Graphics How to compare video cards?

I'm thinking of upgrading my PCIx 6600GT to something that will actually have AA that works in games and has a bit more grunt. My local computer hardware store lists hundreds of video cards and I'm wandering if there is somewhere I can find a list that will tell me that series X is generally better than series Y. I know it's not just as simple as "the bigger the number the better"

I realise that there will be some cards that will outperform a card in a higher bracket but I'm just looking for a generalisation to start with. I'll also probably stick with nVidia as that will give me the option to SLi.

Maybe such a site should be listed in the Useful Links sticky?

 

Check Bittech reviews on hardware.

 

That's reviewing individual cards. I'm not looking to compare A vs B in the same series. I'm looking for a list of various types of cards put into some type of order. Below is a cut and paste from the website in question... The choice is kind of overwhelming.


PCI x ATI X1300
PCI x ATI X1300
PCI x ATI X1600
PCI x ATI X1650
PCI x ATI X1900
PCI x ATI X1950
PCI x ATI X550
PCI x ATI X700
PCI x ATI X800
PCI x ATI X850
PCI x NVIDIA 5900
PCI x NVIDIA 6200
PCI x NVIDIA 6600
PCI x NVIDIA 6800
PCI x NVIDIA 7100
PCI x NVIDIA 7300
PCI x NVIDIA 7600
PCI x NVIDIA 7900
PCI x NVIDIA 7950

 

with nVidia the 5xxx,6xxx and 7xxx represents a generational leap. 7 series being the strongest in their lineup at the moment. The same can be said for ATIs lineup. The X1xxx series is a generation ahead of the X*** series.

 

This much I was aware of, but was trying to find out (for example) how does a 6600GT compare to a 6800GS, 6800GT, 7800GS etc with all the 128/256/512MB variants.

I found a list here that seems to be what I'm looking for. I kind of thought that we would have this sort of thing for our members too with all the expertise available to us in our staff/members

 

The link requests log in so is of no use. Regardless here you go;

RAM: 256MB is the minimum you should consider but 512MB is still pretty much overkill and only of any real use on the fastest cards. RAM currently tends to be either 128bitDDR (eg 7600GT & X1600) or 256bitDDR (eg 7900 & X1800). 256bitDDR gives the same bandwidth at half the speed, ie 128bitDDR @1000 = 256bitDDR @500. So when looking at a card's RAM speed you need to factor in both 256bit vs 128bit as well as just the clock speed.

CORE: The core handles the processing, effectively you can think of it as the gfx card's CPU. To keep it simple the more pixel pipes (or pipelines) the more it can process in one go. Hence 8 pipes @500mhz = 16 pipes @250mhz (providing the technology remains the same). It tends to be the core which is most important for gfx card performance but you do want to give it enough memory bandwidth to ensure it can operate optimally. eg. The 7600GS has half the memory bandwidth of the 7600GT and this severely limits the card's speed, you wouldn't get near 7600GT performance levels even if you o/c'ed the 7600GS's core to the same speed as the 7600GT. If you don't follow that, don't worry. As for vertex units, generally (to keep it as simple as possible) you want enough vertex power so as to keep the pixel power at optimum levels. nVidia's pixel and vertex units are not really comparable to ATi's as both companies do the same thing but in different ways. Bottom line, an ATi card with 16 pipes and 6 vertex is not equal to an nVidia card with 16 pipies with 6 vertex even if every other spec is the same (eg 500/1400 clocks with 256bitDDR).

ON PAPER: You can get a good idea of a card's speed by looking at the technology it uses (eg GF7 or X1900), the clock speeds (RAM & core), the pipes and finally the memory width (128bit vs 256bit DDR). This works best when comparing GF6 and GF7 or different families of ATi cards (ie X1600, X1800 or X1900) but you shouldn't compare ATi to nVidia nor even X1800 to X1900. For those types of comparisons you need to check benchmarks to see how they measure up (which is the most accurate way BUT can be very time consuming).

TECHNOLOGY: ATi and nVidia do things very differently which is why you can't really compare their paper specs to each other. You can compare on paper different GF7 and even to a large degree GF6 with each other (as they are very similar) but not Radeon X1000 cards (ie GF7 and X1800 on paper). With ATi it's more complex; X1300, X1600, X1800 and X1900 take slightly different approaches so you often can't get a good idea by comparing their specs on paper. See 'Splitting Pixel Pipies' below for more detail. I find it best to check benchmarks to see how they compare to the nVidia offerings (as well as each other).

SPLITTING PIXEL PIPES: If you want to dig a little deeper you'll find nVidia split the pixel pipeline up, the 6600GT was the first card to do this as it had 8 pipes but only 4 ROPs (so could only output 4 at a time). Thankfully this seems to have virtually zero affect on performance as the pixel pipes do more than just output pixels now-a-days. As such you can simply regard it as a true 8 pipe card. High-end nVidia cards commonly have 20-24 pipes but again fewer ROPs (this time 16) but again the performance seems to be that of a true 20/24 pipe card, so you can simply dismiss it. ATi also do similar but only for some of their cards, which is one thing that makes it very hard to compare ATi cards on paper. The X1900 and X1600 cards usually have a 3:1 ratio, they have 48 pipes but only 16 texture units (or for X1600 12 and 4). This is a very forward looking design, unfortunately X1900 performance in current games is often little faster than X1800 which have an equal number of pipes and texture units (ie a 1:1 ratio, and X1300 ten to use this ratio too). To see this you can compare X1800XT to X1900XT as they are very even except for the X1900 having triple the pipes (and 3% slower RAM). Here are the specs (pick your own review at will for actual benchmarks) ...

X1800XT 625/1500 (core/RAM mhz) 16 pipes, 16 TU, 8 vertex, 256bitDDR
X1900XT 625/1450 (core/RAM mhz) 48 pipies, 16 TU, 8 vertex, 256bitDDR

 

will this be any use?

 

Now I've covered that you should understand how cards match up and differ simply by seeing them on paper as below. Please note these are reference clock speeds, there are plenty of cards which deviate either to cut costs by cutting corners (only really common in lower-end cards) or enhance clocks (esp in Special Edition or 'OC' type cards).

6600GT 500/1000 8pipes 3vertex 128bitDDR (core=4000+375 RAM=16GB/s)
6800GS 425/1000 12pipes 5vertex 256bitDDR (core=5100+531 RAM=32GB/s)
6800GT 350/1000 16pipes 6vertex 256bitDDR (core=5600+525 RAM=32GB/s)
7600GS 400/700 12pipes 5vertex 128bitDDR (core=4800+500 RAM=11GB/s)
7600GT 560/1400 12pipes 5vertex 128bitDDR (core=6720+700 RAM=22GB/s)
7900GS 450/1320 20pipes 7vertex 256bitDDR (core=9000+788 RAM=42GB/s)
7900GT 450/1300 24pipes 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=10800+900 RAM=42GB/s)
7950GT 550/1400 24pipes 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=13200+1100 RAM=45GB/s)
7900GTX 650/1600 24pipes 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=15600+1300 RAM=51GB/s)

X1600Pro 500/680 12pipes 4TU 5vertex 128bitDDR (core=6000/2000+625 RAM=11GB/s)
X1600XT 590/1380 12pipes 4TU 5vertex 128bitDDR (core=7080/2360+738 RAM=22GB/s)
X1650Pro 600/1400 12pipes 4TU 5vertex 128bitDDR (core=7200/2400+750 RAM=22GB/s)
X1800GTO 500/1000 12pipes 12TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=6000/6000+1000 RAM=32GB/s)
X1800XL 500/1000 16pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=8000/8000+1000 RAM=32GB/s)
X1800XT 625/1500 16pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=10000/10000+1250 RAM=48GB/s)
X1900GTO 500/1000 36pipes 12TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=18000/6000+1000 RAM=32GB/s)
X1900GT 575/1200 36pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=20700/6900+1150 RAM=38GB/s)
X1900XL 500/1000 48pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=24000/8000+1000 RAM=32GB/s)
X1900XT 625/1450 48pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=30000/10000+1250 RAM=46GB/s)
X1950Pro 600/1400 36pipes 12TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=21600/7200+1200 RAM=45GB/s)
X1950XTX 650/2000 48pipes 16TU 8vertex 256bitDDR (core=31200/10400+1300 RAM=64GB/s)

The 500/1200 numbers are clocks speeds (core/RAM), the numbers in brackets are the effective core and RAM speeds. The core=9000+788 refers to the pixel pipe speed '+' the vertex speed, the pixel speed is the most important. The ATi cards are quoted as 7200/2400+750 which refers to that 3:1 ratio we spoke about (3 times as many pipes as texture units). Due to many nVidia cards having fewer ROPs than pixel pipes I could have done similar for those but as mentioned earlier it doesn't reflect performance and as such IMHO it doesn't really matter. You can simplify things by simply looking at the numbers in the brackets rather than the break-down which precedes it. Remember you can compare GF6 and GF7 to each other but not to ATi's cards. Likewise it can be very hard to compare ATi's cards to each other outside of the immediate family (ie compare X1800GTO to X1800XT but not X1800GTO to X1900GTO).

Just a few comments. The 6600GT is held back a little by the slow RAM (1000mhz but 128bitDDR) so it's further away fromt he 6800GS than it looks. Quite strangely the 7600GT is faster than the 6800GT (and often 6800Ultra) despite the comparatively slow RAM (1400mhz but only 128bitDDR). The 7600GS has half the memory bandwidth of the 7600GT so it tends to be quite a lot slower. Despite being released very close together the 7900GTX is actually faster than 7950GT, the naming is quite confusing. The X1900GT breaks the 3:1 ratio common to X1900 (and X1600) which is most likely due to ATi 'binning' X1900 cores which were originally had 48 pipes with 16 TU (but now have 36 pipes with 16 TU).

Here's a rough guide to how ATi compare to nVidia. X1650Pro is even with 6600GT, X1900GT fits inbetween 7900GS and 7900GT, 7900GS sits inbetween X1800XL and X1800XT while X1900XT is even with 7900GTX. When I say ROUGH guide I mean rough, much is give and take but once you average it all out 'even' should be 'near enough'. Other factors are as follows. The Radeons can do HDR+AA simultaneously and are often considered to have superior AA+AF too. However nVidia have slightly better OpenGL drivers helping them in games which use OpenGL. When it comes to Linux support nVidia are the best choice. nVidia's cards tend to draw less power and have quieter coolers too. As for multiple GPU setups nVidia's SLI is deemed the superior solution; you don't need a special expensive Master card (which may be largely disabled) and mobos are more mature (except nF5-570 for Intel's C2D). ATi have allowed Crossfire to work on Intel's 965/975 mobos (although 965 use x16/x4 instead of x8/x8 or x16/x16). I hope that covers it.

 

what is your budget btw?

 

Thanks Austin for that fairly in depth guide. A lot went over my head but then again a lot didn't as well. I'm sure with that with time I'll understand more.

Hazza: budget will be whatever I can squeeze from my bank account ($250-$300 without too much saving). I may hold off a little at this stage and wait for prices to come down (as they continually do) and just get the best possible card I can at the time.


The link I posted above had the list below. Rankings seem to coincide with the list Austin provided and in teamtd11's link as well.

PCI-E
Nvidia Chart

1GB 7950GX2
512MB 7900GTX
512MB 7950GT
512MB 7900GT
512MB 7800GTX
256MB 7900GT
256MB 7800GTX
512MB 7900GS
256MB 7900GS
256MB 7800GT
256MB 7800GS
256MB 7600GT
256MB 7600GST
512MB 6800 Ultra
256MB 6800 Ultra
256MB 6800GT
256MB 6800GS
256MB 6800GTO
256MB 7300GT DDR3
512MB 7600GS
256MB 7600GS
256MB 6800NU
256MB? 6700XL
256MB 6600GT
128MB 6600GT
256MB 7300GT
128MB? 6610XL
128MB 7300GT
256MB 6800XT/LE
256MB 6600 DDR2
128MB 6600
256MB 7300GS ~ Turbo Cache
128MB 7300GS ~ Turbo Cache
256MB 7300LE ~ Turbo Cache
256MB 6500
128MB 6200
256MB 7100GS ~ Turbo Cache
64MB 6200 ~ Turbo Cache
32MB 6200 ~ Turbo Cache


ATi Chart

512MB x1950xtx
512MB x1950 MasterCard
512MB x1900xtx
512MB x1900 MasterCard
512MB x1900xt
512mb x1800xtpe
512mb x1800xt
256MB x1900xt
256MB x1900AIW
256MB x1900gt
512MB x1800xt
512MB x1800 CrossFire
256MB x1800xt
256MB x1800xt AIW
512MB x1800gto2
512MB x1800xl
256MB x1800xl
256MB x1800gto
256MB x850xt pe
256MB x800xt pe
256MB x850xt
256MB x800xt
256MB x850pro
512MB x800xl
256MB x800xl
256MB x800gto2
256MB x800gto 16
256MB x800pro
256MB x800gto
256MB x1600xt
256MB x1650pro
256MB x800
256MB x800gt
256MB x1300xt
256MB x1600pro
128MB x800
256MB? x740xl
256mb x700pro
256MB x1300pro
128mb x700
256MB x1300
32MB x1300HM
128MB x700le
128MB x700se
128MB x600xt
128MB x600pro
256MB x550
128MB x300
128MB x300se
32MB x300se
32MB x300se

 

Well, if you just want an upgrade (and you mean PCI-E instead of PCIx), the 7900GS at the low end and 7950GT at the high end would suit you well.

Either would let you run AA/AF at high resolutions.

I've got a 512mb 7900GT (or a GTO) that happens to run everything I have, except Oblivion at max settings, at max settings with 1600x1200 and AA/AF etc.

On ATi's side, the x1900GT at the low end and the 512mb x1900XT at the higher end would be great. The 256mb x1900XT is a great middle ground.

None of those compare to your 6600GT though.

 

go to tomshardware.com great website for batch comparisons. and budget comparisons and all that. sounds like what youre after