Is "Windows Experience Index" worthless re: video card performance?

[Mugsy]

I'm debating upgrading my old video card, a Radeon HD5850, to something with a bit more horsepower. I'm not an extreme game player, but I would like a card where the frame rates don't dip to the low 20's when under stress.

The 5850 may be old, but it still holds it's own against many newer cards that sell in the $160+ range, which is why I've been taking my time to upgrade.

The "Windows Experience Index" rates the card at "7.7" stock. I've seen GTX 660's that rate lower than that, so I'm wondering just how useful the WEI really is.

No point in spending $150-$175 for a card that offers only a minor boost over my old 5850 (maybe Crossfiring a cheap second 5850 would give me more bang for the buck?)

 

[RobCrezz]

Yeah its pretty useless.

Try Unigine Valley free benchmark to get a good indication of your performance. Run in Extreme HD and compare your scores with other cards:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/393368-33-unigine-valley-benchmark-thread

 

[Mugsy]

Yeah its pretty useless.

Try Unigine Valley free benchmark to get a good indication of your performance. Run in Extreme HD and compare your scores with other cards:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/393368-33-unigine-valley-benchmark-thread

 

[tcb1005]

It was created at the OEMs urging to entice you to get a new computer. Planned obsolescence!

 

[Mugsy]

Yeah its pretty useless.

Try Unigine Valley free benchmark to get a good indication of your performance. Run in Extreme HD and compare your scores with other cards:

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. I've always known the WEI was just a way to push people into upgrading, but wasn't sure how reliable the figures are. "Is my 5850 really as good as a 660?"

I have the Unigine and Futuremark benchmarks going back to 2001, but just try to find a chart that still includes the 5850 on it to compare to newer cards.

 

[Traciatim]

I usually use videocardbenchmark.net as a really rough guide to see how cards perform in order to find a few that seem like a good upgrade path and then research the individual styles of games I play on actual benchmark sites once I have a short list picked out based on price/general performance from Passmarks list.

For instance the 5850 scored 2288, the 660 is listed at 4112. Are you going to see an almost 80% increase in speed... probably not quite there, but that's still a huge performance increase.

So if you take a look at Anand's GPU 2012 chart the increase on their test bed at 1920x1200 was:
Crysis Warhead: 33%
Metro 2033: 40%
Dirt 3: 57%
Total War Shogun: 59%
Batman Arkam City: 188%
Portal 2 (SSAA): 77%
Battlefield 3 (MSAA): 88%

There are a few more... www.anandtech.com/bench/product/512?vs=660

But you can see how passmark is a rough guide, and that will help you look up prices and pick a few cards that you liek the price/performance and then you can compare a couple you like on benchmark sites to find which one is the right price/performance for your games and budget.

 

[RobCrezz]

Yeah its pretty useless.

Try Unigine Valley free benchmark to get a good indication of your performance. Run in Extreme HD and compare your scores with other cards:

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. I've always known the WEI was just a way to push people into upgrading, but wasn't sure how reliable the figures are. "Is my 5850 really as good as a 660?"

I have the Unigine and Futuremark benchmarks going back to 2001, but just try to find a chart that still includes the 5850 on it to compare to newer cards.

If you look at the link I posted, there are tons of Tomshardware members posting their scores for comparison, so just run Valley at Extreme HD and away you go

 

[KR8NUX]

TOM's graphic card hierarchy chart for this month, March 2014, might help you decide.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

 

[Mugsy]

I usually use videocardbenchmark.net as a really rough guide to see how cards perform in order to find a few that seem like a good upgrade path and then research the individual styles of games I play on actual benchmark sites once I have a short list picked out based on price/general performance from Passmarks list.

Thanks.

I'm thinking I'm more likely to go the "Crossfire" route for around $75 for a used 5850, rather than spend twice as much on a single card that is not much better than what I have now.

I searched online for people who posted their Unigine benchmark results of cards in my price range, and using the same settings, compared my results. To my surprise, I actually came pretty close in a few cases (even beating some others when we both used lower resolutions).

I've suspected for a long time that AMD/ATI stopped selling the 5800/5900 series (note, you can still buy a new 5450) because they were cutting into sales of newer more expensive cards that aren't much faster.