Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September '09

[cleeve]

Welcome to the September 2009 issue of Best Graphics Cards for the Money. This month we discuss the forthcoming Radeon HD 5000-series and consider its impact on our recommendations in the months to come. As always, prices are on the move!

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September '09 : Read more

 

[dirtmountain]

Still the best monthly feature here at Tom's and the hierarchy chart is a great reference list. As always a great job.

 

[doomtomb]

I agree, a good article but really there is nothing new to report. The graphics card market has been very stagnant for the past year... We want 5XXX and 3XX series please.

 

[drealar]

I have always browse through first 3 pages and the hierarchy page ONLY Yeah call me cheapskate Oh well I'm always on a budget for everything.

Anyway was it last month or earlier did Tom's update the hierarchy chart with 'discrete','integrated','mobile' tags?
Didn't notice it till today, and I found it very useful for quick lookup.

 

[haplo602]

adding the best price listings just hit you in the face ... 9600GT 129.99$ talk about cheap cards ...

 

[Proximon]

GTX 260 is out of the picture I see. I had to go check prices for myself and sure enough NVidia seems to be having trouble competing. Hopefully they'll have something going by next month.

 

[dirtmountain]

There's only a few games where i'd pop for the extra $20 or $30 for a Nvidia card right now, and only for the games (WoW is one) where Nvidia has a large edge.

 

[anamaniac]

Just waiting for the 5xxx already...
My main concern.. What will the power consuption of the 5870 be?
Will I need a new PSU just to use one, nevermind crossfire?

I bought a 4870 1GB, but I regret not getting a 4890. =/

Is it me, or, other than a few prices, this chart hasn't changed in a long long time? (excluding 4770)

 

[dragoon190]

The lower part of the hierarchy chart looks messy...

Are they really offering that many varieties of mobile graphic cards out on the market at the moment?

 

[neiroatopelcc]

@ Cleeve : Two things :

1) page 1 : "The flagship will of course would be the Radeon HD 5870 X2" not brillaintly written.

2) Are you sure all those dual card setups with 512mb memory are actually a good recommendation? I know you're recommending them every month, but still. Even my single 4870 is appearently more often limited by its 512 memory than it is by computation power - and crossfire only adds computation power. Sure it'll add more fps in most games, but as you often point out yourself, the improvement is only relevant if it's improving the gameplay experience.

 

[maulataur1]

I found an XFX 4870x2 for $299 at mwave.com about a month ago. I wasn't looking for a new card but I immediately purchased it when I saw it. Replaced my 8800GT.

 

[knekker]

what do they mean with Discrete, when they write "Discrete: HD 4850 X2" any able to enlighten me?

 

[IronRyan21]

[citation][nom]knekker[/nom]what do they mean with Discrete, when they write "Discrete: HD 4850 X2" any able to enlighten me?[/citation]

Discrete: Separate; distinct; individual; Non-continuous. All Video Cards are discrete. The only video that isn't, is called "integrated" graphics, like Intel GMA. Some Mobos have Integrated, some dont. Integrated is built in with the mobo and already has a VGA or DVI port.

 

[micky_lund]

ok i have a question....where it always says "cards in SLI offer advantages in titles that run better with Nvidia's GT200 architecture" , what games actually run better for Nvidia ? and what games are favored for ATi

any help...
MICK

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]micky_lund[/nom]ok i have a question....where it always says "cards in SLI offer advantages in titles that run better with Nvidia's GT200 architecture" , what games actually run better for Nvidia ? and what games are favored for ATi any help...MICK[/citation]
Check out the i5 platform comparison by Chris. That clearly sais that, at least in the games they tested, sli scales a lot better than cf. Ofc. most ati cards perform better than nvidia ones (taking price into account), but they don't scale as well.
Typical scaling for sli I'd say would be around 30-50% more performance (ie 130-150% of single card performance), and for cf it's often more like 20-40% or something. It's highly dependant on the game, resolution and driver though, so it's like impossible to say. In genenral games with the 'nvidia' logo in the intro are supposed to work better with sli than cf, but even that isn't always the case.

 

[masterjaw]

Nice article. Still no big news since the release of the ATI 4800 series, just miniature price adjustments.

 

[mikepaul]

I think there should be a new user category for GPU apps like BadaBoom: Crunchers. Like Gamers, they want a GPU that screams through whatever they throw at it. Rating new video cards on the apps they run will be easier when the universal GPU API eventually launches, but knowing how well the existing card-specific apps work will help some of us out...

 

[theubersmurf]

I can't understand why you couldn't have waited a pair of days for the new radeons to be released so that they could be included in your review (should they make the cut).

 

[grimrod518]

I am curious as to why there has been no listing for 8800GT 512MB SLI on the performance charts in a long time. I have 1 rig with 2 of those oldies but goodies and am curious as to where they stack up so I can determine if it's time to replace them

 

[streak]

I'm still amazed the venerable 8800GTX sits so high up in the hierarchy chart after almost three years. It has served me very well and despite the excellent pricing over the past several months on some great cards like the 4870 and GTX 260, it just hasn't been worth the money to get an incremental upgrade when the next generation of cards is rapidly approaching. Crossing my fingers that the upcoming wave of DX11 cards from AMD and Nvidia will be as impressive as the 8800GTX was when it was first released.

 

[eyemaster]

I don't want to feel bad for buying the MSI OC ATI 4890 card. Once it's bellow 200$ CAN, I'll buy a 2nd one and Crossfire them... For now, CnC3 is running quite well on that! he he

I need new games!

 

[gwolfman]

Just saw this:
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/6471/

...the Radeon 5870 (codenamed RV870) will come in two versions initially -- one with 2GB memory and one with 1GB. The Radeon HD 5870 1GB should sell for $399 at launch, while it's bigger sister the Radeon HD 5870 2GB should sell for $449. A slower Radeon HD 5850 with 1GB memory will sell for $299. The Radeon HD 5870 X2 is due to hit shelves about a month after the Radeon HD 5870. Other Radeon HD 5870 specifications include:

* GPU runs at 825MHz (725Mhz for the Radeon HD 5850)
* 1600 shaders
* 2.1 billion transistors
* GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.3GHz /150GB/second bandwidth.
* 180W power usage, 27W in idle

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Isn't a game required to have a copy of most of the graphic card's memory loaded in system memory as well? If so, would that mean that a 32bit system can't properly use the 2gb card? since there's only 2gb memory available to the program in the first place?

 

[bildo123]

[citation][nom]grimrod518[/nom]I am curious as to why there has been no listing for 8800GT 512MB SLI on the performance charts in a long time. I have 1 rig with 2 of those oldies but goodies and am curious as to where they stack up so I can determine if it's time to replace them[/citation]

You'll know when to replace them when you no longer enjoy the performance in your favorite games at your preferred graphics settings (usually maxed). With keeping that in mind you'll be surprised how short...or long you could go without an upgrade.

 

[Andraxxus]

So many HD58xx conflicting specs.