Heads-up: *As most of you know, I made one guide before, but deleted it. It was very old info. But I just got a new one from GameSpot. Note: I did not make this myself. Thank GameSport for this generous guide. Enjoy! (PS: All prices are In US Dollars)
This video card guide will show you what cards are available in your price range and how they perform in today's PC games. If you're just starting to learn about video cards, we recommend that you check out GameSpot's Ten Things to Know Before Buying a Video Card guide to get a few basic buying tips before jumping into the roundup.
We've divided the video cards by price into four categories: high-end, performance, mainstream, and budget. Our budget list includes all the current-generation video cards available for $100 or less. The mainstream group includes cards that retail for up to $200. Bump the price range up to $200-$400 to get to our performance cards. And finally, we have our extremely broad high-end category that includes everything over $400 that covers both single cards and dual-card setups. We've focused on current-generation GeForce 7 series and Radeon X1K series video cards in this roundup.
High-End Video Cards
You should consider buying a high-end video card or dual-card configuration if you want to play your games at the highest resolutions with the highest image-quality settings. We're talking resolutions that start at 1600x1200 (4:3) and 1680x1050 (widescreen) and image-quality settings that have the best antialiasing (smoothes out jagged lines) and anisotropic filtering (keeps textures looking good at all distances and angles) settings enabled by default. You can easily get away with buying a far less expensive card if you have a small monitor, prefer lower screen resolutions for whatever reason, or don't need extremely high image-quality settings.
Don't go high-end with the sole purpose of trying to "future-proof" your system. Inexperienced buyers will often choose the most expensive cards when putting together a system with the belief that investing in better parts now will pay off in the long run by delaying the inevitable hardware upgrade by several years. The problem with that approach is that a computer isn't a timeless item like good cookware or a classic coat, where it makes sense to pay extra for quality. Video cards double in performance every 18 to 24 months, and new cards also support a constantly growing feature set that can produce advanced graphic effects that older cards simply can't do. If you buy a $500 video card now, there's a good chance you'll be able to buy a card that's just as powerful and can produce better-looking graphics for $250 two years from now. Go for a high-end card or dual-card setup only if you require the best image quality at extremely high resolutions, but understand that top-of-the-line today becomes average in two years and ready for the trash bin in four.
Note that dual-video card SLI and CrossFire configurations have added costs beyond the price of the cards. The dual-card setups require specialized motherboards and a big power supply capable of delivering enough juice to all the components in the system.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2
Street Price: $535 to $650
Core: 48 pixel pipes (24 per GPU), 500MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 600MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The GeForce 7950 GX2 is Nvidia's current flagship card. It has two graphics-processing units and a unique double-board stack design that requires only one PCI Express slot. It's undoubtedly the fastest single card available by virtue of its dual GPUs, but it's also the most expensive.
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX
Estimated Street Price: $449
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
Set to ship September 14, the Radeon X1950 XTX replaces the Radeon X1900 XTX as ATI's top video card. The new card actually has the same core clock speed as its predecessor, but it now supports fast 1GHz GDDR4 memory, which will help feed extremely high game resolutions. The card also features a new quieter cooling unit.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX
Street Price: $450 to $500
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 700/650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 800MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The GeForce 7900 GTX is Nvidia's best single-GPU card. It's a solid performer that matches up well against ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX.
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX
Street Price: $350 to $600
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 775MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The Radeon X1900 XTX won't be with us much longer, with the X1950 XTX arriving soon. It's still a good performer, and you'll probably find decent pricing as retailers race to unload inventory. However, the X1900 XTX is also one of the loudest cards we've ever tested, which explains why ATI gave the X1950 a new cooler design.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad-SLI
Street Price: $1,070 to $1,300
Core: 96 pixel pipes (24 per GPU), 500MHz
Memory: 2GB (512MB per GPU), 600MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Four GPUs sounds like a lot of performance, but Nvidia is still working on getting the most out of its dual GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad-SLI offering. For the most part, you'll only see significant performance gains at extremely high resolutions and in OpenGL games. If you love Quake 4 and have a 30-inch widescreen monitor, Quad-SLI might be right for you.
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire
Estimated Street Price: $900
Core: 32 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders per GPU), 650MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 1GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Combine a Radeon X1950 XTX card with a Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition card to get ATI's fastest dual-card configuration. The Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition will ship at the same time as the regular version, September 14.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI
Street Price: $900 to $1,000
Core: 48 pixel pipelines (24 per GPU), 700/650MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 800MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
The GX2 may have two GPUs on a single card, but the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI is still the fastest Nvidia dual-GPU setup around, thanks to higher graphics-core speeds. However, the GX2 is only a little slower but a lot more affordable. The GTX SLI is faster, but you'll pay a hefty premium for that extra performance.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT SLI
Street Price: $500 to $600
Core: 48 pixel pipelines (24 per GPU), 450MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per GPU), 660MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Single GeForce 7900 GT cards retail for $300 or less, but you can slap two together in SLI mode to get a high-end contender. We've listed the standard core and memory speeds, but several video card manufacturers offer the GeForce 7900 GT with slightly overclocked core and memory speeds.
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro CrossFire
Street Price: $556-598
Core: 24 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders per GPU), 575MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1380MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
The Radeon X1950 Pro is ATI's answer to Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GS. Unlike past ATI CrossFire implementations, the Radeon X1950 Pro doesn't require a specific CrossFire master card and CrossFire-ready card pairing to run in dual-card mode. There's only one type of Radeon X1950 Pro card, and you can place two of them on a CrossFire-compatible motherboard to enable dual-card graphics. ATI has also replaced the CrossFire's unsightly card-to-card external cable connection with an elegant internal connection similar to Nvidia's internal SLI link.
Performance Video Cards
A performance card will support high resolutions with a moderate amount of antialiasing. Think about getting one of these setups if you want fairly high frame rates at 1600x1200 with 4xAA. Two of the best cards in the $200 to $400 performance category actually sit on the affordable side of $300. You can get an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT for around $250, and you can find its recent replacement, the GeForce 7950 GT, for just under $300. ATI introduced its 512MB Radeon X1900 XT earlier this year at just under $400 but set its new 256MB version at $250 to better compete with the GeForce 7900 GT.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
Street Price: $300 to $400
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 625MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1.45GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The Radeon X1900 XT 512MB is a decent card if you can find it for $300, but keep in mind that you can get almost the same performance out of the 256MB model since the cards are basically identical. The price premium is for the extra memory.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB
Street Price: $250 to $300
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 625MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1.44GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
You might see Radeon X1900 GT cards for around the same price, but stick with the XT model. The Radeon X1900 GT only has 12 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders), and it packs a slower core and memory compared to the Radeon X1900 XT.
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
Street Price: $278-299
Core: 12 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders), 575MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1380MHz
Memory Interface: 256-bit
The Radeon X1950 Pro is ATI's answer to Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GS. Its 36 shader processors and 575MHz clock speed will provide plenty of graphics power. ATI wants the X1950 Pro to hit the same price point as the 7900 GS, but we might have to wait a few weeks or months for retailers to bring prices down to 7900 GS levels. It's a bad deal at $299, but it'll be a great value at $199.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT
Street Price:$290 to $330
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 550MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1.4GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 400W
The GeForce 7950 GT has 24 pixel pipelines, which is the same as the GeForce 7900 GTX but with a slightly lower core clock speed. The GeForce 7950 GT is slightly faster and has more memory than the older 7900 GT model.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT
Street Price: $250 to $300
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 450-520MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1.32-1.5GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 400W
Expect the GeForce 7900 GT to fade away as the 7950 GT takes over as Nvidia's performance GPU.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS SLI
Street Price: $400 to $450
Core: 20 pixel pipelines, 450-525MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per card), 1.32-1.4GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
A dual-GeForce 7900 GS setup is a possibility if you have an SLI-compatible motherboard and a decent power supply. The configuration should compare well against single-GPU high-end cards.
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT SLI
Street Price: $290 to $350
Core: 12 pixel pipelines, 560-580MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per card, 128-bit interface), 1.4-1.6GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
If you already have a single GeForce 7600 GT card and an SLI motherboard, getting a matching card will be more affordable than putting down $300 for a whole new card. Unfortunately, we were not able to get our dual-GeForce 7600 GT system running in time for publication. We will update our benchmarks with GeForce 7600 GT SLI performance results as soon as we can.
Budget Video Cards
You can find a few decent cards in the budget section, but do your research because there are many horrible cards in this price range. The budget aisle is filled with inexperienced buyers who don't know a lot about video cards but are absolutely sure they don't want to spend more than $100 on one. Since that describes a large portion of the PC-buying public, the sub-$100 section can be a scary place to shop. Manufacturers have filled it with a disgusting number of cheap video cards highlighting all sorts of useless features, in the hope that one of them will spark some kind of unfortunate "Wow, I've heard of 64-bit, so this card must be good!" buyer recognition.
You'll need to navigate through the memory minefield to find a passable card. Getting a card with a decent amount of memory, around 128MB, is important, but also be sure to check the memory interface specification to make sure you're getting the best memory bandwidth possible. Most high-end consumer video cards ship with 256-bit memory, but budget cards often ship with 128-bit or 64-bit memory, which can bottleneck game frame rates with insufficient memory bandwidth. If a card model ships with 128-bit or 64-bit memory bus options, go with the 128-bit interface.
Sub-$100 video cards that can play the latest games do exist. Whenever Nvidia or ATI release a new line of GPUs, they offer versions for the high-end, performance, mainstream, and budget buyer. This "top to bottom" strategy ensures that all customers will get the same basic feature set, such as H.264 high-definition video or DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 support. Chips in the same product line will share a common feature set, but manufacturers can vary GPU prices by producing models that offer different levels of performance. A high-end model might have the full chip running at the fastest possible speed, while the budget model might be a smaller chip running at half the speed.
When you're buying a budget card, the best you can hope for is a card that supports the latest graphics features and offers passable frame rates at a reasonable resolution, such as 1024x768 or 1280x1024. You will likely need to move up to a more expensive price range if you also want high frame rates or antialiasing.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
Street Price: $70-85
Core: 8 pixel pipelines, 350-400MHz
Memory: 128-512MB, 530-800MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit, 128-bit
You would have had to pay $400 for an eight-pixel-pipeline, 350MHz video card just three years ago, but now you can get one for under $100 in the 7300 GT. Make sure to get the 128-bit-memory version. Also pay attention to core and memory speeds since they can vary widely.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS
Estimated Street Price: $50-70
Core: 4 pixel pipelines, 550-575MHz
Memory: 128-256MB, 540-810MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit
The GeForce 7300 GS has a speedy core; however, that core only has four pixel pipelines. It's marginally faster than the GeForce 7300 LE, but when you're down this low, it doesn't mean too much.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE
Street Price: $45-$60
Core: 4 pixel pipelines, 450
Memory: 128-256MB w/TurboCache, 333-650MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit
You'll find the LE as the default graphics option in many desktop system configurations. Do yourself a favor and pay to upgrade to a better card. A discrete card with four pipes and a 64-bit memory interface is better than integrated graphics, but not by much.
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro
Street Price: $130-$185
Core: 12 pixel shaders (4 pixel pipelines), 600MHz
Memory: 256-512MB, 700MHz
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Starting September 14, ATI will replace its Radeon X1600 XT part with the new Radeon X1650 Pro. The original X1600 XT card shipped for just over $150, and while the Radeon X1650 Pro has an MSRP of $99, street prices have hovered between $130 and $160, pushing it out of the budget category.
ATI Radeon X1300 XT
Estimated Street Price: $89
Core: 12 pixel shaders (4 pixel pipelines), 500MHz
Memory: 128-bit
Memory Interface: 128-bit
The Radeon X1300 XT looks more like an X1650 than an X1300 with its 12 pixel shaders, and the XT's performance should be very similar to its more expensive sibling.
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro
Street Price: $95-130
Core: 4 pixel shaders, 600MHz
Memory: 256MB, 400MHz
Memory Interface:128-bit
With only four pixel shaders, the Radeon X1300 Pro will struggle to keep up with the Radeon X1650 Pro and the GeForce 7300 GT. Current prices are hovering in the $95 to $130 range, but ATI has told GameSpot that the street price should drop down to $80 shortly.
ATI Radeon X1300
Street Price: $52-100
Core: 4 pixel shaders, 450-600MHz
Memory: 128-512MB, 500-700MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit, 128-bit
The Radeon X1300 is the base model for a lot of very inexpensive budget cards. Manufacturers offer variations with a number of different core and memory clock speeds as well as versions with 64-bit and 128-bit memory. Stay clear of the 64-bit versions for sure, but with only four pixel shaders total, we should probably stay away from the 128-bit versions, too.
Nvidia 7800GS
Price: $350-$400
Core: 375MHz
Memory: 600MHz
Pixel Pipes: 16
This new card is being dubbed the "GeForce 7800 GS", and as the name suggests, it makes use NVIDIA's G70 GPU. As it so happens, the 7800 GS GPU is the lowest-end in the series, but it represents the highest end part that one will be able to get for the AGP platform. For those not familiar, the 7800 GTX snags the crown, and the 7800 GT rounds out the middle in this series (both PCI-E parts). The following table compares the basic technical specs between the three G70 GPUs now out in the wild.
Nvidia 7600GS
Price: $130-$150
Core: 400MHz
Memory: 400MHz
Pixel Pipes: 12
The GeForce 7600 GS is based on the 90nm G73 core, which is the same basic chip that powers GeForce 7600 GT. This GPU took over for the popular GeForce 6600-based cards, and brought a GeForce 7-level feature set into the mainstream graphics market. The GeForce 7600 GS GPU features the same base specifications as the GeForce 7600 GT, which offers 12 pixel pipes, 12 texture units, 12 pixel shaders, and 5 vertex pipelines. The memory architecture is also shared between the two cards, and features a 128-bit link to 256MB of GDDR2. Other standard features of the GeForce 7600 GS include NVIDIA SLI, CineFX 4.0, Intellisample 4.0, UltraShadow II, and PureVideo.
Please visit this link to read all about the brand new Nvidia 8800!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ … f8800.html
This video card guide will show you what cards are available in your price range and how they perform in today's PC games. If you're just starting to learn about video cards, we recommend that you check out GameSpot's Ten Things to Know Before Buying a Video Card guide to get a few basic buying tips before jumping into the roundup.
We've divided the video cards by price into four categories: high-end, performance, mainstream, and budget. Our budget list includes all the current-generation video cards available for $100 or less. The mainstream group includes cards that retail for up to $200. Bump the price range up to $200-$400 to get to our performance cards. And finally, we have our extremely broad high-end category that includes everything over $400 that covers both single cards and dual-card setups. We've focused on current-generation GeForce 7 series and Radeon X1K series video cards in this roundup.
High-End Video Cards
You should consider buying a high-end video card or dual-card configuration if you want to play your games at the highest resolutions with the highest image-quality settings. We're talking resolutions that start at 1600x1200 (4:3) and 1680x1050 (widescreen) and image-quality settings that have the best antialiasing (smoothes out jagged lines) and anisotropic filtering (keeps textures looking good at all distances and angles) settings enabled by default. You can easily get away with buying a far less expensive card if you have a small monitor, prefer lower screen resolutions for whatever reason, or don't need extremely high image-quality settings.
Don't go high-end with the sole purpose of trying to "future-proof" your system. Inexperienced buyers will often choose the most expensive cards when putting together a system with the belief that investing in better parts now will pay off in the long run by delaying the inevitable hardware upgrade by several years. The problem with that approach is that a computer isn't a timeless item like good cookware or a classic coat, where it makes sense to pay extra for quality. Video cards double in performance every 18 to 24 months, and new cards also support a constantly growing feature set that can produce advanced graphic effects that older cards simply can't do. If you buy a $500 video card now, there's a good chance you'll be able to buy a card that's just as powerful and can produce better-looking graphics for $250 two years from now. Go for a high-end card or dual-card setup only if you require the best image quality at extremely high resolutions, but understand that top-of-the-line today becomes average in two years and ready for the trash bin in four.
Note that dual-video card SLI and CrossFire configurations have added costs beyond the price of the cards. The dual-card setups require specialized motherboards and a big power supply capable of delivering enough juice to all the components in the system.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2
Street Price: $535 to $650
Core: 48 pixel pipes (24 per GPU), 500MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 600MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The GeForce 7950 GX2 is Nvidia's current flagship card. It has two graphics-processing units and a unique double-board stack design that requires only one PCI Express slot. It's undoubtedly the fastest single card available by virtue of its dual GPUs, but it's also the most expensive.
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX
Estimated Street Price: $449
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
Set to ship September 14, the Radeon X1950 XTX replaces the Radeon X1900 XTX as ATI's top video card. The new card actually has the same core clock speed as its predecessor, but it now supports fast 1GHz GDDR4 memory, which will help feed extremely high game resolutions. The card also features a new quieter cooling unit.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX
Street Price: $450 to $500
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 700/650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 800MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The GeForce 7900 GTX is Nvidia's best single-GPU card. It's a solid performer that matches up well against ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX.
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX
Street Price: $350 to $600
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 650MHz
Memory: 512MB, 775MHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The Radeon X1900 XTX won't be with us much longer, with the X1950 XTX arriving soon. It's still a good performer, and you'll probably find decent pricing as retailers race to unload inventory. However, the X1900 XTX is also one of the loudest cards we've ever tested, which explains why ATI gave the X1950 a new cooler design.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad-SLI
Street Price: $1,070 to $1,300
Core: 96 pixel pipes (24 per GPU), 500MHz
Memory: 2GB (512MB per GPU), 600MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Four GPUs sounds like a lot of performance, but Nvidia is still working on getting the most out of its dual GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad-SLI offering. For the most part, you'll only see significant performance gains at extremely high resolutions and in OpenGL games. If you love Quake 4 and have a 30-inch widescreen monitor, Quad-SLI might be right for you.
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire
Estimated Street Price: $900
Core: 32 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders per GPU), 650MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 1GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Combine a Radeon X1950 XTX card with a Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition card to get ATI's fastest dual-card configuration. The Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition will ship at the same time as the regular version, September 14.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX SLI
Street Price: $900 to $1,000
Core: 48 pixel pipelines (24 per GPU), 700/650MHz
Memory: 1GB (512MB per GPU), 800MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
The GX2 may have two GPUs on a single card, but the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI is still the fastest Nvidia dual-GPU setup around, thanks to higher graphics-core speeds. However, the GX2 is only a little slower but a lot more affordable. The GTX SLI is faster, but you'll pay a hefty premium for that extra performance.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT SLI
Street Price: $500 to $600
Core: 48 pixel pipelines (24 per GPU), 450MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per GPU), 660MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
Single GeForce 7900 GT cards retail for $300 or less, but you can slap two together in SLI mode to get a high-end contender. We've listed the standard core and memory speeds, but several video card manufacturers offer the GeForce 7900 GT with slightly overclocked core and memory speeds.
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro CrossFire
Street Price: $556-598
Core: 24 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders per GPU), 575MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1380MHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
The Radeon X1950 Pro is ATI's answer to Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GS. Unlike past ATI CrossFire implementations, the Radeon X1950 Pro doesn't require a specific CrossFire master card and CrossFire-ready card pairing to run in dual-card mode. There's only one type of Radeon X1950 Pro card, and you can place two of them on a CrossFire-compatible motherboard to enable dual-card graphics. ATI has also replaced the CrossFire's unsightly card-to-card external cable connection with an elegant internal connection similar to Nvidia's internal SLI link.
Performance Video Cards
A performance card will support high resolutions with a moderate amount of antialiasing. Think about getting one of these setups if you want fairly high frame rates at 1600x1200 with 4xAA. Two of the best cards in the $200 to $400 performance category actually sit on the affordable side of $300. You can get an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT for around $250, and you can find its recent replacement, the GeForce 7950 GT, for just under $300. ATI introduced its 512MB Radeon X1900 XT earlier this year at just under $400 but set its new 256MB version at $250 to better compete with the GeForce 7900 GT.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
Street Price: $300 to $400
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 625MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1.45GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
The Radeon X1900 XT 512MB is a decent card if you can find it for $300, but keep in mind that you can get almost the same performance out of the 256MB model since the cards are basically identical. The price premium is for the extra memory.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB
Street Price: $250 to $300
Core: 16 pixel pipelines (48 pixel shaders), 625MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1.44GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 450W
You might see Radeon X1900 GT cards for around the same price, but stick with the XT model. The Radeon X1900 GT only has 12 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders), and it packs a slower core and memory compared to the Radeon X1900 XT.
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
Street Price: $278-299
Core: 12 pixel pipelines (36 pixel shaders), 575MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1380MHz
Memory Interface: 256-bit
The Radeon X1950 Pro is ATI's answer to Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GS. Its 36 shader processors and 575MHz clock speed will provide plenty of graphics power. ATI wants the X1950 Pro to hit the same price point as the 7900 GS, but we might have to wait a few weeks or months for retailers to bring prices down to 7900 GS levels. It's a bad deal at $299, but it'll be a great value at $199.
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT
Street Price:$290 to $330
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 550MHz
Memory: 512MB, 1.4GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 400W
The GeForce 7950 GT has 24 pixel pipelines, which is the same as the GeForce 7900 GTX but with a slightly lower core clock speed. The GeForce 7950 GT is slightly faster and has more memory than the older 7900 GT model.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT
Street Price: $250 to $300
Core: 24 pixel pipelines, 450-520MHz
Memory: 256MB, 1.32-1.5GHz
Recommended Power Supply: 400W
Expect the GeForce 7900 GT to fade away as the 7950 GT takes over as Nvidia's performance GPU.
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS SLI
Street Price: $400 to $450
Core: 20 pixel pipelines, 450-525MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per card), 1.32-1.4GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
A dual-GeForce 7900 GS setup is a possibility if you have an SLI-compatible motherboard and a decent power supply. The configuration should compare well against single-GPU high-end cards.
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT SLI
Street Price: $290 to $350
Core: 12 pixel pipelines, 560-580MHz
Memory: 512MB (256MB per card, 128-bit interface), 1.4-1.6GHz
Recommended Power Supply: N/A
If you already have a single GeForce 7600 GT card and an SLI motherboard, getting a matching card will be more affordable than putting down $300 for a whole new card. Unfortunately, we were not able to get our dual-GeForce 7600 GT system running in time for publication. We will update our benchmarks with GeForce 7600 GT SLI performance results as soon as we can.
Budget Video Cards
You can find a few decent cards in the budget section, but do your research because there are many horrible cards in this price range. The budget aisle is filled with inexperienced buyers who don't know a lot about video cards but are absolutely sure they don't want to spend more than $100 on one. Since that describes a large portion of the PC-buying public, the sub-$100 section can be a scary place to shop. Manufacturers have filled it with a disgusting number of cheap video cards highlighting all sorts of useless features, in the hope that one of them will spark some kind of unfortunate "Wow, I've heard of 64-bit, so this card must be good!" buyer recognition.
You'll need to navigate through the memory minefield to find a passable card. Getting a card with a decent amount of memory, around 128MB, is important, but also be sure to check the memory interface specification to make sure you're getting the best memory bandwidth possible. Most high-end consumer video cards ship with 256-bit memory, but budget cards often ship with 128-bit or 64-bit memory, which can bottleneck game frame rates with insufficient memory bandwidth. If a card model ships with 128-bit or 64-bit memory bus options, go with the 128-bit interface.
Sub-$100 video cards that can play the latest games do exist. Whenever Nvidia or ATI release a new line of GPUs, they offer versions for the high-end, performance, mainstream, and budget buyer. This "top to bottom" strategy ensures that all customers will get the same basic feature set, such as H.264 high-definition video or DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 support. Chips in the same product line will share a common feature set, but manufacturers can vary GPU prices by producing models that offer different levels of performance. A high-end model might have the full chip running at the fastest possible speed, while the budget model might be a smaller chip running at half the speed.
When you're buying a budget card, the best you can hope for is a card that supports the latest graphics features and offers passable frame rates at a reasonable resolution, such as 1024x768 or 1280x1024. You will likely need to move up to a more expensive price range if you also want high frame rates or antialiasing.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
Street Price: $70-85
Core: 8 pixel pipelines, 350-400MHz
Memory: 128-512MB, 530-800MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit, 128-bit
You would have had to pay $400 for an eight-pixel-pipeline, 350MHz video card just three years ago, but now you can get one for under $100 in the 7300 GT. Make sure to get the 128-bit-memory version. Also pay attention to core and memory speeds since they can vary widely.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS
Estimated Street Price: $50-70
Core: 4 pixel pipelines, 550-575MHz
Memory: 128-256MB, 540-810MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit
The GeForce 7300 GS has a speedy core; however, that core only has four pixel pipelines. It's marginally faster than the GeForce 7300 LE, but when you're down this low, it doesn't mean too much.
Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE
Street Price: $45-$60
Core: 4 pixel pipelines, 450
Memory: 128-256MB w/TurboCache, 333-650MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit
You'll find the LE as the default graphics option in many desktop system configurations. Do yourself a favor and pay to upgrade to a better card. A discrete card with four pipes and a 64-bit memory interface is better than integrated graphics, but not by much.
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro
Street Price: $130-$185
Core: 12 pixel shaders (4 pixel pipelines), 600MHz
Memory: 256-512MB, 700MHz
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Starting September 14, ATI will replace its Radeon X1600 XT part with the new Radeon X1650 Pro. The original X1600 XT card shipped for just over $150, and while the Radeon X1650 Pro has an MSRP of $99, street prices have hovered between $130 and $160, pushing it out of the budget category.
ATI Radeon X1300 XT
Estimated Street Price: $89
Core: 12 pixel shaders (4 pixel pipelines), 500MHz
Memory: 128-bit
Memory Interface: 128-bit
The Radeon X1300 XT looks more like an X1650 than an X1300 with its 12 pixel shaders, and the XT's performance should be very similar to its more expensive sibling.
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro
Street Price: $95-130
Core: 4 pixel shaders, 600MHz
Memory: 256MB, 400MHz
Memory Interface:128-bit
With only four pixel shaders, the Radeon X1300 Pro will struggle to keep up with the Radeon X1650 Pro and the GeForce 7300 GT. Current prices are hovering in the $95 to $130 range, but ATI has told GameSpot that the street price should drop down to $80 shortly.
ATI Radeon X1300
Street Price: $52-100
Core: 4 pixel shaders, 450-600MHz
Memory: 128-512MB, 500-700MHz
Memory Interface: 64-bit, 128-bit
The Radeon X1300 is the base model for a lot of very inexpensive budget cards. Manufacturers offer variations with a number of different core and memory clock speeds as well as versions with 64-bit and 128-bit memory. Stay clear of the 64-bit versions for sure, but with only four pixel shaders total, we should probably stay away from the 128-bit versions, too.
Nvidia 7800GS
Price: $350-$400
Core: 375MHz
Memory: 600MHz
Pixel Pipes: 16
This new card is being dubbed the "GeForce 7800 GS", and as the name suggests, it makes use NVIDIA's G70 GPU. As it so happens, the 7800 GS GPU is the lowest-end in the series, but it represents the highest end part that one will be able to get for the AGP platform. For those not familiar, the 7800 GTX snags the crown, and the 7800 GT rounds out the middle in this series (both PCI-E parts). The following table compares the basic technical specs between the three G70 GPUs now out in the wild.
Nvidia 7600GS
Price: $130-$150
Core: 400MHz
Memory: 400MHz
Pixel Pipes: 12
The GeForce 7600 GS is based on the 90nm G73 core, which is the same basic chip that powers GeForce 7600 GT. This GPU took over for the popular GeForce 6600-based cards, and brought a GeForce 7-level feature set into the mainstream graphics market. The GeForce 7600 GS GPU features the same base specifications as the GeForce 7600 GT, which offers 12 pixel pipes, 12 texture units, 12 pixel shaders, and 5 vertex pipelines. The memory architecture is also shared between the two cards, and features a 128-bit link to 256MB of GDDR2. Other standard features of the GeForce 7600 GS include NVIDIA SLI, CineFX 4.0, Intellisample 4.0, UltraShadow II, and PureVideo.
Please visit this link to read all about the brand new Nvidia 8800!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ … f8800.html
Last edited by Ryan (2007-12-07 10:26:59)
