The Best Gaming Video Cards for the Money: July 2007

Woohoo, My first vid card is on the list (7300gt) and the card I replaced it with is also on it (x1950pro). Although the x1950pro still seems really power hungry

thats cause we are in the UK and have to wait....

Confused so why is it listed if we cant access it.
And am i missing something or isnt it the World Wide Web any more

BTW the UK costs you quote are way off, you put the X1950XT in the best £150 cat. when you can get them, in the UK with tax, for £104.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119441

Where are they getting uk prices from maybe they are just converting american prices and not checking in uk at all.
I dont know what the conversion rate is but they have the x1650xt way of also.$165 or £105 i just got one a week or so ago for £74.

oi!, cleeve get onto that lazy irishmen mckenna and tell him to get his arse in gear over these prices. has he not heard of froogle or google products as it is now know(why change it).

The correct words are: Abbra Cadabra:

Off the top of my head:

www.scan.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.ebuyer.co.uk

Those are most of the major ones... Other people may have more but I use Scan myself.

Also... What is that GFX card in the article picture?!

www.ebuyer.co.uk are probably the largest UK etailer, and are always close to the best price.

And remember - we all have to pay VAT (sales tax) so include this in the cost you quote

Just picked up the Sapphire X1650 Pro AGP from newegg a few days ago for the $85 mentioned in the article, but they are also offering a $30 mail-in rebate, bringing the price (after shipping) to only $60! Can't really beat it at that price.

i would also like to see a dual card comparison between 7900GS Sli and 1950Pro crossfire, in comparison to todays high end cards (8800gts, 8800gtx, 2900XT, 8800ultra) to see if they are viable.

THere are a number of comparisons like that. The short answer is that a single high-end card is pretty much always better. Google some reviews to check it out.

I'll put in a second request for the 8000 series notebook video cards. I know there are less benchmarks available and you'll probably have to "guesstimate" them somewhat, but it would still be interesting.

I just ordered a killernotebooks laptop with the 8600GS 256mb so that would be interesting to see.

That's the point of the article, mate.

I can't find an X1950 GT below $130, and for that price it's worth the extra $10 for a PRO.

Remember, we don't consider rebates for the 'best cards for the money' list. But if you can find a good rebate price and are willing to wait for it, go to town...

Sure you can after rebates which 8600gt priced are similarly at Newegg as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102034

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130085

$10 difference but 30-50% faster. It's no brainer.

Not shipping yet.

As for performance, it's still very early and most individual benchmarks are on different platforms (like current SantaRosa T7oddnumberXX versus previous Napa T7evennumberXX and earlier), so a level of consistency needs to be found first for good straight across comparison.

Sofar general consistency from what I've seen;

GF8400M < GFGO7600GS/MRX1700 but much better than the MRX1400 and GFGo7300

GF8600MGS <= GFGO7600GT (which is rare and fast [faster than the GFGO7700]) < MRX1800plain

(I disagree with Cleeve's placement of the GFGO7600GT vs MRX1800, but that's just my experience).

GF8600MGT < GFGO7900GS but faster than the MRX1800plain.

GF8700MGT not sufficiently benched yet just one plus the clock extrapolation, but looks to be equal to or better than the GFGO7900GS.

EDIT: PS Cleeve, I don't think the GFGO6600 deserve any spot above the MRX700 unless it's being awarded something extra for SM3.0, it's got half the vertex shaders and half the ROPs, and in pretty much any head to head test (on equal platforms) of the time the MRX700 came out ahead. Only the greatly overclokced GFGO6600GT was competition which is why it was released afterwards to bring up performance.

Yeah I meant GFGO7900GS.

Cleaned it up a bit.

I can't find an X1950 GT below $130, and for that price it's worth the extra $10 for a PRO.

Remember, we don't consider rebates for the 'best cards for the money' list. But if you can find a good rebate price and are willing to wait for it, go to town...

Sure you can after rebates which 8600gt priced are similarly at Newegg as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102034

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130085

$10 difference but 30-50% faster. It's no brainer.

Ok, so I'm a newbie. But wouldn't it be a better investment to purchase a DX10 capable card instead of a DX9 one, if I'm planning on gaming, even if the other is 30-50% faster? This is assuming I'm not going to buy another video card for a few years.

No, here's why:

1. What good is a DirectX 10 feature if the card itself is not fast enough to play games?


2. Just as modern DirectX 9 games support DirectX 8 - and sometimes even DirectX 7 class cards, DirectX 10 games will support DirectX 8 and 9 class cards for a long time into the future.

If a game developer ignored a massive installed Dx9 user base and made a Dx10-only game, they'd limit their market to a fraction of the gamers out there and cut their own throat. Not going to happen.


3. The end-user difference between Dx10 and 9 is more hype than anything. Just like you probably wouldn't notice any quality difference if you played Half-Life 2 on a DirectX 9 card instead of a directX 8 card...

Actually, it is!

Link

Read my previous post!

What about 2xATI2900XTX vs. 2xG8800GTX.
Prices and TOM benchmarks

at this link:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2147064,00.asp

I've read 3dmark06 of 16.660 vs. 12267 at 1280x1024
and 11.054 vs.7.360 at 2.560x1.600

Best crossfire beating best SLI, and for Prey an company of heroes better for ATI as higher is the resolution.

But perhaps we would need 120 Hz at 2560x1600 monitors, and a 1080p@120Hz test for this cards, becouse is the best we can find with a good price.

I have a question - I'm looking into new video cards to replace my dinosaur 5200FX, which can't play a thing obviously.

The issue is that my motherboard will only support PCI express 4X, so I'd like to know which of the following is a better choice for me. On paper, the PCI express looks superior, but I have to consider the motherboard's limitations as well.

I like the look of both:

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail
Core clock 500MHz
PixelPipelines 20
Memory
Memory Clock 1380 MHz (effective)
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3

EVGA 256-A8-N506-AX GeForce 7800GS 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X CO Video Card - Retail
Core clock 430MHz
PixelPipelines 16
Memory
Memory Clock 1300MHz(effective)
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3


Thanks for any feedback.

Are there any benchmarks out there yet for the HD 2900 XT from Diamond (the $499 version w/ 1GB of DDR4)??? Anyone know when to expect to see some? Diamond says this is "The World's Fastest Graphics Card" and I was told by Maingear that the 1GB version of this card is much faster than even the Nvidia 8800 Ultra, at a fraction of the cost.