Hardware Performance Mainstream Graphics Update

can we have a rolling 'whats better than what' chart

kinda like http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=859&model2=722&chart=318 except with /everything/ on it - new ones go on straight away.

you said in this thread the 9600GT is 'about as fast as a 1950pro'. Now, anyone going out to buy a new card would simply assume the 9600GT would be faster! An x1950Pro only cost 100 pounds about 6 months ago!

A consistently updated chart of cards listed by performance would be really awesome. The model numbers pretty much mean nothing most of the time.


well actually i guess they did it already so why bother, but still... we all trust bit more than anyone else, right?!

 

Just to be clear, the 7900 GT is about as fast as an X1950 Pro, not a 9600 GT. The 9600 GT is about 1.7x the performance of both of them.

I'd like to do a charts, but I don't know whether it's feasible at the moment.

 

I feel very happy and content with my 8800gt I got the evga ssc and the more articles i read the more it looks like a pretty good choice

 

You doing it with HTPC use in mind?
I hope so.
I really want to build the best HTPC I can soon.
Gonna modify the retro TV in my sig with a custom made wooden cabinet and stretch it to allow a 24" widescreen.
Will need to get creative with car body filler again to make the retro front look natural when wider...

 

I am very itnerested in hearing about the video performance of the 9600GT as i am now intending to put a low power medium spec gfx card in my HTPC to play the odd racing game and audiosurf etc. Game performance is still distantly last in terms of requirements for the card though so the 3850 is currently the leader.

 

I'm thinking of buying a second XFX 9600GT to run in SLI, how do I go about getting a connector?

 

another thing i noticed about IQ with the two different companies is that ATi's later drivers help the older cards produce better images while nVidia either ignores or hinders the older cards in order to get better frames with later drivers. My 6800GT is producing more frames and lower temps on a lot of my older games (went from 50 something fps in HL2, Doom3, Riddick to the high 70 fps, temps went down too) but the image quality (especially shadows) on all of them has gone to pots where as my 9600XT has had increased frames and better image quality to the point where even at slightly lower settings, it produces more pleasing images than my 6800 rig in a side-by-side comparison. Heck, the images are better than on my 8400 GS on my laptop.

Call me paranoid, but I think nVidia is purposely doing this to get better numbers because they know that framerates sell cards and not image quality.

 

There should've been one with your motherboard if it supports SLI.

 

That's what I thought, I didn't receive one with my Asus Commando.

 

Ah, that board doesn't support SLI - it's a P965 board.

 

Indeed, I was confused by another board that I used previously.

Looks like I'll need to buy a new motherboard along with the second card.

 

Can't you get a BIOS of Xtreme Systems that allows SLi? (I thought there was one)

 

Drivers used in tests

The drivers that the 9600GT used is the latest one, which could give edges to 9600GT in performance.

Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT 512MB – operating at 650/1,625/1,800MHz using Forceware 174.12 beta
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB – operating at 600/1,500/1,800MHz using Forceware 169.28 beta
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS 384MB – operating at 550/1,375/1,600MHz using Forceware 169.32 WHQL
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB – operating at 675/1,674/1,940MHz using Forceware 169.28 beta

 

They were the latest available drivers for each particular card at the time of testing.

 

Question for the staff : -

Why do you use Vista 32bit on all the test rigs when it appears on the forums that Vista 64bit is the Vista OS of choice?

 

For the time being, Vista 32 is more stable when it comes to early drivers and what not... I've tried moving to Vista 64 for testing, but there are a lot of headaches involved with early drivers. We've already transitioned CPU testing, but we're still not comfortable with graphics and motherboards.