PCI-Express Interface
Best PCI-E Card For Under $100: Special Mention
| Radeon X1950 PRO | |
|---|---|
| Codename | RV570 |
| Process | 90 nm |
| Pixel Shaders | 36 |
| Vertex Shaders | 8 |
| Texture Units | 12 |
| ROPs | 12 |
| Memory Bus | 256 bit |
| Core Speed MHz | 575 |
| Memory Speed MHz | 690 (1380 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 9.0c / SM 3.0 |
I've seen the Jetway X1950 PRO on Newegg for $90: this is an incredible price for a solid card. The rest of the X1950 PROs are in the $170 range right now, so $90 it's the best deal I've seen in a very long time. It's probably not going to last for long, but it's important enough to mention - once they're gone, the best you can do is the Radeon 2600 XT or Geforce 8600 GT GDDR3 listed below.
Best PCI-E Card For Under $100: Tie
| Radeon HD 2600 XT | |
|---|---|
| Codename | RV630 |
| Process | 65 nm |
| Universal Shaders | 128 |
| Texture Units | 8 |
| ROPs | 4 |
| Memory Bus | 128 bit |
| Core Speed MHz | 800 |
| Memory Speed MHz | 700 (1400 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10 / SM 4.0 |
The performance of the 2600 XT is very close to that of the GeForce 8600 GT, but the 2600 XT has a performance edge when antialiasing is disabled. Although the GeForce seems to lead when antialiasing is turned on, it's not much of a real-world advantage, since neither card can effectively use 4x AA beyond 1024x768.
| GeForce 8600 GT | |
|---|---|
| Codename | G84 |
| Process | 80 nm |
| Universal Shaders | 32 |
| Texture Units | 16 |
| ROPs | 8 |
| Memory Bus | 128 bit |
| Core Speed MHz | 540 |
| Memory Speed MHz | 700 (1400 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10 / SM 4.0 |
The 8600 GT was a terrible buy at $150, but now that it's under the $100 price point, it is much more attractive. The 8600 GT will slightly beat the old 7600 GT and X1650 XT in raw performance in the sub-$100 price category. In addition to speed, the 8600 GT has the added bonus of being DirectX 10 compatible, as well as being a good overclocker.
NOTE: Avoid the DDR2 versions of the 8600 GT! The GDDR3 versions are the recommended cards, DDR2 equipped 8600 GTs will be notably slower.
Latest Graphics Cards News
- 05/20 – Qualcomm Hires Former AMD CTO Demers
- 05/18 – Nvidia Responds to GeForce 600 Series V-Sync Stuttering Issue
- 05/17 – Behold: Here Are The First Unreal Engine 4 Screens
- 05/17 – Nvidia Debuts GK110-based 7.1 Billion Transistor Super GPU
- 05/17 – GE Announces Kepler Graphics Card for Military and Aviation
Latest Graphics Cards reviews
- 05/10 – GeForce GTX 670 2 GB Review: Is It Already Time To Forget GTX...
- 05/09 – Best Graphics Cards For The Money: May 2012
- 05/09 – Video Teaser: Radeon HD 7800 Series Remains A Solid Value
- 05/08 – Benchmarking AMD's 768-Shader Pitcairn: Not For Public...
- 05/03 – GeForce GTX 690 Review: Testing Nvidia's Sexiest...
i have ati 9550 and im gonna buy the agp 8x 3850 512mb radeon, i was trying to figure out how many fps i will get with the change of these cards iv got my pc overclock at 3.000 mhz i got 800 fsb i got 1.5gig ram 3200 and got that overclock from 400mhz to 440mhz and i use a ram releaseso ram never runs out, at the moment i got the 9550 ati over clocked from 250 core too 420 and memory from 200 to 230,
Cheers Woli.
I should be able to see a massive improvement for just £45 if I replace my original GeForce FX 5500 (256MB) with a 8600 GT 512MB or 8600 GTS 256MB...But which is best, a 512MB GT or a 256MB GTS?
Anything else I'd need to improve for under £50? Anything else I need to know?
...Anyone?