Low-End Graphics
We'll close this price guide with the budget graphic cards that are currently available. We feel that the vast majority of users are better off purchasing a mid-range card, which in many instances are two or three times as fast as the budget offerings (sometimes more). Reason being is if you don't intend to play games (which is generally why you need a better graphics card), you should probably just use whatever graphics card you already have - even integrated graphics is sufficient rather than investing money into a low-end card. If you're looking to add a graphics card in order to get better video decoding, NVIDIA's PureVideo and ATI's AVIVO solutions are worth considering, but again you might as well upgrade to a mid-range offering. As we look at the various products, the reason we make this recommendation should become clear.
Beginning here, we have the X1300 cards. The AGP X1300s are somewhat overpriced, as you can easily pick up a 6600 GT and get much better performance than an X1300 can ever deliver. The same rule applies to the X1300 for PCI-E applications. An X1600 Pro, 6600 GT, or 7600 GS can be had for about $100, which you would find us suggesting without any hesitation over an X1300 (PCI-E).
Any one of these X300 cards should be sufficient for its intended use of basic video support and the only thing we would suggest is that you try to stick to the $50 (or lower) price point. We see no real need to spend much more than that for a card of this caliber. About the only motive to purchase a $50 graphics card is if you want a DVI output for an LCD display, since most integrated graphics solutions omit that feature.
These 7300 GS cards are meant to replace the 6200 TurboCache cards. Just as with the X300 cards, we again recommend you stick to the lower end of this spectrum because the $100 mid-range cards offer a much better solution. We mentioned DVI outputs as being one reason for a budget graphics card, but of course the HTPC market often fancies a cheap, preferably fanless, graphics card over integrated graphics due to the enhanced video decoding quality (AVIVO/PureVideo) and additional connectivity options (component out). At $100 or so, X1600 Pro and 7600 GS meet all of those requirements, so if you start nearing that price point we recommend you upgrade to the next level.
That brings this video card price guide to a close. If we missed anything you feel is worth mentioning, feel free to let us know in the comments section. We'll be back again next week, taking a look at the storage market. Thanks for reading!
We'll close this price guide with the budget graphic cards that are currently available. We feel that the vast majority of users are better off purchasing a mid-range card, which in many instances are two or three times as fast as the budget offerings (sometimes more). Reason being is if you don't intend to play games (which is generally why you need a better graphics card), you should probably just use whatever graphics card you already have - even integrated graphics is sufficient rather than investing money into a low-end card. If you're looking to add a graphics card in order to get better video decoding, NVIDIA's PureVideo and ATI's AVIVO solutions are worth considering, but again you might as well upgrade to a mid-range offering. As we look at the various products, the reason we make this recommendation should become clear.
Beginning here, we have the X1300 cards. The AGP X1300s are somewhat overpriced, as you can easily pick up a 6600 GT and get much better performance than an X1300 can ever deliver. The same rule applies to the X1300 for PCI-E applications. An X1600 Pro, 6600 GT, or 7600 GS can be had for about $100, which you would find us suggesting without any hesitation over an X1300 (PCI-E).
Any one of these X300 cards should be sufficient for its intended use of basic video support and the only thing we would suggest is that you try to stick to the $50 (or lower) price point. We see no real need to spend much more than that for a card of this caliber. About the only motive to purchase a $50 graphics card is if you want a DVI output for an LCD display, since most integrated graphics solutions omit that feature.
These 7300 GS cards are meant to replace the 6200 TurboCache cards. Just as with the X300 cards, we again recommend you stick to the lower end of this spectrum because the $100 mid-range cards offer a much better solution. We mentioned DVI outputs as being one reason for a budget graphics card, but of course the HTPC market often fancies a cheap, preferably fanless, graphics card over integrated graphics due to the enhanced video decoding quality (AVIVO/PureVideo) and additional connectivity options (component out). At $100 or so, X1600 Pro and 7600 GS meet all of those requirements, so if you start nearing that price point we recommend you upgrade to the next level.
That brings this video card price guide to a close. If we missed anything you feel is worth mentioning, feel free to let us know in the comments section. We'll be back again next week, taking a look at the storage market. Thanks for reading!
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
Actually, I think what they wanted was to have each table sorted by price, not just grouping similar cards together. This is an often requested feature, and our pricing engine people are aware of it. Unfortunately, there are many factors that come into play with adding this feature to the tables that get generated. Hopefully we can get that one of these days -- along with better searching capability (like the ability to search for regular expressions rather than specific strings). Herrrcn - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
Ah yes, I forgot to address that portion of their request.However, for the time being, if you go to our RTPE and http://labs.anandtech.com/cats.php">browse by category, you can sort by prices after you select which card you're looking at. This goes for all other products, not just video cards. =) Hope this helps.
Josh7289 - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
You mentioned the X1900GT certainly packing a punch, but what kind of a punch does it pack? At $260 after rebate, it is priced identically to the 7900GT, so I'm curious as to specifically how it performs compared to other cards in its price range, like the 7900GT.Also, for $140 after rebate, the X850XT is about the same price as the 7600GT, maybe a little cheaper, so I'd like to know how that card also performs similar to others in its price range, like the 7600GT.
Thanks ;)
JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
I've updated the text on page 3 to reflect this information. The 7900 GT could easily be classified as a high-end card, but the search string (GeForce 7900 GT) also picks up the GTX cards, so we just put them all on the ultra high-end page.bobbyto34 - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
It's not the same generation. The X850 are not SM 3.0 compatible. Some effects won't be avalaible.In some games, you'll have the same amount of fps, but you wont have the same graphical effects.
I would surely choose the 7600GT because :
- Less heat and lower power consumption
- Special AA filter ( better filtering on trees).
- Lower impact of HDR
- SLI (??) : I'm not fan of SLI, because it would cost more than a 7900GT, for the same performance.
Dfere - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
This is a truly buggy situation. Windows does not pick it up as a Sapphire using drivers provided by Sapphire, o/c utility will not install. I can remove drivers with ATI uninstaller but then XP will not allow for install of updated generic catalyst drivers. I haven't seen these types of issues since the days of the S/B 32 wavetable era. I am way past what Newegg will consider for an RMA. It could be my intel mb. Anybody wanna buy a x1800gGTO?imaheadcase - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
"you should know that the support is unofficial, meaning you can't complain to NVIDIA if things don't work right. "Um yes you can complain, its nice nvidia sells a graphics card $500-600 that does not include that. lol I guess if your a sucker to buy one you would also justify any complaint that came with it..
Seems to be a trend in hardware, release said great product, drivers 6 months later that work right. (Creative anyone?) :P
Eric2203 - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
And since when is nvidia selling a quad-SLI system ? They're not. So no, you have no room to complain. The product that is being sold has working drivers, no room to complain.
bobbyto34 - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
Nvidia driver are not updated as quickly as it used to be.There is nearly 2/3 months between graphic cards drivers OFFICIAL update.
For chipset driver, it's nearly yearly updates !!!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
The *Quad SLI* support is unofficial. The only official Quad SLI support will come through system vendors (Falcon Northwest, Dell, Alienware, etc.) that ship the system. There are a lot of things that need to be done to guarantee a stable QSLI setup, so NVIDIA allows you to try it, but you're on your own as far as support goes. Now they just need to take the next step and give unofficial support for SLI on non-NVIDIA chipsets....