A Look at the Budget cards by Anand

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

You may or may not have seen this already, but if not it's a good bit of information for people looking at the value and mid-level markets.

The FX5900XT is missing (being a recent addition), but there is the usual suspects for the most part.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1933" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1933</A>


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

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[HardWareBoss]

Their still better off buying a TI4200.

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Those are deffinately "budget" cards

<b>I help because you suck.</b>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

The only good thing about Radeon 9600SE is, it never gets beaten by Radeon 9200SE.

Many time R9200 beats 9600SE and GF4 Ti4200 completely destroys it. This article gives strong reasons to stay 100 miles away from SE cards.

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[TheGreatGrapeApe]

But by the same token, turn on the AA/AF and the GF4ti will lose to the R9600SE on many occasions. Stange since people would think that the limited mem. bandwidth would cripple the SE even further, yet the efficiency/strength of ATI's methods makes up for that and more. But too often with the AA/AF on you are in the area of unplayable frames, regardless of how they compare to other cards. Although notice TRON 2.0 the R9600SE has 17.6 FPS (just over half that of the R9600Pro) which is very close to the FX5600Ultra, and well above the FX5200, and GF4ti. But it's nothing to trumpet, just an example.

Still it's not a GREAT card, but it is in that area of not quite as good as the GF4ti, but better than many of the plain R9000/9100/9200s. Also this review isn't completely rreflective of many thers out there (but does share alot of commonalities). I have seen the R9600SE do a little better, and unfortunately they didn't show any overclocking gains like I've seen on some, but that benifit is really game dependant (more core dependant than mem).


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

<b>-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

But by the same token, turn on the AA/AF and the GF4ti will lose to the R9600SE on many occasions.

That <b>is</b> true, but these cards still arent able to run AA/AF with any playable framerates(not by my standard at least) anyways.

<b>I help because you suck.</b>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

OH definitely, like I said, too often these gains are in the region of unplayable frames.

The only one that's even close to playable would be UT2K3 (other than Simcity, which I don't count), but even then 30fps is very slow (especially when compared to the top cards 100)+. You also see terrible results like Jedi Knight. Homeworld though shows a serious issue for the FX5200U.

The one thing I like about it is that this review tends to prove that there is no single benchmark that predicts the performance of all cards.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

<b>-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

The one thing I like about it is that this review tends to prove that there is no single benchmark that predicts the performance of all cards

And I think the community has given up on finding one....

<b>I help because you suck.</b>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yeah I don't think there will be another tool like 3Dmk01. 3Dmk03 exposes some performance areas that cards do well in and poorly in, but how that translates to more recent games varies so much that you really have to know where the game stresses a card, and the only way to find out is to bench it and THEN compare it to other tests, and by that time you have a benchmark for the game in question.

Now it requires a game suite to even come close to getting a more global idea of gaming performance for each card. And when the architectures diverge even more in the next gen. it may get even harder. The additional vertex engine on the FX5700U makes for interesting displays even against the FX5900, but then the addition of cheaper full featured cards like the FX5900SE/XT/LX makes it a jumbled group.

In order for people to make their decision they need to now do their OWN research because the info and prices change faster than the leaders. Sure last week the R9600PRO was once of the best deals out there, but now it has stiff competition from the FX5900XT, which at 'msrp' vs 'msrp' blows it out of the water in many areas. But not all R9600Pro are selling anywhere near $199 MSRP. $149 now is more realistic, so then you have to base the value of the diff. in performance. Not an easy task for the best of us, and nOObs are just gonna get overwhelmed IMO. Anyone who buys an FX5700U at full price is really missing out on a better deal the way I see it.



- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

<b>-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

I know....there are alot of crazy cards that can be had in the $200 dollar price range....lots of sales happening. I havent seen anything like this in a long time.

<b>I help because you suck.</b>

 

[cleeve]

The one thing I like about it is that this review tends to prove that there is no single benchmark that predicts the performance of all cards.

Amen to that, although I find that differentiating cards into price points allows for some generalizations:

Anything under $50 is NOT going to play contemporary games well

Telling people that the Geforce4Ti 4200 is the best <$100 buy out there is probably the longest-standing TRVTH in the graphics card world.

And in the $100 to $150 range, what is better than the Radeon 9600 PRO?

The $150-$200 range becomes quite muddled with the 9600XT, fx5700 ULTRA, and fx5900SE/XT/Non-ultra. I don't think you can lose with any of these cards though, but it's in this range that buying the right card for your game suite is probably the most important.

All of this makes me think that the BEST way to judge a video card you're considering buying is if there was a database that ranked video card performance based on individual games... say the top 500 selling titles.

Then when it was time to upgrade, you'd reference database by looking at the titles you currently own and the ones you were considering buying, and use that information to decide which card is for you.

Today's video game engines are now coded so vastly, completely, and utterly differently that this type of system is quickly becoming necessary.

With this method, 3dMark would be instantly useless. And that's probably not a bad thing, if you think about it...

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[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I like 3Dmark, but mainly for my own comparisons of overclocks and driver tweaks (and the occasional duel with GW). I agree something like Extremetech's GameGuage works better than just one test based on even a few engines. A larg variety of ever evolving tests becomes a good thing. Bench mark suite #2 may contain Halo, Tomb Raider, MaxPayne2, plus a few synthetic benchies, then a few month's later enter test suite #3 which hase HL2, Halo, Deus Ex2, COD, etc. dropping one or two titles along the way. Gives one a general impression.

I think the 150-200 field also includes the rare R9800, but even that's such an 'oddity' to skew any buying recommendations. But yeah for price ranges we get better ideas because the cards can come down in price, yet they won't change class/category (entery, mid-level, enthusiast, etc.), and if you find one on sale then woohoo. I agree the R9600Pro is still the best in it's range, but the R9600XT is competiting with a card that really is being sold short to win that market segment (just like the R9500Pro). The only problem with the FX5900SE/XT is that it's so close to an R9800NonP, so even that segment could be even harder to decide if the range is extended only slightly.

None the less a good time to spend little money for GOOD cards, the FX5600UREV.1 is just a memory.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

<b>-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

But yeah for price ranges we get better ideas because the cards can come down in price, yet they won't change class/category (entery, mid-level, enthusiast, etc.)

<b>NO!!!</b> I paid $199 for my card, which is in the midrange price bracket, which makes it a midrange card, which <b>gives me</b> the highest scoring 3DMark03 mid range card in the THG community :lol:

<b>I help because you suck.</b>