Tom's Hardware Charts: 2009 Mainstream Graphics Update

[radnor]

[citation][nom]marraco[/nom][nobody’s going to equip an overclocked $1,000 PC with a $50 graphics card to play 3D games.]Some things to add:-When My Athlon X2 died, I upgraded to an i7 system, but conserved the old Gf8800GT, because i don't want to waste money until DX11 cards are released.still I would like to see a high end CPU with a low end card, to know the difference to a GPU upgrade.-Many dudes ask me advice on what system to buy. If you publish a high end CPU with cheap card, I can point my arguments agaist such purchase, by showing your benchmarcks. If such rig does not make sense, still is useful to check it.-Frequently somebody don't need a gaming PC, so buys a powerfull CPU, but then needs to add a video card, and maybe use the rig for some gamming, so the questions is: how much money it takes an i7 to do basic gamming? what is the difference to a better card?[/citation]

I can tell you a better card makes all the diference. I'm in a middle of upgrade Board + and added another 4850. My PC flies over most games with 4x AA on, and ussually all the bells and whisltles on. For the exception of GTA IV, Prototype and Crysis, everything else just flies, real, real fluid.

So you can laugh a bit, my Current CPU is a Athlon X2 4800+ at 2.5Ghz. I know he is bottlenecking my 4850 CF, but honestly, i think ill take my sweet time until i upgrade CPU.

 

[ezareth]

Could you please include 2560X1600 in your high quality benchmarks? Not every uses budget monitors and the distinction is important since many high end cards perform much differently at the highest end of the spectrum which would potentially change many buyers (like myself) choices.

 

[mapesdhs]

I'm surprised the Crysis games haven't been included, or Stalker CS.
Kinda gotten used to seeing Crysis used as a talking point for GPUs.

And I agree with Ezareth, the charts should include 2560x1600. I don't
use this res, but already I'm running at 2048x1536 (8800GT system)
which means it's hard to know if the charts are that meaningful when
making purchasing decisions.

Ian.

 

[airborne11b]

[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]Wow, great article; affirming and eye-opening. ?Eye-opening too, in that I can see why those who absolutely must have the eye candy, and might not care about other aspects of the game, want to spend $500, $600, or even more on graphics cards (and a PSU to support them!). While I hope they earned that money themselves, I can see much more clearly why they want to spend it.[/citation]

Well whether or not they earned the money themselves to buy a $600 GPU set up is a dumb point. The more money the GPU and Game companies make, the more the PC gaming industry moves forward. I'm a military man myself and I work hard for my money, but like I said, who cares if it was their money or not. Better then the money getting spent on stupidity (PS3, Xbox, ect).

2nd point, I spend on average $300-500 on GPUs per system (My wife plays with me so I always build 2 systems back to back). We like spending our money on nice PC parts because we like ALL aspects of the games we play, Mechanics and graphics. The way I look at is simply that PC gaming as a hobby is a lot cheaper $ per hour then many other hobbies out there. For the cost of about 1500-$2000 per year on PC parts and games, we are supplied with unlimited interactive entertainment. Now you can spend less and still play games, but I feel that at a rate of about 125 bucks a month for 30 days of entertainment is quite cost efficient. I suspect some people pay more for their cable TV bills per month lol.

 

[Belardo]

Oh... I would go ahead and add the GT 130 and GT 120 as well... Forgot about those two.

 

[japnoise99]

I run a 4670 on my alternate game machine (use as a loaner comp when someone is over at the house and wants to game). It plays all games just fine at 1440 x 900 on medium settings (crysis) or higher.

Athlon X2 5000+, 2 gig value ram, Old 160 gig Hard Drive, Radeon 4670..... and bunch more salvaged parts from other computers I've found laying around.

 

[Onus]

Exactly, japnoise99. Good show!

 

[seerwan]

It would be REALLY good to know the reference system for these tests, Toms Hardware...