Big graphics card roundup

Posted on Saturday, May 10 2008 @ 10:10 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Tech Report has published a huge graphics card roundup. They've taken a look at nine single graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA and 11 multi-card solutions.
For this article, we wanted to focus more closely on the question of GPU power per dollar. To make that work, we've relied on test data from (as much as possible) clearly GPU-limited scenarios—performance results obtained at very high resolutions (most often 2560 x 1600) with some level of antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. That way, we can highlight questions of performance scaling. We can see how the cut-down shader power and memory capacities of the less expensive cards impact performance and observe how much multi-GPU solutions can distance themselves from their single-GPU brethren.

Obviously, concentrating on GPU-limited scenarios like these sidesteps the question of "playable frame rates" in today's games, as we've noted. Vast differences in GPU power may not be readily apparent at 1680x1050 in currently popular titles, but they may become very important in the future as game developers ratchet up the shader effects and scene complexity, packing more richness into each pixel. Our hope is that we can help you make a more informed evaluation of the value proposition, one that considers how your video card might serve you over its entire lifespan.
You can check it out over here. Here's a comparison of the graphics cards they tested. Overall the GeForce 9600 GT seems to be the winner, followed by the GeForce 8800 GT and a GeForce 9600 GT SLI setup.



About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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