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PCI-Express Interface

05:22 - Tuesday 4 December 2007 by Don Woligroski
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: graphics, cards, gaming
Categories: Gaming, Graphics

PCI-Express Interface

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Best PCI-E Card For £200 to £300 (inc VAT): None

Why spend £180 for an 8800 GTS 640MB or Radeon 2900 XT, when the cheaper 8800 GT will soundly beat them both more often than not? And how could you justify spending £240 on an 8800 GTX for the marginal performance gain over the 8800 GT? In short (for the price of a single GTX) you would be able to purchase two 8800 GTs in SLI mode which would beat the 8800 GTX.

Best PCI-E Card For >£300 (inc VAT): Tie

2x GeForce 8800 GT in SLI configuration
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


With the 8800 Ultra becoming more scarce and more expensive, the most cost-effective high end setup available at the moment looks to be two 8800 GT cards in SLI configuration. While multi-card solutions are far from perfect they can offer notable performance increases provided you have the money to spare.

2x Radeon 3870 in Crossfire configuration
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 / SM 4.0


In single card configurations the Radeon 3870 doesn’t hold up well compared to the Geforce 8800 GT. However, two 3870’s in Crossfire mode seem to scale very well, and will give two 8800 GTs a run for their money in this price range. In addition, dual-3870’s should be notably cheaper than dual-8800 GTs as availability increases. Finally, Crossfire supports a wider range of chipsets than SLI so it’s often an attractive option.


Talkback
Anonymous 04/12/2007 06:31
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Best PCI-E Card For Under £50 (inc VAT):

GeForce 7600 GT


Codename:
RV630


Process:
65nm



The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: December 2007 : Read more
sosrandom 04/12/2007 11:52
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sosrandom
£200 to £300 2xSLI 8800GT

Not exactly under £300, unless your talking about the 256MB version which its about £270, your talking about £360-£410.

What would 2x256MB 8800GTs do vs 2x3850 or / 2x3870
sosrandom 05/12/2007 12:04
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sosrandom
and the 2x Radeon 3870 in Crossfire configuration
are DirectX 10.1 and shader 4.1
Wild9 07/12/2007 01:33
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Wild9
REF: GeForce 7600 GT

The specs seem wrong. RV360? I don't think this card has any universal shaders or DX10/SM4.0 capability.
Legendmir 10/12/2007 04:57
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Legendmir
argh i bought a radeon 2900pro 1gb ddr4 for £190... was that a mistake? is this card worth the money? heard it overclocks well etc but that it wont use all that memory
Legendmir 10/12/2007 04:57
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Legendmir
argh i bought a radeon 2900pro 1gb ddr4 for £190... was that a mistake? is this card worth the money? heard it overclocks well etc but that it wont use all that memory
Wild9 10/12/2007 07:15
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Wild9
Legend.

You have a nice card: 512-bit memory interface, 320 stream processors.

Always take memory capacity with a pinch of salt; 1GB is a lot but it's only useful if the card as a whole can handle ultra-high resolutions; most cards can but a few games will make all but the top-end struggle.
Wild9 10/12/2007 07:16
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Wild9
In terms of stock performance you're just under a Geforce 8800 GTS with 320MB..not bad. Overclocked you're looking at Radeon 2900XT/GF 8800 GTS speeds. Note: the Radeon 2900 Pro and XT are practically the same cards. If you OC make sure you have a decent PSU.

A Geforce 8800GT would have been better IMHO. However as the drivers mature you can expect reasonable gains in performance; stability was the initial criteria. You have a DX10 card there can handle most games with ease, so you might want to try it out for a few months and then sell it..whether you stay or go, chances are you'll be facing the same decision at that time anyway due to the nature of the market, so don't worry :)
SuperHero 10/12/2007 10:43
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SuperHero
For under £50 range, ATI HD2600Pro PCIE with 256MB DDR3 has been widely available in some other Countries for only £33 includes VAT. That one come with better game performances than GeForce 7600 GT and support DirectX 10/SM4.0. It also comes with DHMI interface and new UVD technology decoding H.264 or VC-1 HD video at a lower CPU usage than GeForce 8600/8500. When can we have it in the UK?
Taztek 27/12/2007 03:34
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Taztek
I am looking for a video card that isn't a fortune but will have some longevity.
I am considering the HD 3850, as you suggest that it gives the best value in it's range.
The other option is the 3850 with 512 meg on board.
I play flight sim X and games such as silent hunter 4 settlers (rise of an empire is my latest) Unfortunately none of these appear in your benchmarking. So what I want to know is will I get much of an increase in performance from the extra ram on an HD 3850?

Note You are going to post a comment as anonymous.



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