PCI-EXPRESS INTERFACE: $130 to $175
BEST PCI-E CARD FOR $140: Tie
| GeForce 9600 GT 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | G92 |
| Process: | 65nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 64 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 650 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (1800 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10 / SM 4.0 |
The new 9600 GT is Nvidia’s answer to the Radeon HD 3800 series: cheap, powerful, and efficient, the 9600 GT usually performs a bit below the 3870 with no anti-aliasing, and a bit faster than the 3870 when AA is enabled. The 9600 GT is usually a few dollars cheaper than the 3870, although the prices are close enough that both cards are now recommended buys.
| Radeon 3870 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV670 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 320 |
| Texture Units: | 16 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 775 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1125 (2250 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10.1 / SM 4.0 |
The Radeon 3870 is a speedy card for the price, and has a slight advantage vs. its 9600 GT competitor when anti-aliasing is disabled. When AA is enabled the tables are turned, and the 9600 GT claims the advantage, but with both of these cards within spitting distance as far as price is concerned, both are easy recommendations.
BEST PCI-E CARD FOR $160
| GeForce 8800 GT 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | G92 |
| Process: | 65nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 112 |
| Texture Units: | 56 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 600 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (1800 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10 / SM 4.0 |
The 8800 GT offers incredible Geforce 8800 GTX-class performance at almost half the price. It beats both the Radeon 3870 and Geforce 9600 GT by a notable margin, and only costs a few dollars more. As far as raw performance goes, if you have $160 to spend on a graphics card, you couldn’t do better than a nice 8800 GT.
As always, thanks very much for putting the time and effort in to bring us these recommendations. One thing I have noticed..the price. British consumers seem to be paying way over the odds for their graphics cards when on converts those dollars into pounds. Having said that, the level of performance you can get these days is astounding.
The G84s (and G86) sell cheap for a reason, read up on the problems at http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] 4-g86-bad. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone unless they had money to burn, and didn't expect it to work after 9 months... Hardly a value proposition.
The G84s (and G86) sell cheap for a reason, read up on the problems at http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] 4-g86-bad. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone unless they had money to burn, and didn't expect it to work after 9 months... Hardly a value proposition.
Bad link??
I like the Graphics Card Heirarchy Chart. The only thing I would like to also see is where sli and cf would be on the chart. That way I would be better able to tell if I should go with 1 good card or 2 sli/cf cards depending on price of course. If 2 sli/cf cards costs more then 1 card in the same preformance tier then I would of course choose 1 card and possible by another later on when I want to increase my performance.