Earlier today, I was reading the Winter 2008 Graphics Performance Update. First off, great article. It is really helping me a lot in making my decisions about upgrades. However, I thought of one thing that I thought of that would be very nice to have, but wasn't included in the article. That is a chart/graph showing how much each frame costs for all of the current graphics cards. Basically, this would result in a Price vs Performance layout. To remedy this lacking of the article, I set out to create one myself. I used the average frames per second that was given for each game, and each card, and typed them into a table in Microsoft Excel. It was time consuming (took me about 3 hours to finish...haha), but I believe that it is well worth it. After I had all the data, I got on Newegg.com and found the cheapest of each of the cards listed. I used the prices that I found to make my table. Now enough of my rambling... Below are the cards that I used the prices for, and below that is the table. NVIDIA Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 896MB Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB ATI ATI Radeon 4870 X2 2GB ATI Radeon 4850 X2 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Dollars Per Frame: Average Frame Rate: By my analysis, at the following price ranges, the corresponding card is the best bang for the buck: Price: $150-200 Resolution: 1280x1024 Card: 4870 512mb Resolution: 1680x1050 Card: 4870 512mb Resolution: 1920x1200 Card: 4870 512mb Resolution: 2560x1600 Card: 4870 512mb OR 4850 512mb $150-200 Summary I would recommend only buying the cards in this category when gaming at resolutions of 1680x1050 or lower. Price: $200-300 Resolution: 1280x1024 Card: GTX 260 896mb Resolution: 1680x1050 Card: GTX 260 896mb Resolution: 1920x1200 Card: 4870 1gb Resolution: 2560x1600 Card: 4870 1gb $200-300 Summary Despite what has been said as of late in this price range, of the 4870 1gb being the "only choice", I believe that it is really the "only choice" at resolutions of 1920x1200 and higher. Also, for games like Crysis, I would recommend upping your payment and buying a card in one of the next categories. Price: $300-400 Resolution: 1280x1024 Card: 4850 X2 2gb Resolution: 1680x1050 Card: 4850 X2 2gb Resolution: 1920x1200 Card: 4850 X2 2gb Resolution: 2560x1600 Card: GTX 280 1gb $300-400 Summary The best bang for the buck in this category through most resolutions is the 4850 X2. However, I know that many among us are reluctant to use a dual GPU setup. If that is the case, the GTX 280 is still a great choice, trailing only a little behind the 4850 X2 in performance but it costs $65 more. Price: $400+ Resolution: 1280x1024 Card: 4870 X2 2gb Resolution: 1680x1050 Card: 4870 X2 2gb Resolution: 1920x1200 Card: 4870 X2 2gb Resolution: 2560x1600 Card: 4870 X2 2gb $400+ Summary Once you reach this price range, if you want a single card, the only choice is the AMD Flagship card, the 4870 X2. This card is one of the few on the market that maintains a playable framerate at 2560x1600 in most games (even Crysis DirectX 10, with no AA). My own Conclusion: I hope that this information is helpful to all of you on Bit-Tech.net. If you have any questions or requests, please feel free to reply or PM me. Also, if you have some information to share, please post so that we can all benefit. I will add any helpful information to this post as it comes. Good luck to all of you in your builds, mods, and in all aspects of your life! Thank you for all that you do!
Min fps is more important than average once you reach playable average fps, but you don't mention min fps at all?
I was actually thinking of make a thread on the Forum Suggestions section about regular price-performance comparisons. If you look at the following two (rather dated) articles, you will know what it is that I would like to see on bit-tech: CPU: Value Angle: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14756/1 GFX: Value Angle: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14686 The Average Scatter graphs are really cool. I think I'll post the suggestion soon then.
No problem! Does anyone else have a problem with the links? Would you like me to add in the same type of charts, but with the min fps? I was originally thinking of doing that, but all of the graphics cards seemed to be very close together, so i changed to the average Thanks If someone could link me to each of the graphics cards with UK prices, I would be glad to add them. I would be glad to add in a scatter plot. It wouldn't be too hard.
Thank you Asulc for your significant contribution. I have suggested that bit-tech implement this idea in a monthly article: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=161619 The result would be extremely useful articles which are updated monthly (much like the current "What Should I Buy" articles).
I feel that there needs to be more to this...I would like your input on my plans to add to this thread. 1) Same information, but with British pounds also involved 2) Add in the price per frame for the minimum frame rate of each card 3) Create graphs of the data...wondering what kind of graph though (bar, scatter, etc) 4) Any other ideas you have? Please comment on any or all of my ideas. I would like to know what the users on Bit-Tech want to see! Thank you!
this information is somewhat useful BUT: it's really hard to directly relate the quantitative value (the price of the card) with the qualitative value (fps and image quality) in a direct sense. what I'm saying is that it would be more worth while to pick a card that gets the gets the frame rate you desire or runs at an image quality you can handle. With this data you'll find out some obvious things A) high end cards are very overpriced for their performance advantage B) performance per dollar is always skewed towards the low end. you do have this graph broken down into categories, but I wouldn't be surprised if it favours cards towards the lower end of the price bracket. personally I pick a price point I'm willing to pay then get the card that gives the best fps at the resolution I game at.
I agree with what you say metarinka, but I think this is another valuable source for the decision of what to buy - if you're working on a strict budget, then this kind of info is incredibly useful, especially for people who make systems for others. OTOH, it's useful to have data on what card gives what framerate too, which is what reviews give us.
excellent, this demonstrates how many great cards there are around at the moment, thanks for your efforts
Graphs you say?! Price/frame. Average FPS. Grouped as: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, 1920x1200. Couldn't be assed adding labels in crappy Excel. Should've used matlab I s'pose.
Hey sorry that I didn't get around to making the charts myself. Thank you for doing that for me! I am currently snowed in here in the good ole US of A. School was cancelled today and might be tomorrow as well.
That would be a great choice. I would highly recommend (and I believe that in saying this I have the backing of bit-tech) the 1gb version.
Yep! I was thinking of a scatter graph like the one here: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14686/9 Great work guys!