Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart
Source: Tom's Hardware US – Keywords: best, graphics, card
Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart
What about this other card that’s not on the list ? How do I know if it’s a good deal or not ?
This will happen. In fact, it’s guaranteed to happen, because both stock levels and prices change quickly. So how do you know if that card you’ve got your eye on is a good buy in its price range?
Here are two resources to help you judge if a card is a good buy or not. The first is the graphics card hierarchy chart, which groups graphics cards with similar overall performance levels into tiers. The top tier contains the highest performing cards available and performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there.
You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal, and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not notice a worthwhile difference in performance.
At the request of readers, I have added mobile graphics and integrated chipsets to the hierarchy chart. I want to make it clear that there is very little performance data available for these graphics solutions. While the discrete video cards in the chart are placed in tiers based on a lot of information, many of the mobile and integrated devices in the chart are guesstimates based on their specifications. At worst, I don’t think they’re more than one tier away from their actual performance, but this is something to keep in mind when considering mobile graphics chipsets.
| GeForce | Radeon |
|---|---|
| 4870 X2 | |
| GTX 280 | 4850 X2 |
| 9800 GX2, GTX 260 | 4870 |
| 8800 GTX, 8800 Ultra, 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+ | 3870 X2, 4850 |
| 8800 GT 512 MB, 8800 GTS 512 MB, 9800 GT | 4830 |
| 8800 GTS 640 MB, 9600 GT | HD 2900 XT, 3870 |
| 8800 GS, 9600 GSO | 3850 512 MB, Mobility 3870, 4670 |
| 8800 GT 256 MB, 8800 GTS 320 MB, GO 8800M | HD 2900 PRO, 3850 256 MB, Mobility 3850, 4650 |
| 7950 GX2 | X1950 XTX |
| 7800 GTX 512, 7900 GTO, 7900 GTX | X1900 XT, X1950 XT, X1900 XTX |
| 7800 GTX, 7900 GT, 7950 GT | X1800 XT, X1900 AIW, X1900 GT, X1950 PRO, HD 2900 GT |
| 7800 GT, 7900 GS, Go 7950 GTX, 8600 GTS, 9500 GT (GDDR3) | X1800 XL, X1950 GT, Mobility X1800 XT |
| 6800 Ultra, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, Go 7800 GTX, Go 7900 GTX, 8600 GT (GDDR3), 9500 GT (DDR2) | X800 XT (& PE), X850 XT (& PE), X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, Mobility X1900, HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR3), 3670, Mobility 3670 |
| 6800 GT, 6800 GS (PCIe), Go 7800, Go 7900 GS, 8600 GT (DDR2) | X800 XL, X800 GTO2/GTO16, Mobility X800 XT, HD 2600 PRO, Mobility HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR2), Mobility 3650 |
| 6800 GS (AGP), Go 6800 Ultra, Go 7600 GT, 8600M GT, 8700M GT | X800 GTO 256 MB, X800 PRO, X850 PRO, X1650 GT, Mobility HD 2600 |
| 6800, Go 6800, 7300 GT GDDR3, 7600 GS, Go 7700, 8600M GS | X800, X800 GTO 128 MB, X1600 XT, X1650 PRO, Mobility X1800 |
| 6600 GT, 6800LE, 6800 XT, 7300 GT (DDR2), Go 7600 (128-bit), 8500 GT, 9400 GT | 9800 XT, X700 PRO, X800 GT, X800 SE, Mobility X800, X1300 XT, X1600 PRO, HD 2400 XT, HD 3300, Mobility 3470, HD 4350, HD 4550 |
| FX 5900, FX 5900 Ultra, FX 5950 Ultra, 6600 (128-bit), Go 6800 (128-bit) | 9700, 9700 PRO, 9800, 9800 PRO, X700, X1300 PRO, Mobility X1450, X1550, Mobility X1600, Mobility X1700, HD 2400 PRO, Mobility HD 2400 XT, Mobility X2500, HD 3200, Mobility 3450 |
| FX 5800 Ultra, FX 5900 XT, Go 6600, Go 7600 (64-bit) | 9500 PRO, 9600 XT, Mobility 9800, 9800 PRO (128-bit), X600 XT, Mobility X700, X1050 (128-bit), Mobility X1350, Mobility X1400, Mobility X2300, Mobility HD 2400 |
| 4 Ti 4600, 4 Ti 4800, FX 5700 Ultra, 6200, 8400 GS | 9600 PRO, Mobility 9700 (128-bit), 9800 LE, X600 PRO, Mobility X600, Mobility X1300, Xpress 1250, Mobility HD 2300 |
| 4 Ti4200, 4 Ti4400, 4 Ti4800 SE, FX 5600 Ultra, FX 5700, 6600 (64-bit), 7300 GS, 8400M GS, 9300M G, 9300M GS | 9500, 9550, 9600, Mobility 9600, X300, X1050 (64-bit) |
| 3 Ti500, FX 5200 Ultra, FX 5600, FX 5700 LE, Go 5700, 6200 TC, 6600 LE, 7200 GS, 7300 LE, 8200M, 9200M GS, 9100M | 8500, 9100, 9000 PRO, 9600 LE, Mobility 9700 (64-bit), X300 SE, X1150 |
| 3, 3 Ti200, FX 5200 (128-bit), FX 5500, Go 5600, Go 6200, Go 6400, Go 7200, Go 7300, Go 7400 (64-bit) | 9000, 9200, 9250, Mobility 9600 (64-bit), Mobility X300 |
| FX 5200 (64 bit), 6100, 6150, Go 7200, Go 7400 (32-bit) | 9200 SE, Xpress 200M, Xpress 1000, Xpress 1150 |
| 2 GTS, 4 MX 440, 2 Ultra, 2 Ti, 2 Ti 200 | 7500 |
| 256, 2 MX 200, 4 MX 420, 2 MX 400 | SDR, LE, DDR, 7000, 7200 |
| Nvidia TNT | Rage 128 |
Summary
There you have it folks: the best cards for the money this month. Now all that’s left to do is to find and purchase them, and we leave that part up to you. The best prices will almost certainly be found online, but sometimes large retail outlets might surprise you with a good sale.
Don’t worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there stick pretty close to Nvidia’s and AMD’s reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer’s reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.
Also remember that the stores don’t follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you’ll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!
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i have just bought a powercolor hd3850 agp for£82,last 1 broke down
What's the point of having prices in dollars on a UK site?
[citation]What's the point of having prices in dollars on a UK site?[/citation]
1 USD = 1 GBP in buying power so it's no big deal...
Bob
Well, Page 3 is certainly a bit different in Europe regardless of currency. Sapphire/Powercolour/HIS keep undercutting like crazy with the HD4830 heading toward €90 in some places, whereas all the other cards there are significantly more expensive on this side of the pond, so Page 3 in Europe is just the HD4830, nothing else worth mentioning until HD4850 on the next page. Sorry nVidia!
I used to read these articles with great interest but I think recently the GFX card market has gotten a bit too complicated for such a simplistic format now. I recently was in the market for a high end card, and this article would have pointed me towards ATI for my budget/needs. But I actually went for a GTX280, largely because of cuda, physx and the Linux drivers, all of which, for me, means that Nvidia have the edge over ATI in a big way.
Now, I know those things aren't of interest to some people, but there are those of us out there for whom gaming FPS stats are no longer the biggest consideration when going for a higher end card.
You could argue that this article isn't for them, people who are looking into cuda or who are Linux-literate are probably going to know their stuff when doing something like buying a GFX card, but I don't see the harm in at least mentioning these factors in passing, maybe on the first page or something.
There's a clear ATI bias towards the high end in this article, and that seems to be based on bang-for-the-buck, but quite frankly I wouldn't touch their cards at the moment. They may offer great value for money, but Nvidia has recently gone way beyond just gaming and is making great strides towards making the GFX card a more integral part of a desktop rig. It's no longer just about gaming.
^ Agreed. Just bear in mind that said facilities are probably contributing to the lack of gradual price drops (lots of enthusiasts have gone to snag cheap 9600GTO/9800GT for PhysX duty and bumped up demand and prices at the wrong time) and that they do not represent a major divergence in the brands - ATI has laid off the whole physics gig temporarily due to licensing issues rather than technology limitations.
nVidia's current domination in the physics acceleration stakes is a bit of a storm in a teacup; there's eff all decent PhysX games out that need the GPGPU acceleration, and there isn't quite as big a push toward using GPGPU capabilities for game physics as they make out. Reason? Its actually nVidia's own fault by trying to lock developers into a proprietary engine that only supports half of their target audience (nVidia owners) and thus puts ATI owners - possibly 50% of potential buyers - off the game, rather than opening the standard up for ATI to use then simply designing superior hardware that utilizes their better knowledge of PhysX to maintain a credible lead. Only then will developers embrace using GPGPU physics, as it won't instantly halve their return!
[citation]What's the point of having prices in dollars on a UK site?
1 USD = 1 GBP in buying power so it's no big deal...Bob[/citation]
Currently, 1 USD = 0.7 GBP. So if a card is $300 it translates to £210.00. Unfortunately, an awful lot of stores over here (including the online one's), charge much higher prices and when you convert that to dollars you'll probably gasp.
You guys in America get some real good deals over there, especially with rebates.
[citation]Currently, 1 USD = 0.7 GBP.[/citation]
Yeh but I SAID "buying power" not the exchange rate. The numerical value difference in prices between the US and the UK is fast approaching zero.
Bob
LOL @ THG broken website...