GPU Guide - 2008 Edition

Very informative guide, I'm in the process of purchasing parts (mostly from newegg) to build my first, brand new PC. I decided to go with the Intel Quad Q9450 (2.66Ghz, 12MB cache, etc) and figured I needed a moderately powerful graphics card to run with it. So I decided to go with the 8800 GTS 512MB; though I'm a pc gamer by no means (consoles FTW), I am however interested in Starcraft II. Once it arrives I want to make sure my system can play it. :PDementedDragon

Your new processor is owining. :)

But if I were you I'd buy GeForce 8800GTX better performance than 8800GTS and same as 9800GTX.

Your new processor is owining. :)

But if I were you I'd buy GeForce 8800GTX better performance than 8800GTS and same as 9800GTX.

Owyns

I'd love too, but I don't want to break the bank, the 8800 GTS 512MB may not be as good as the GTX but it's close enough for me at the moment. ^_^

[QUOTE="Owyns"]

Your new processor is owining. :)

But if I were you I'd buy GeForce 8800GTX better performance than 8800GTS and same as 9800GTX.

DementedDragon

I'd love too, but I don't want to break the bank, the 8800 GTS 512MB may not be as good as the GTX but it's close enough for me at the moment. ^_^

[QUOTE="DementedDragon"][QUOTE="Owyns"]

Your new processor is owining. :)

But if I were you I'd buy GeForce 8800GTX better performance than 8800GTS and same as 9800GTX.

funnymario

I'd love too, but I don't want to break the bank, the 8800 GTS 512MB may not be as good as the GTX but it's close enough for me at the moment. ^_^

Yeah, this is true it's more expensive, so then stay on your ass. :) Do not buy nothing more. :D

Man! Thanks for making this guide. It really helps a lot of Do It Yourself guys like me out there.

Could also make a guide for CPUs? Cause I dont know if my X2 4800+ is gonna get me through the games for 2008.

I'd like my games running at decent FPS. Thanks!

GPU Prices updated to the latest prices. Next update I'll be rearranging the GPUs, inserting new / upcoming ones, moving discontinued GPUs to their own category, and rearranging the naming conventions to reflect that they're price and not necessarily market-segment based.

It'll take a few days to get that done, sorry for any inconvenience.

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).

Kiwi_1

So far, unless my scan was too cursory, neither the "not listed here" footnote, nor any general rules seem to have appeared.

As noted, "600" or better for the last three numbers, "800" for more than minimum, and meanings of suffixes:

Suffixes, from Good to Awful

ATI Suffixes: XTX > XT > XL > Pro > GTO > Vanilla > GT > SE > Hyper Anything (during the HD 3*** deneration, they dropped their use of suffixes in favor of using the tens' digit, as in 30, 50, 70 for GT, GTO, and Pro)

nVidia: Ultra > GTX > GTS > GT > GS > Vanilla > LE = XT > VE > TC (Turbocache, any variety)

As the naming conventions of GPUs don't indicate power cross-generation, nor is there a guarantee that it remains true within a line, I find it's better simply to guide people, rather than spew names. I've found quite often GPU naming is done to pad egos, while the benchmarks tell all. For exampe, the Radeon HD 3830 is far less powerful than the GeForce 9600gt.

There aren't any "general rules" - I will be updating the thread over the week as I have time to reflect changes that have occured, but your "general rules" actually don't apply all of the time, and in the hands of an inexperienced PC builder could quickly lead them to bad conclusions.

-

I have somewhat of a problem with setting a general rule that tells people what's the "bare minimum" to PC game, and then saying "a GeForce 9600gt" or the like - I want to give people an idea of what they can and cannot do with a card, but what's an acceptable level of performance is a very personal thing.

How powerful is the nVidia 8600 GT? Can it run games on full in 1024x768? Like Crysis?kishmish

one thing you forget to mention in this guide is the power of 2 9600gt and the fact that they runpretty much the same as 9800gtx but at a small fraction of the cost (2 costing $NZ100 more than 1 9800gtx) as such i think that it would be good to add to the high end if not enthusiast (doubtful) 2x9600gt even though it is not available to buy retail.

i also think this guide would benefit from the exact (or as close to) the actual specs of the card in consideration of memeory speed (mhz), core speed (mhz) and memory. though many people would not know what they are looking at i think those who do would appreciate it

Thanks guys! I may ether go with the 9600GT or the 8800GT or GTS I heard that they have the best bang for the buck! Kevinmaxtor

from my personal experience, i have a 8800gts and crysis is the only game i've found that even pushes it, the fps drops a bit in intense firefights but thats probably just my cpu bottlenecking my card. i'd recommend the 8800 gts 512 to anybody seriously considering a good card but not wanting to spend $600 + on a 9800 gt

[QUOTE="kishmish"]How powerful is the nVidia 8600 GT? Can it run games on full in 1024x768? Like Crysis?Spybot_9

Actually, under Vista there isn't that much of a difference between DX9 and DX10 performance.

[QUOTE="Spybot_9"][QUOTE="kishmish"]How powerful is the nVidia 8600 GT? Can it run games on full in 1024x768? Like Crysis?BlueBirdTS

Actually, under Vista there isn't that much of a difference between DX9 and DX10 performance.

[QUOTE="Kiwi_1"]

Suffixes, from Good to Awful

ATI Suffixes: XTX > XT > XL > Pro > GTO > Vanilla > GT > SE > Hyper Anything (during the HD 3*** generation, they dropped their use of suffixes in favor of using the tens' digit, as in 30, 50, 70 for GT, GTO, and Pro -- although it could as easily be GT, Vanilla, and XL)

nVidia: Ultra > GTX > GTS > GT > GS > Vanilla > LE = XT > VE > TC (Turbocache, any variety)

Kiwi_1

AMD is shaking up the IGP area lately, and including a video chip in a current chipset that hasn't been castrated. Admittedly, an HD 2400 Pro is small potatoes when it comes to high intensity games, however, it is a first time that any complete discrete VPU chip was ever included this way. There have always been penny-pinchers trying to run games on cards such as X1300s, 7300 GTs, and these days, 8400 GSes, so when these new MBs start showing up, those same folks will be doing the same thing with this newest IGP:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3305

You should more clearly state that the GeForce 8800gts 512mb actually has very little in common with the rest of the 8800 series, why they didn't call it the 9800gt I don't know because that's exactly what it is.

The 8800gts is on par and in some cases more powerfull then the old 8800gtx. it uses a much more efficient processor that produces a lot less heat andconsumesa lot less power then rest of the 8800 series.

the 9800gtx is basically a 8800gts 512mb that the processor has been pushed harder and has faster memory. Typically the 8800gts will finish a little bit below the radeon HD 3870x2. While the 9800gtx beats the 3870x2handilyfor about 50-75$ dollars less(while consuming a lot less power and staying cooler).

But overall the 8800gts 512mb is easily the worst named product of the year so far, it implies that it is like the old 8800gts 320mb 640mb when actually it has nothing in common and is a significantly betterperformer.

Currently the market is a complete mess, namely with pricing. the most overpriced cards being the 8800gts 640mb and 8800gtx which are both priced hundreds over thereperformancelevel.

You should more clearly state that the GeForce 8800gts 512mb actually has very little in common with the rest of the 8800 series, why they didn't call it the 9800gt I don't know because that's exactly what it is.

The 8800gts is on par and in some cases more powerfull then the old 8800gtx. it uses a much more efficient processor that produces a lot less heat andconsumesa lot less power then rest of the 8800 series.

the 9800gtx is basically a 8800gts 512mb that the processor has been pushed harder and has faster memory. Typically the 8800gts will finish a little bit below the radeon HD 3870x2. While the 9800gtx beats the 3870x2handilyfor about 50-75$ dollars less(while consuming a lot less power and staying cooler).

But overall the 8800gts 512mb is easily the worst named product of the year so far, it implies that it is like the old 8800gts 320mb 640mb when actually it has nothing in common and is a significantly betterperformer.

Currently the market is a complete mess, namely with pricing. the most overpriced cards being the 8800gts 640mb and 8800gtx which are both priced hundreds over thereperformancelevel.

bradleybradley

Oh and 8800GTX is better than the 512MB GTS and not on par with it.

I do agree though that it shouldnt have been named the 8800GTS.

9800GTX doesnt handily beat the 3870X2,what are you talking about??

Lastly the EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SSC is actually not overpriced and is a very good card for people who play in high res.If you look at some reviews on newegg,people are still buying that card over the new GTS and they know what they are talking about.G92 is good for people who play in lower res but for higher res G80 rules.

Grafic card in Croatia are more expensive. I think 50$.zagorec5

that's because graphics card all ex-yugoslav countries ship cards indirectly from dealers from Germany or Austria, and everyone sells cards for a bit more expensive to satisfy the monthly expense with sale or more.

That adds up those 50$. There is also differen't tax from country to country, that's why those Americans get their products so TERRIBLY CHEAP.

No worries bradley, the updated guide is going to be actually including a new value scale. I'm sorry it's taking me as much time as it is, but I feel it's useful to maybe have stars for value. For example, the 8800gs, is it really a value? No - because a $100 ~ $125 card with only 384mb of ram and a 192-bit bus is silly when the Radeon HD 3850 512mb and GeForce 9600gt 512mb are both going to outperform it on games where you' actually need it.

I.E. - when you're buying a new GPU because you want to run Crysis on medium, or get a smooth framerate in upcoming games like Starcraft 2 and Conan, why on earth would you get a card that only performs well in older games, with memory bandwidth that will relegate it to "old" status well before its time? You wouldn't - and hence it would get a low value rating.

-

That's taking me some time, just to get it all laid out, but I have a three day weekend, and we should see some nice progress.

No worries bradley, the updated guide is going to be actually including a new value scale. I'm sorry it's taking me as much time as it is, but I feel it's useful to maybe have stars for value. For example, the 8800gs, is it really a value? No - because a $100 ~ $125 card with only 384mb of ram and a 192-bit bus is silly when the Radeon HD 3850 512mb and GeForce 9600gt 512mb are both going to outperform it on games where you' actually need it.

I.E. - when you're buying a new GPU because you want to run Crysis on medium, or get a smooth framerate in upcoming games like Starcraft 2 and Conan, why on earth would you get a card that only performs well in older games, with memory bandwidth that will relegate it to "old" status well before its time? You wouldn't - and hence it would get a low value rating.

-

That's taking me some time, just to get it all laid out, but I have a three day weekend, and we should see some nice progress.

subrosian

9800GX2>3870X2>8800 ultra>8800GTX=9800GTX>8800GTS 512MB>EVGA 8800GTS 640MB SSC>8800GT 512MB>8800GTS 640MB>9600GT>HD 3870=2900XT>2900pro=HD 3850 512MB.

The 3870 could potentially beat a few nvidia cards once games start using DX10.1.

Rating cards with a memory bottleneck is a bit difficult.I'll still put it this way,

8800GS 384MB=8800GTS 320MB>8800GT 256MB>HD 3850 256MB.

And I dont think you should have seperate categories like enthusiast and all that cuz the performance gains going from one card to another is mostly so neglagible that it's very difficult to draw the line somewhere.

vs

a single 8800gts 512mb

"8800 series FTW! 8600 is poorly made." - keymaster7

The 8800 is a great series of cards. So is the 8600 GT/GTS. The 8600's are not "poorly made" in the least bit. They are infact some of the best HTPC cards out there. They will also play most current games at 1680 x 1050 or 1600 x 1200 with maximum settings in the 30-40 FPS range. Also the GT only eats up 43 watts of power and OC's very well. Because of it's lower wattage rating, it can handle a good deal of heat compared to other cards. My HTPC gets quite hot in it's stand with the reciever sitting on top of it. The 8600 GT in it has yet to hicup after more than half a year of being on 24/7. I also pushed that little card as a temp game card for a few weeks before one of my 8800's came in. It handled Bioshock, SupCom, Two Worlds and many others at pretty much maxed out settings on 1680 X 1050.

Elite-Realist, the main reason you would want the SLI 8600's is for a large multi monitor setup. They would run most games today at a pretty good clip, but as a gaming pair you would get better performance from any one of the 8800 or 9X series of cards for less. If you have need to run a couple of 1920 x 1200 or screens or even a single 2560 x 1600 for general computer needs or multiscreen media (like a wall of TV's in a store) then yes, those 8600's are an ok deal. You would do much better with the 512MB DDR3 modles for those things though. Just keep in mind that the 128 bit mem system on the 8600 doesnt really help with letting the 512 modles game any better than a 256MB model. The extra mem is just for general purpose, high res stuff. The card is simply too bottle necked to take advantage of the extra 256MB when it comes to rendering 3D games.

8800 series FTW! 8600 is poorly made.keymaster7

You're comparing cards in different price ranges. It's like saying "Porsche 911 FTW! Honda Civics are poorly made".