | $930 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX SLI | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 2x-4xAA | $860 |
| Radeon X1900 XT CF | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 2x-4xAA | $770 |
| Radeon X1950 XTX CF | 1600x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 2x-4xAA | $774 |
| GeForce 8800 GTX | 1920x1200-2560x1600 | High-Max; 2x-4xAA | $610 |
| GeForce 8800 GTS SLI | 1920x1200-2560x1600 | Maximum; 2x-4xAA | $910 |
| GeForce 8800 GTX SLI | 1920x1200-2560x1600 | Maximum; 4xAA | $1220 |
* - Prices for these parts are prone to fluctuation, as these are discontinued products.
You can see in most instances that two slower GPUs will end up offering a worse price/performance ratio than a single faster GPU. That's why we've downplayed multi-GPU configurations throughout this article. Why buy two 7300 GT cards when you can get a single 7600 GT for less money? Until you max out the single GPU options, there's not much point in buying two GPUs.
In terms of the recommended settings, we generally feel that you should disable antialiasing and increase your resolution first, and only when you are running at your monitor's maximum/native resolution would we begin to worry about turning on antialiasing. That is especially true with LCDs, as running at anything less than the native resolution will tend to create a blurry effect. If you disagree and prefer lower resolutions with antialiasing, on average turning on 4xAA will have the same impact on performance as increasing the resolution one or two notches, i.e. 1024x768 4xAA will often run about as fast as 1280x1024-1600x1200 0xAA. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but it should serve as a good baseline estimate.
The recommended settings listed on the table above are basically an estimate of what settings more recent/demanding games will allow you to use - games like Prey, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2, Company of Heroes, etc. There are a lot of overlapping resolutions listed, which is to be expected. For example, the difference between an X1800 XT and an X1800 XTX isn't going to be so great that the latter allows you to run higher detail settings. If you are looking at upgrading your graphics card, you'll want to get something that opens the possibility of running clearly improved resolutions/settings. As another example, we wouldn't recommend upgrading from a GeForce 6800 GT to a GeForce 7600 GT, because even though the latter is faster they are fundamentally similar in terms of performance. You would be better off spending a bit more money to get something like a Radeon X1950 Pro instead, so that you would truly notice a difference in performance.
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spidey81 - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
I was reading this article hoping to find a decent low priced card and when I saw the ultra budget section I thought I had found just that. But when I went to check the prices and specs of the cards listed the recommended 7300GT part was listed at several sites as only having a 64 bit memory interface instead of the listed 128 bit. The part number they posted was EVGA 256-P2-N443-LX. I didn't even find this product on the EVGA website. If someone knows the the deal is with this or even where to find one I'd appreciate it as a 128 bit intereface card versus 64 bit is a major performance booster especially in the price range I'm looking at.JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
I have modified this text slightly now. The cheapest EVGA 7300 GT is available for $75 at Newegg, but you're right that it is only a 64-bit memory interface. For about $10 more, I would recommend a Biostar 7300 GT instead, which comes with slightly higher clock speeds and a 128 bit interface. (It's also available at Newegg.)semo - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
page 7
is that a joke i'm not getting or should it say 1.21 kilowatts. if it is the later then why so much power? i would think a quality psu delivering 850 - 1000 watts should be fine. and where does the 1.21 figure come from? adding the maximum tdp values of all the components.
does anyone know when will we be getting low to mid end dx10 cards or when will gdx10 exclusive games start to come out that do not work on anything less than dx10
Chapbass - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
ROFL you just made my day man. go watch the movie Back to the Future with michael j. fox from the mid 80's...1985 i think. the "doc" in that movie makes a comment (actually he screams it) saying that you need 1.21 gigawatts in order to provide enough power for his time machine to work.a complete joke, hes saying that you need a ginormous (aka. big, high wattage) PSU in order to run some of these guys. yeah, 800 would be PLENTY imo.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Cue Hewey Lewis and the News! "Gotta get back in time....." :DGlad some people got the reference.
bilbo3660 - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
The reality is you can run quad-core, three 8800GTX, water-cooling and overclock this monster on the Corsair 620W just fine. Review was done at the Inquirer. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36...">http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36...LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
It looks like the new 256MB Radeon X1950XT is a heck of a buy for anyone running a 20" display or less at least.This guide is much appreciated. I especially think your note on older high-end graphics cards is a good one, though I might place even more emphasis on it so that some people could make a good choice to buy used rather than new (especially AGP folks, many of whom will be best served by a top-end used card like the 6800Ultra or X850XT).
RamarC - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
No mention of the 7900GS at all??? And the 7900GT AGP was a ghost even when it first released, so why would you even mention it and then keep mum about the 7800GS AGP which is still easy to find?VooDooAddict - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Agreed ... (For those who want to stick with NVIDIA) 7900GS is a great price/performance point.It's afordable and offers great performance on the 19" and 20" wide displays that are so popular right now.
I don't see any reason for someone to buy a 7900GT over a 7900GS right now they fall into the same perforamnce bracket. For people upgrading ... there are still quite a few people out there with SLI boards too. And while yes it's better to just get a more powerful single card. Many people can only afford XX right now. The ability to upgrade by adding a second card later adds some precieved value to people.
I do have to say, Good timing on your article. It's a confusing time for GPU upgrades. With the 8800s out the picture isn't as clear for people.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
I thought I had mentioned those cards, but you're right: I didn't. I have now added text to page 5 covering the higher-end AGP offerings in more detail.