Price Guides, June 2005: Video Cards
by Kristopher Kubicki on June 26, 2005 3:49 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
If you missed the HyperMemory launch last month, don't worry - you didn't miss much. Now that ATI and NVIDIA both have UMA-like video cards to take advantage of that wonderful PCIe bus, the real winner in the sub $100 range ends up being whoever gets the cost cheapest. In all likelihood, if you are considering a low end video card, it's time for a new rig, "upgrading" to a $50 video card wouldn't make a lot of sense. Even if you are a mild gamer, the $130 for an AGP Radeon 9800 Pro or $150 for a GeForce 6600GT should be an easy cost to absorb when upgrading or building a new rig.
Sapphire's X300SE [RTPE: 100120] for $48 is quite good. In our tests this model outperforms NVIDIA's lowest end solutions while still undercutting the cost. We were a little surprised ATI was able to one up NVIDIA in a market they traditionally dominate.
NVIDIA's Turbocache offerings were impressive a few months ago, but with ATI's (few) partners selling a very competitive product for as much as 20% less, the choice is very clear for us.
By the way, did anyone notice the launch of the GeForce 6200 512MB edition [RTPE: SA62A-512]? This certainly has our nomination for "Most Pointless Video Card Ever".
That's all for this week's Price Guide! Come back next week for more buyer analysis!
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at80eighty - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
the "By the power of Castle Greyskull" bit above the graph on the 1st page was corny..but i still laughed ..thanx!hoppa - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
I agree with #2. It would be great to see charts that show some performance per dollar figure for each card. And if you are doing that you'll almost certainly do something else along the way which I'd love to see: a general performance rating of procs/VCs/anything, based on some compilation of all the benchmark data you have. Once that number is in, just divide it by the cost and you have cost per $ as well, and that would be very helpful for a great many people.dumbnewbie - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
Aww yeah! Sitting here with an Asus v7700 GeForce2 Ti! Still haven't seen anything new come out yet to make me switch, even FAR items. Give me dual HDTV like supposed PS3 with only a heatsink for cooling and maybe I'll be interested. Oh and my other computer is using a TNT2.cryptonomicon - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
hmm, is it safe to still buy 128mb cards?shouldnt i buy a 256 for the future?
Dukemaster - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
but=bought :PDukemaster - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
I just but a second handed XFX Geforce 6800 256MB for just 190, with over a year of warranty left on it. Now that's what i call a sweet deal.bloc - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
Some of the suggestions are obviously made without plotting $$ vs FPS.Every $30 is a new market segment.
So with the 9800 pro at $125 and the 6600 GT at $151
That's a 20% increase in price. Well the FPS for major games is about a 15% spread too. This makes the 9800 pro a solid deal as it provides as good $$ vs fps ratio as the 6600 GT. I can easily recommend a 9800 pro or a 6600 GT. This wasn't the case 3 months ago as the 9800 pro and 6600 GT were the same price.
A FPS vs $$ graph is a way better way to compare video cards than raw prices.
ryanv12 - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
ha, that 512mb 6200 kills me. I kind of want to get one just to tell everyone I have a 512mb card ;)