Best Graphics Cards For The Money: Feb. '09

[cleeve]

This month, Don adds Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 295 to the top of his Best Graphics Cards column. Additionally, a number of significant price drops shake up the order of things. Plus, we now provide links to the best prices we find on Newegg.

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: Feb. '09 : Read more

 

[romulus47plus1]

Woo! Tomshardware's been sponsored by Newegg! I wonder if that's the reason why it took so long for them to come out with this month's best bang of the buck. And looks like Tom's love AGP no more.

 

[xx12amanxx]

Alot of performance for soo little cash have to thank AMD for that!

 

[Silluete]

my his radeon hd 4650 just arrive (after 2 times rma) , never see such a performance from $62 bucks card, i even can run assain creed at (almost)max setup without any hassle ^^

 

[rlevitov]

actually i have a 42" monitor and the 4670 doing great in most titles at 1920*1080 so who needs nore

 

[romulus47plus1]

[citation][nom]rlevitov[/nom]actually i have a 42" monitor and the 4670 doing great in most titles at 1920*1080 so who needs nore[/citation]

Try running it with a Geforce 285 and see the difference

 

[sstym]

I fully expected to see two Radeon 4830 in crossfire configuration in the $200 price bracket. Is it an omission or did they deliberately scratch it? They were the ones praising the capabilities of such a setup.

 

[Tindytim]

You screwed up the GeForce 9800 GTX+ specifications on page 3.

Apparently it's 55 nm, runs DX 10.1, and was codenamed RV770

 

[ilikesoup]

I just took a look at newegg, and there is only 1 ATI 4870 card under $200, also it's only a 512mb version, at least all of the 4870x2 cards are 2gb (1gb effective). Even the 4870 card they link to in the article is $229. Did we miss a big price cut that has been reversed since the article was written?

 

[JeanLuc]

[citation][nom]ilikesoup[/nom]I just took a look at newegg, and there is only 1 ATI 4870 card under $200, also it's only a 512mb version, at least all of the 4870x2 cards are 2gb (1gb effective).[/citation]

They said in the article prices were likely to change so the prices at the time of writing may still not be there at the time of publication.

 

[JeanLuc]

Also I thought the 4870X2 could address all of it's Vram and that the issue with the memory had been resolved with the updated Crossfire bridge chip.

 

[JPForums]

It seems Tom's disagrees with their own assessment in the graphics hierarchy (at least in one case). In the Graphics charts it seems that the GeForce 8800GTS 512Mb outperforms the Radeon HD4850 512Mb in the majority of benchmarks including the sum total at given resolutions. However, in this chart the HD4850 is considered a level above the 8800GTS. With all the sites that show the HD4850 beating the 9800GTX(+), I was inclined to disregard the charts.

Coincidentally, I own both an HD4850 and an OCed 8800GTS 512Mb. I got the HD4850 thinking it would give me 9800GTX level performance. At 1680x1050, the 8800GTS actually gets slightly higher frames per second. At the end of the day, both cards give me the same gaming experience.

So it seems that Tom's graphics charts were more in line with my experience (which leads me to wonder what they are using for there hierarchy chart as it disagrees in this regard). The HD4850 only pulls slightly ahead at 1920x1200 w/AA in the charts, so its only better at high resolutions with AA.

 

[sublifer]

[citation][nom]sstym[/nom]I fully expected to see two Radeon 4830 in crossfire configuration in the $200 price bracket. Is it an omission or did they deliberately scratch it? They were the ones praising the capabilities of such a setup.[/citation]

I also noticed it was left out... I would think that a pair of 4830's would outperform a 4870 512MB version and only lose to the 1GB version at the highest resolutions. Of course I own neither but I am curious to know if thats the case.

What do you think Don, is a pair of 4830's worthwhile or does the GDDR3 hurt its performance enough to not be worth the mention against the 4870?

 

[billiardicus]

[citation][nom]JPForums[/nom]It seems Tom's disagrees with their own assessment in the graphics hierarchy (at least in one case). In the Graphics charts it seems that the GeForce 8800GTS 512Mb outperforms the Radeon HD4850 512Mb in the majority of benchmarks including the sum total at given resolutions. However, in this chart the HD4850 is considered a level above the 8800GTS. With all the sites that show the HD4850 beating the 9800GTX(+), I was inclined to disregard the charts.Coincidentally, I own both an HD4850 and an OCed 8800GTS 512Mb. I got the HD4850 thinking it would give me 9800GTX level performance. At 1680x1050, the 8800GTS actually gets slightly higher frames per second. At the end of the day, both cards give me the same gaming experience.So it seems that Tom's graphics charts were more in line with my experience (which leads me to wonder what they are using for there hierarchy chart as it disagrees in this regard). The HD4850 only pulls slightly ahead at 1920x1200 w/AA in the charts, so its only better at high resolutions with AA.[/citation]

Yeah, I noticed this too.

 

[mmc4587]

Funny HOW NewEGG prices have increased $20 for the first 2 reccomendations...

 

[Stillglade]

If Tom's was shocked at seeing a 4850 X2 at $260, I wonder what they think about it being available at the egg for $225 after rebate. The 2GB version is $260 after rebate from Amazon.com - I wonder where they would fit in given the new prices. The 4850 X2 for $225 would explain the omission of a 4830 crossfire setup.

 

[billiardicus]

I agree that the 4850x2 1gb, and 4850x2 2gb are awesome on paper, but I won't buy either. I can only find the Saphire version of this card available, and if you check out the reviews on Newegg, 19% of the buyers give it 1 or 2 eggs(2gb version). The biggest complaint is driver issues (Saphire has to release the driver, and they're always late) and horrible customer service. THIS IS WHY THEY ARE SO CHEAP.

I think Tom's should consider this stuff before recommending GPU's.

 

[Onus]

I see that many of the ATI and nVidia IGPs are on the chart, but where do the Intel Graphics Media Deccelerators fit in? Are they so low as to be in the dungeon beneath the chart?
It doesn't matter at all for the [semi] gaming rigs most of us seem to be building, but for cheap general and/or business use, it would be nice information to have.

 

[Onus]

Oh, and rlevitov you may have a point. I probably didn't really need that 4850 that I've got waiting to install...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]Tindytim[/nom]You screwed up the GeForce 9800 GTX+ specifications on page 3.Apparently it's 55 nm, runs DX 10.1, and was codenamed RV770[/citation]

Fixed

 

[Snillet]

I thought that the GTX 295 is only about 5-15% more powerful than my hot 4870X2, since that is about the same amount the GTX 260 get's beaten by the 4850 - How come the GTX 295 sits a porch above the 4870X2?

The performance gap i even smaller after the 8.12 Hotfix.
Guess I'm fighting over cold heatsinks...

Additionally, I think I feel good about you leaving AGP out of the picture, as that standard's getting close to five years old.
Five years, almost as if we were buying 130nm parts today... (2000-2001)

Oh wait - the X58!

 

[belial2k]

So I guess the question now is will two 4850x2 in quad crossfire beat the gtx295 for about the same price?

 

[belial2k]

So I guess the question now is will two 4850x2 in quad crossfire beat the gtx295 for about the same price?

 

[KyleSTL]

I see that many of the ATI and nVidia IGPs are on the chart, but where do the Intel Graphics Media Deccelerators fit in? Are they so low as to be in the dungeon beneath the chart?
It doesn't matter at all for the [semi] gaming rigs most of us seem to be building, but for cheap general and/or business use, it would be nice information to have.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing two months ago, and sent a PM to chris asking if an article could be written comparing all the IGPs and also against mainstream and high-end GPUs of yesteryear. I think it would be cool, but don't have the time or money to devote to investigating/writing it.

 

[curnel_D]

[citation][nom]billiardicus[/nom]I agree that the 4850x2 1gb, and 4850x2 2gb are awesome on paper, but I won't buy either. I can only find the Saphire version of this card available, and if you check out the reviews on Newegg, 19% of the buyers give it 1 or 2 eggs(2gb version). The biggest complaint is driver issues (Saphire has to release the driver, and they're always late) and horrible customer service. THIS IS WHY THEY ARE SO CHEAP.I think Tom's should consider this stuff before recommending GPU's.[/citation]
This was addressed in the latest ATI driver. 9.1 supports it now.