GPU Guide - 2008 Edition

(artwork created by G013M )

Last Updated: June 14, 2008

The GPU Guide is currently undergoing a major overhaul in order to make way for upcoming cards and make future updates easier to manage. Thank you for your patience & suggestions.

Table of Contents

Information

Introduction
FAQ
Recommendations

-under construction-

Benchmarks

Extreme Tech

Guru3D

Overclocker's Club

Summary

Loud, noisy, less powerful than the new GeForce 8-series GPUs (though more powerful than the old 8800 gts line), and easily bested as well by the Radeon HD 3870 line-up, the Radeon HD 2900xt is no longer the worthwhile purchase it once was. Even at $320, the Radeon HD 3870 in cross-fire ($360) blows it away for enthusiast gaming.

Part of the problem with the Radeon HD 2900xt is its dual secondary power inputs (8 and 6 pin) - the enthusiast power supplies sporting the juice to run a single HD 2900xt are adequate to cover cross-fire, making the question "why not dual less-expensive but more-powerful cards for the same money"? it's a question that the Radeon HD 2900xt doesn't have an answer to - meaning it is no longer worth buying.

Current owners, however, can enjoy this card with all of today's modern games - and by no means has its high performance been diminished. It's simply an issue of the newer line-up being able to offer the same performance in a less-expensive, more-power-efficient package. If you've already got one - going cross-fire will give you more than enough power to handle tomorrow's games, but you may be better served by getting a pair of HD 3870s, as a pair of 2900xt require considerable juice and cooling.

GeForce 8800gtx - ($389.99)

Benchmarks

Extreme Tech

Legit Reviews

Rage3D

Summary

The enthusiast market is in a state of flux at the moment, with the GeForce 9800-line on the horizon, and the introduction of the newer GeForce 8800gts line-up. For those who already own a GeForce 8800gtx, looking to go SLI, the decision between buying a new single card, and picking up a "bargain bin" GTX will be a difficult one. Unfortunately the pricing on this high-end card remains high, despite the performance of the far-less-expensive new GTS line, the upcoming (and more powerful) 9800-line, and the only slightly more expensive Radeon HD 3870x2.

The verdict? The GTX is still a great card to own for current PC gaming enthusiasts, but it's not a great time to buy one of these cards. Simply put, the Radeon HD 3-series versus "new" GeForce 8 and upcoming GeForce 9-series "battle" has resulted in too many cards with a better bang-for-the-buck.

For those who already own a GTX - don't despair - pair of 8800 GTX in SLI can rival a GeForce 9800gx2 - and a second 8800gtx is far less expensive than a GeForce 9800gx2 at this point. Of course, if the 8800gtx SLI is keeping pace with the 9800gx2, that raises some serious questions about the performance of single-GPU 9800s...

Current owners of the 8800GTX are in a fantastic position going forward, and likely have little need to upgrade at this point in the game - that said, those seeking these out as a new card should mainly use price as the deciding factor - and ultimately the newer 8800s, and SLI / crossfire / dual cards of less-expensive cards offer some serious competition for your dollar.

Benchmarks

No reliable, English-language benchmarks available.

Summary

This card is a China-only release, an is essentially a 128-bit version of the Radeon HD 3850. This card isn't slated for worldwide release, so it's unlikely you'll be able to get your hands on one. At this point, the cheap 8800gs 384mb and Radeon HD 3850s are the best "bargain bin" card on the market (outside of China), and the performance hit for going 128-bit isn't really worth saving $35 versus the 3850 512mb. If this GPU is released outside of China, mainstream gamers are still better served by going for something a bit more powerful.

Mainstream GPUs

Mainstream GPUs can be among the most popular graphics card on the market globally with PC gamers, in part due to their competitive pricing, and solid performance. Especially powerful graphics cards in this range will often become the "crowd favorite" GPU of a generation. Mainstream GPUs typically offer excellent framerates and graphical abilities on current generation games, however lack the memory bandwidth of their high-end cousins to play demanding games with anti-aliasing, or on the highest possible settings.

Radeon HD 2900pro - (N/A)

Benchmarks

Neoseeker

Tweaktown

FiringSquad

Summary

The Radeon HD 2900pro is an unfortunate card. Essentially a Radeon HD 2900xt that wouldn't perform up to spec, these are powerful cards - with a hefty power requirement, and serious heat & noise issues. Mainstream gamers would be better served seeking out the HD 3850 / 3870 or GeForce 9600gt. Be warned, the Radeon HD 2900pro requires a pair of external power connectors for best performance, and is by no means the cool, quiet, power efficient card expected of this price range.

For gamers on a budget, these cards were popular for replacing aging GPUs in crossfire setups, since a pair could be had at a reasonable price, but at this point they cannot be recommended to the typical mainstream PC gamer. Simply put, this card served a niche looking for extreme crossfire performance on a "budget", and not the needs of the average mainstream gamer.

Information

Introduction

Hang tight! The 2008 GPU guide is being updated. Thank you for your suggestions, they were helpful in making some changes to the guide to better serve you. The updates should be completed by June 1st. Thank you for your patience!

FAQ

1. What are SLI and Crossfire?

2. What is the difference between PCI-E 1.0 and PCI-E 2.0?

3. What is the difference between DX 10.0 and DX 10.1?

4. Which is better, nVidia or ATI?

5. Which is better, XP or Vista?

6. How often do I need to upgrade?

Recommendations

Budget GPU Pick

Midrange GPU Pick

High-End GPU Pick

***updated to this point***

Non-Gaming GPUs

These inexpensive GPUs are generally used to provide basic functionality to a PC, or enable the use of features such as Vista's Aero. At the upper end of this range, cards like the GeForce 8500gt and the Radeon 2600pro (gddr2) are actually capable of running some modern games, albeit at minimal settings.

However, none of these cards can be recommended to someone who is a PC gamer. At this price point, GPUs are stripped down to the bare minimum, and are unable to provide the performance to satisfactorily meet the hefty demands of current and upcoming games.

GeForce 8400gs - ($34.99)

Benchmarks

Tweaktown

VR-Zone

Madshrimps

Summary

The 8400gs is capable of handling older games, such as Half-Life 2 and Fear, at 1024 x 768, however its limited memory bandwidth and poor shader performance leave it unable to handle current games at this resolution. Company of Heroes and DIRT poor performance indicate this card is not capable enough to run modern or upcoming games well.

Radeon HD 2400pro / xt - ($34.99 / $39.99)

Benchmarks

Hot Hardware

PCStats

Legit Reviews

Summary

The Radeon 2400pro is a poor choice for PC gamers due to its extremely limited memory bandwidth. The more powerful Radeon 2400xt, while capable of handling 1024 x 768 in older games, is too weak a performer for modern or upcoming titles. Neither card is able to perform well enough to be recommended as a GPU purchase.

GeForce 8500gt - ($48.99)

Benchmarks

Madshrimps

Overclockers Club

Techgage

Summary

The GeForce 8500gt, when overclocked, is capable of running modern games at 1024 x 768 on medium settings. However, its performance is spotty - games that place heavy demands on memory bandwidth, such as STALKER and Crysis, reduce frame rates to a slideshow. Overall, despite its "best in cla-ss" performance, the 8500gt cannot be recommended, as many upcoming games will not be playable on this GPU.

Radeon HD 2600pro - ($44.99)

Benchmarks

Hardware Zone

ExtremeTech

Overclock3D

Summary

The Radeon 2600pro is capable of running both older and modern games at 1024 x 768 at a playable framerate - at least, if you purchase the overclocked model. However, due to variability in the performance of the 2600 pro between manufacturers, entry-level PC gamers are better off buying the faster 2600xt, to guarantee a better performing GPU.

I must say this is the cleanest looking, most polished guide I've ever seen. Great work! :)

The only thing I think you should add is a link to the old guide: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24897317

EDIT: lol n/m you must have already edited in the link.

WOW this guide is GREAT!

WhooHoo my card is up in the High End Range =p (8800GTS)

Are you sure the 8800GTS 320mb is better than the 9600GT? I thought the 9600GT was better performance wise and was there to replace it.darkplayer

I heard the 8800GTS actually out performs the 9600GT. So It would look like this.

8800GTS>9600GT

9800GT>>8800GTS

[QUOTE="darkplayer"]Are you sure the 8800GTS 320mb is better than the 9600GT? I thought the 9600GT was better performance wise and was there to replace it.BartManX8

I heard the 8800GTS actually out performs the 9600GT. So It would look like this.

8800GTS>9600GT

9800GT>>8800GTS

Well yeah the new 512mb and 640mb version, but I don't know about the 320mb one. I wish there were some benchmarks somewhere.

[QUOTE="BartManX8"]

[QUOTE="darkplayer"]Are you sure the 8800GTS 320mb is better than the 9600GT? I thought the 9600GT was better performance wise and was there to replace it.darkplayer

I heard the 8800GTS actually out performs the 9600GT. So It would look like this.

8800GTS>9600GT

9800GT>>8800GTS

Well yeah the new 512mb and 640mb version, but I don't know about the 320mb one. I wish there were some benchmarks somewhere.

Yeah I've been searching for some myself, all I can find are tomshardware.com but they've only got theirs updated to 07' =/

Are you sure the 8800GTS 320mb is better than the 9600GT? I thought the 9600GT was better performance wise and was there to replace it.darkplayer

[QUOTE="darkplayer"][QUOTE="BartManX8"]

[QUOTE="darkplayer"]Are you sure the 8800GTS 320mb is better than the 9600GT? I thought the 9600GT was better performance wise and was there to replace it.BartManX8

I heard the 8800GTS actually out performs the 9600GT. So It would look like this.

8800GTS>9600GT

9800GT>>8800GTS

Well yeah the new 512mb and 640mb version, but I don't know about the 320mb one. I wish there were some benchmarks somewhere.

Yeah I've been searching for some myself, all I can find are tomshardware.com but they've only got theirs updated to 07' =/

Aha I found a benchmark that has the 9600GT and the 8800GTS 320mb and some other cards as well, its very recent. Apperently they are very close in performance in all games (less than 5FPS) But the 9600GT is faster in every case, and in Crysis the difference is pretty huge.

Benchmark

Very nice, subrosian. Your neutrality in the article is also a huge relief.

I can't pick out anything wrong with what you posted, but there are two points I want to address:
- The R600 architecture (and any architecture based on R600) takes quite a heavy performance hit with AF not AA. In fact, R600/RV670 seems to handle 8xAA much better than G80/G92.

- The 8800 GTS 320MB should be mainstream.

Heck, I might do one of these things every month. It'll save a lot confusion for people who usually go to Tom's Hardware or some other junk site.

OK, I like it, and I see that the last stickied GPU guide is now "unstickied", but as of when I initially commented, this new one hadn't been pinned yet, and the guide needs a summary for the newer gamers, to cover cards not listed because they are too old, too new, or too weak.

With a lot of card-shopping experience, we start taking some things for granted, such as the power supply requirements, even for so- called Mainstream cards (which in this guide differs from the more usual usage, and might be well suited for a footnote of some sort), the meanings of suffixes, and the general placement of cards in the rankings according to the last three numbers in their names (550 or less for sub-gamer useful, most 600s as gamer minimums, and 800s or better for heavy duty gaming).

The 2900XT does not belong there.Bump it down to the high end.

And ya i agree with other posters bump the 320MB 8800GTS down as well.

Anyways very nice post.:)

I must say this is the cleanest looking, most polished guide I've ever seen. Great work! :)

The only thing I think you should add is a link to the old guide: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24897317

EDIT: lol n/m you must have already edited in the link.

Krall

And unlike ours, is actually finished in a reasonable timespan :P

Very nice though sub; you've put a tonne of effort into here :).

The HD3690 is coming to the US as the HD3830: http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Preps+Radeon+HD+3830/article11189.htm

Performance should definitely be better than the 8600GTS, but we'll have to see exactly how much the 128-bit memory interface restricts performance of the card before we start calling it out.

Also a small point, but in the 8600GTS information thread you made the mistake of calling the 8800GS the 8800GTS 384MB - I'm reasonably sure you just got a "t" mixed up in there that doesn't belong, but that's definitely a bad place for a spelling error.

I'd like to see the HD3650 thrown up on the list as well, it's deserving of a spot. The entry-level HD3450 and HD3470 cards could also be mentioned, but that's hardly a big deal since entry-level will largely be ignored on this site.

A little more on Crossfire and SLI would also be nice, but that's probably a bit out of the scope of the guide.

Oh, and a blurb about graphics cards and power supplies should definitely be thrown into the mix here so we don't have people trying to run two 8800GT cards on a $50 600w power supply and possibly destroying their machines.

Overall, excellent job though. Very well thought-out, nice clean layout, and just a generally excellent job.

Edit: A few of the usual blurbs might be also be in order. Video RAM types and amounts (why 512MB DDR2 is worse than 256MB of GDDR3), maybe some general pros and cons between ATI and Nvidia (OpenGL support, HDMI support, and all that jazz) would be good to spice up the FAQ section with.

You may also want to include a list of "scam" cards like 1GB 8800's and 9600GT and the 512MB 8600's.

You may also want to include a list of "scam" cards like (...) the 512MB 8600's.

Musacircuit_2

Like ANY matchup of 512 MBs with a 128-Bit, or narrower, memory bandwidth. I've seen 64 Bit cards being advertised with 512 MBs!

Basing it only on price (which needs to be updated, btw) will sometimes give a very screwed picture of performace.

subrosian, my guide might be worth a look?

Some tips:
- HD 2900 XT has about the same performance as 8800 GTS 640MB.
- Telling someone to buy a second 8800 Ultra is lunacy.
- I feel it's pretty vague about the cards' relative performance to each other.

Keep up the good work!

[QUOTE="Krall"]

I must say this is the cleanest looking, most polished guide I've ever seen. Great work! :)

The only thing I think you should add is a link to the old guide: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24897317

EDIT: lol n/m you must have already edited in the link.

G013M

And unlike ours, is actually finished in a reasonable timespan :P

Very nice though sub; you've put a tonne of effort into here :).

He put us to shame :P

Maybe we can recruit him to help us finish ours :)

Just to remind everyone:

We all know GPUs have the habit of changing on a daily basis wether it be rebates on pricing, price drops, new drivers that effect benchmarks, new revisions or whole new architecture. Most of you also know benchmarking between different sites and in a lot of cases the same sites aren't always 100% accurate or frankly unbiased.

With that in mind putting a broad guide like this together is no easy task and keep in mind Subrosian did it all on his own. Basically there's always going to be some discrepancy in this guide due to the nature of GPUs and hence the reason why it's called a guide :)

Just to remind everyone:

We all know GPUs have the habit of changing on a daily basis wether it be rebates on pricing, price drops, new drivers that effect benchmarks, new revisions or whole new architecture. Most of you also know benchmarking between different sites and in a lot of cases the same sites aren't always 100% accurate or frankly unbiased.

With that in mind putting a broad guide like this together is no easy task and keep in mind Subrosian did it all on his own. Basically there's always going to be some discrepancy in this guide due to the nature of GPUs and hence the reason why it's called a guide :)

Krall

Thanks for your help in pointing out the errors, I'll be going back over tonight / tomorrow and fixing all of the ones mentioned.

With a note on pricing - I'll try and update this once a month using Newegg pricing, sans any mail-in-rebates (I'll simply take the lowest price for each GPU still available). Pricing will of-course vary day-by-day, and there are always different sales going on, with close cards (like the HD 3870 / GeForce 8800gt) it would be pretty hard for me to keep up on the constant price war.

I don't have any cards up, like the Radeon 3830, GeForce 9800gtx, or Radeon 3400 / 3600 series, that didn't have any official benchmarks at the time I wrote the guide, however I'll definitely go take a look if those cards have some available now.

I actually set the "placement" of each card based on pricing, since this is the only neutral way to do it, I'll go back and put in the price ranges I used when I edit for errors. I'll make a note in the FAQ regarding the possibility of a more expensive card being less powerful (such as the case of GeForce 8800gt SLI vs a single GeForce 8800 Ultra). And yes, I'll add the common exploit of adding useless RAM to a card (such as 128-bit cards matched to a gig of DDR2).

It would be almost impossible to arrange the cards based on pure "performance", since this varies depending on the game, as well as driver, and updates constantly change this. For many cards the difference is a few FPS, I'll try and note within the guide when possible, but when the FPS is pretty close I don't feel comfortable making a claim one way or another.

Basing it only on price (which needs to be updated, btw) will sometimes give a very screwed picture of performaNce.

subrosian, my guide might be worth a look?

Some tips:
- HD 2900 XT has about the same performance as 8800 GTS 640MB.
- I feel it's pretty vague about the cards' relative performance to each other.

guezz

Perhaps there is a happy medium between too little, too brief, of a guide, and 20 internet pages' worth, but I should think that the quick & dirty route will be read more often than the longer, fully detailed type guide of the type you maintain. Personally, I simply express my opinion to the reader, of the relative rankings based on one or another particular game I enjoy, such as The Witcher is, and Oblivion was before that. I would've done the same for NWN2, save that the moderators and staff from BioWare weren't interested in my contributions.

On our side of the Atlantic, we have had two generations of TV-addicted youth for whom the majority continue to have no real ambition to read anything, so a very good report such as yours, is wasted on most such Americans. I do agree that the monetary based ranking will need constant editing, or else grow useless fast, so that a backup based purely on a particular agreeable benchmark would seem particularly well suited as an addition here.

[QUOTE="guezz"]

Basing it only on price (which needs to be updated, btw) will sometimes give a very screwed picture of performaNce.

subrosian, my guide might be worth a look?

Some tips:
- HD 2900 XT has about the same performance as 8800 GTS 640MB.
- I feel it's pretty vague about the cards' relative performance to each other.

Kiwi_1

Perhaps there is a happy medium between too little, too brief, of a guide, and 20 internet pages' worth, but I should think that the quick & dirty route will be read more often than the longer, fully detailed type guide of the type you maintain. Personally, I simply express my opinion to the reader, of the relative rankings based on one or another particular game I enjoy, such as The Witcher is, and Oblivion was before that. I would've done the same for NWN2, save that the moderators and staff from BioWare weren't interested in my contributions.

On our side of the Atlantic, we have had two generations of TV-addicted youth for whom the majority continue to have no real ambition to read anything, so a very good report such as yours, is wasted on most such Americans. I do agree that the monetary based ranking will need constant editing, or else grow useless fast, so that a backup based purely on a particular agreeable benchmark would seem particularly well suited as an addition here.

[QUOTE="G013M"][QUOTE="Krall"]

I must say this is the cleanest looking, most polished guide I've ever seen. Great work! :)

The only thing I think you should add is a link to the old guide: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24897317

EDIT: lol n/m you must have already edited in the link.

Krall

And unlike ours, is actually finished in a reasonable timespan :P

Very nice though sub; you've put a tonne of effort into here :).

He put us to shame :P

Maybe we can recruit him to help us finish ours :)

You'll hear no objection for my end ;).

[QUOTE="Krall"][QUOTE="G013M"][QUOTE="Krall"]

I must say this is the cleanest looking, most polished guide I've ever seen. Great work! :)

The only thing I think you should add is a link to the old guide: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24897317

EDIT: lol n/m you must have already edited in the link.

G013M

And unlike ours, is actually finished in a reasonable timespan :P

Very nice though sub; you've put a tonne of effort into here :).

He put us to shame :P

Maybe we can recruit him to help us finish ours :)

You'll hear no objection for my end ;).

I hope you'll keep updating this. Because I'm having a hard time keeping track of when new things come out.

I'll do my best to keep it updated. I'll post a "last updated" on my next update - it will generally be towards the weekend, since I'm prone to having exams the first part of the week.subrosian

Thanks a lot man :D

[QUOTE="subrosian"]I'll do my best to keep it updated. I'll post a "last updated" on my next update - it will generally be towards the weekend, since I'm prone to having exams the first part of the week.SimpJee

Thanks a lot man :D

Yeah, and now the 9800GTX. :o

Maybe you should date each video card entry and when you updated since I saw you mentioned the 9800 line being upcoming. Unless you're really on top of things and update small details like that. :)

Great guide, thanks for taking the time to do that!

1) Should add 512mb into the name of the 256 bit GTS revision, as thats what people should search for as a name

2) No mention of the 256mb 8800GT?

Is nVidia going to release a 9800GT anytime soon? Or should I just buy the 8800GT?

Is nVidia going to release a 9800GT anytime soon? Or should I just buy the 8800GT?

Stevo_the_gamer

There may very well not be a 9800GT.

The 9800GTX is only a hair better than the 8800GTX and the 8800GTS 512mb in performance. Releasing the 9800GT will need it to be in between the 8800GT and 8800GTS 512mb in performance, which I would say make no sense at all as the 8800GT isn't that much slower either.

Of course, unless Nvidia wants to F up their names again in a way of the 9800GT being even more powerful than the 9800GTX itself, then I have basically nothing more to say.

[QUOTE="Stevo_the_gamer"]

Is nVidia going to release a 9800GT anytime soon? Or should I just buy the 8800GT?

SSJBen

There may very well not be a 9800GT.

The 9800GTX is only a hair better than the 8800GTX and the 8800GTS 512mb in performance. Releasing the 9800GT will need it to be in between the 8800GT and 8800GTS 512mb in performance, which I would say make no sense at all as the 8800GT isn't that much slower either.

Of course, unless Nvidia wants to F up their names again in a way of the 9800GT being even more powerful than the 9800GTX itself, then I have basically nothing more to say.

Thanks for the information though.

Quite rightly, the 9800GTX isn't that much worth it especially when its hovering in the $330 mark.

You can get a 8800GTS 512mb which performs about as equally as the 9800GTX most of the time for about $70 less. So I'd generally suggest the 8800GTS 512mb above or else if you have a budget of $250 to $300.