The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: April 2008

wow

anyone get the hint of bias??? i mean cmon im seeing alot of nvidia cards and what 2 ati???

3870s in crossfire is superior to 9600gts in sli

on the 3dmark ORB site the 9600gt max is 20513

the 3870s around 25000-29000

i dont mind the other results...but that one kinda ticked me off

and im talking pci-e agp doesnt really matter imo

I've said this for the last 3 months.

THE FAN ON THE 8800GTS IS AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE 8800GT.

This article is supposed to be a quick resource for people not wanting to do all the research to find the best card. Is one sentence about the fan really that difficult to include?

Why didn't the 9800 GTX make it on the comparison chart?

Yes, I noticed that as well.

It's listed that way on the hierchy chart too.

But that is not always an option.

In general Boards can do SLI or CF but not both.
Many boards only have a single fast PCI-E port, so neither CF nor SLI will be an option.

They need to cover all three bases.
It would not be uncommon for somebody looking to upgrade their GPU that they don't want to upgrade their mobo.

Then the GX2 is STILL a bad price/performance investment compared to a single GTS 512. Just because it's faster doesn't mean it's a good buy.

I'm making recommendations here based on price/performance, and the GX2 is overpriced plain and simple.

What's up with the 8800 GT recommendation? Why not go with 8800 GTS G92 512MB? I guess I should go do the price research, but I thought these were DAMN close in price.

After reading reviews on video cards here, namely, ATI's 1950XT and Nvidia's 8800GT. I am convinced our friends here at Tom's are hard of hearing...

Strange the 9800GTX was not mentioned as a single card configuration.

In the comparison Chart, I recommend The Mobility 2600, Mobility 2600xt, as well as the g8600gt/ 8700gt be moved up one tier. I have a laptop with a 2600 (standard version), and it performs just slightly below what my x1900 AIW is capable of producing at stock at xt speeds(4400 3dmark06, with a comparatively lame processor). It is pretty well known that the 2600 is the competitor to the 8600gt, so they should be at the same level by that virtue.

I was not stating it's a good deal.

I was just commenting that somebody was thinking one card was not included because it's inferior to a dual card setup. In some cases that makes sense. In cases where SLI is not an option, it would not.

I agree that the GX2 is overpriced at the moment.

what about 34xx?

So all the fans on all the models of 8800GT's are loud? I find that hard to believe................

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127329
Excellent fan on a 8800GT as an example.

I hear you Zen, just explaining where I was coming from.

Peace out!

Not to be too critical but since the 8800GS can also be had for under $100 after a MIR wouldn't that mean it'd be the best card for under and around $100? I'm not saying that it's the cats pajamas but it's a pretty darn good card for the money and it sure is faster than the 8600GTS and 2600XT. Super cheap cards aren't supposed to be super great, but for the money it packs quite the punch.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150275

Sure would!

Couldn't find it for that price a few weeks ago when i wrote the article though.

And yes, rebates don't count. Sales do though, if you can buy it for the price, then that's the price it is... but rebates are a pain in the arse, and I've head too many horror stories to take them into account.

I honestly can say that this all needs to be taken with a grain of salt... the "best for the money" isn't exactly lined up to be the greatest article due to perspective (meaning what you want out of a card/system). and i have a few reasons to back this up.

first off, the system. not the best in the world... but great for the price right now.

gigabyte ga-m57sli-s4 motherboard, 570 chipset, bout 90 bucks
2 gigs gskill ram, about 30-45 depending on sale
amd x2 5000+ black edition (2.6ghz), 80-90 bucks and oc-able to 3.2
ati, gigabyte hd 3870, gddr3 zaleman cooler, nwn2 packaged, and all the connectors i would expect.
samsung hd of some sort or another.
arctic cooling freezer pro 64.

It's good hardware, especially for the price.
I've run tests/demo's on everything and oc'd and tweaked and what not, but before i did any of that... I did what any good gamer does... I installed every game i could get my filthy paws on. And after reading benchmarks for several months, figuring out the best card to fit my build budget... i picked this one... and for some reason, I'm hitting higher fps at same settings than most of them posted on web sites? Could it be drivers? could it be different versions of any given game? I dunno, but honestly... i'm killing every game i touch.... I hit Crysis demo, at 30-50 fps and never dropped below 25 at 1280x1024, no AA, and EVERYTHING turned up to max. From what i've seen online, this is above average... and i keep increasing the rez to see how it does.
I also get better results in oblivion than on the toms vga charts... so like i said, grain of salt... and after getting this amd proc and seeing what intel can do... i must say, i'm really impressed with amd's main stream lineup. it really is just great. And after buying ati and starting to whip their drivers back up to par... i'm not dissatisfied one bit. (save for the lack of linux drivers thus far... but nvidia doesn't have next gen drivers either... so either way i'd be screwed)
anyway, happy buying... i'm off now

PS: newegg seems to no longer cary the gigabyte hd 3870 with zaleman cooler. I suggest the -B version, 10-20 more expensive and only found on other sites such as zipzoomfly.com... i really did like the ultra durable design... and the ultra low price. most places sell it for 300 or more (retards) anyway. enjoy.

I agree. This statement is HIGHLY suspect.

What about the recent price drops for the 8800gtx? I realize they prolly weren't available for this article, but the "king" that all recent cards are compared to has to be a compelling option in the 300 dollar price range.

As in the best card for $650- 2 8800gtx's in sli!
Or just a single GTX for $330.

I'm reminded of an article I read today (CPU magazine) in which an overclocked 8800gt was beat in every benchmark they ran against a stock 8800gtx. Not by much, but still faster..

never dropped below 25 at 1280x1024, no AA, and EVERYTHING turned up to max

Highlighted are the reasons I have trouble believing the post.

Let me get this straight:

You haven't tested a cheaper 9600 GT in your system... but you're saying that the article needs to be taken with a grain of salt because you like the way your 3870 performs?

There is a pretty huge flaw in your logic here, dude. Nobody is saying the 3870 performs poorly: but I am sure as hell suggesting in the article that, yes, the 9600 GT is cheaper and faster with AA applied. Without AA applied it's pretty damn close.

So you're saying the 9600 GT isn't a better buy because you think people should spend more on a 3870 for similar performance... worse, with AA applied?

I'm sorry, but I think your post is what needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Test/compare a cheaper 9600 GT in your system with Crysis and then you're words will have some weight; otherwise all you're doing is justifying your purchase, not recommending the best you can get for the dollar.


And for the record, a Q6700 oc'd to 3.6 GHz paired with an OC'd 8800 GTX managed to pull 33.54 fps in the Crysis CPU_benchmark 1280x1024... on HIGH detail, not VERY HIGH. VERY HIGH detail would have kicked the FPS down at least 5 - 10 fps on this rig.

There is no way in hell an Athlon64/3870 combo is pulling 30fps average at Very High detail, 1280x1024. This rig is twice as powerful as that.

Maybe it's getting an average 30 fps if the character is standing around, there's no AI players anywhere, and they're watching a rock? How is this system being benchmarked to get this number? Did you use a timedemo, or FRAPS? Or are you guesstimating?

@ Cleeve
Wow i don't envy you your job it just keeps snowballing. Pretty soon you are gonna need to include onboard chipsets with various additional cards, Tri SLI and Hybrid Crossfire/CrossfireX solutions.
I hope you are going to get additional resources as it would be a pity to see "The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money " feature suffer due to the increased work load.
I for one appreciate the work that goes into supplying us with this quick reference guide and would rather it went to every two months if need be to keep the quality and depth of the article.
Thanks again
Mactronix

Well the cynics amongst us would say that just isn't worth inputting in any category for the best Gfx cards for the money

More realistically it's much more likely that as it was only released on the 1st it just missed being placed in this months list, which is why it doesn't feature in the comparison table.