Final Words
While this has been quite a lot of information to absorb, we will do our best to sort it all out. Not only is the X1900 GT a better performer in most cases than the stock 7900 GT, but with this week's price cuts the ATI part offers an incredible value advantage. Essentially, this week we are able to get $300 performance for $230. With the recent price cuts (and if you can find one in stock), the X1900 XT has set the (just over) $300 performance mark much higher than the stock 7900 GT is able to reach. They key here is finding a card in stock, as it seems everyone wanted a piece of the action when prices dropped.
Overclocking does help the 7900 GT get closer to the performance of the X1900 XT in some games. If you've got a little extra money, there isn't any reason to buy a product that pushes the envelope of its design just to be nipping at the heels of its closest price competitor in terms of performance. The X1900 XT leads the high end of the midrange market at this point in time, but if your spending limit is set hard at $300 an overclocked 7900 GT that comes in with 550+ core clock speed can be a very good option. With the price difference between the stock 7900 GT and overclocked 7900 GT being just about $15, there is no reason to settle for the significantly slower performer.
On the low end, we've got the stock 7600 GT for just over $160, which offers playable midrange performance at a low price. While the X1600 XT is about $15 cheaper, performance is abysmal. There is no reason anyone should purchase an X1600 XT at this point. With a really tight budget, the 7600 GT offers adequate gaming performance. Overclocked 7600 GT parts are just not worth the price as they don't offer any significant performance gain for the $30 premium. The X1900 GT, however, offers a whole lot more value for the additional $60 over a stock 7600 GT.
To break to it down into cut and dry recommendations, here is our take on what card to buy for each price range from 150-350.
$150 - $220: GeForce 7600 GT (stock)
$230 - $280: Radeon X1900 GT
$290 - $320: GeForce 7900 GT (overclocked 550/775 +)
$320 - $370: Radeon X1900 XT
As AnandTech reader mpc7488 brought up in the comments, we didn't include any rebates in our price analysis. This is due to the fact that rebates take time to receive, not everyone follows through on them, and they aren't always being offered. We will have to leave it up to the reader to make a judgement call on what to buy when rebates are factored in, but it can make a difference. Depending on the current state of rebates offered on the overclocked 7900 GT, it could become a much better buy. Unless the stock 7900 GT can be had for less than the price of the X1900 GT, we would still shy away from it.
For those looking to upgrade, the 6600 GT is getting a little long in the tooth. A 7600 GT would offer a good performance advantage for not a lot of money. Anything lower performing would not be an upgrade at all. Ideally, the X1900 GT would be a great purchase for the value conscious user. Owners of the X800 GTO may have a little more life left in their card depending on how overclocked the card is, but even at stock clocks, it might be wise to hang on for another product cycle if possible. At this point, we would be looking at the X1900 GT as a minimum recommendation for an upgrade from either the 6800 GS or X800 GTO class of cards.
The X1800 GTO still has some life in it and there's no reason to upgrade at this point. Performance is passable in most cases, and with the initial cost of the card figured in, an upgrade would not be worth the money at all. Our recommendation for X1800 GTO owners is to hold on until the DX10 era of cards comes along.
The price cuts that came along this week almost caught us by surprise. We spent the past couple days going back and adding a few more tests and changing our recommendations based on the new price structure. With things that come seemingly out of nowhere like this, we tend to get a little suspicious. This type of price dropping is usually associated with inventory clearing designed to get the market ready for something new. If you have to upgrade now, we certainly can make recommendations. However, our gut tells us that it might be a little more prudent, if possible, to hold off a few weeks and see what comes down the pipeline.
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Sharky974 - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
I tried comparing numbers for SCCT, FEAR and X3, the problem is Anand didn't bench any of these with AA in this mid-range test, and other sites all use 4XAA as default. So in other words no direct numbers comparison on those three games at least with those two Xbit/FS articles is possible.Although the settings are different, both FS and Anand showed FEAR as a tossup, though.
It does appear other sites are confirming Anand's results more than I thought though.
And the X1900GT for $230 is a kickass card.
JarredWalton - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
The real problem is that virtually every level of a game can offer higher/lower performance relative to the average, and you also get levels that use effects that work better on ATI or NV hardware. Some people like to make a point about providing "real world" gaming benchmarks, but the simple fact of the matter is that any benchmark is inherently different from actually sitting down and playing a game - unless you happen to be playing the exact segment benchmarked, or perhaps the extremely rare game where performance is nearly identical throughout the entire game. (I'm not even sure what an example of that would be - Pacman?)Stock clockspeed 7900GT cards are almost uncommon these days, since the cards are so easy to overclock. Standard clocks are actually supposed to be 450/1360 IIRC, and most cards are at least slightly overclocked in one or both areas. Throw in all the variables, plus things like whether or not antialiasing is enabled, and it becomes difficult to compare articles between any two sources. I tend to think of it as providing various snapshots of performance, as no one site can provide everything. So if we determine X1900 GT is a bit faster overall than 7900 GT and another site determines the reverse, the truth is that the cards are very similar, with some games doing better on one architecture and other games on the other arch.
My last thought is that it's important to look at where each GPU manages to excel. If for example (and I'm just pulling numbers out of the hat rather than referring to any particular benchmarks) the 7900 GT is 20% faster in Half-Life 2 but the X1900 GT still manages frame rates of over 100 FPS, but then the X1900 GT is faster in Oblivion by 20% and frame rates are closer to 40 FPS, I would definitely wait to Oblivion figures as being more important. Especially if you run on LCDs, super high frame rates become virtually meaningless. If you can average well over 60 frames per second, I would strongly recommend enabling VSYNC on any LCD. Of course, down the road we are guaranteed to encounter games that require more GPU power, but predicting what game engine is most representative of the future requires a far better crystal ball than what we have available.
For what it's worth, I would still personally purchase an overclocked 7900 GT over an X1900 GT for a few reasons, provided the price difference isn't more than ~$20. First, SLI is a real possibility, whereas CrossFire with an X1900 GT is not (as far as I know). Second, I simply prefer NVIDIA's drivers -- the old-style, not the new "Vista compatible" design. Third, I find that NVIDIA always seems to do a bit better on brand new games, while ATI seems to need a patch or a new driver release to address performance issues -- not always, but at least that's my general impression; I'm sure there are exceptions to this statement. ATI cards are still good, and at the current price points it's definitely hard to pick a clear winner. Plus you have stuff like the reduced prices on X1800 cards, and in another month or so we will likely have new hardware in all of the price points. It's a never ending rat race, and as always people should upgrade only when they find that the current level of performance they had is unacceptable from their perspective.
arturnowp - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
I think another advantage of 7900GT over X1900GT is power consumption. I'm not checking numbers of this matter so I am not 100% sure.coldpower27 - Saturday, August 12, 2006 - link
Yes, this is completely true, going by Xbitlab's numbers.
Stock 7900 GT: 48W
eVGA SC 7900 GT: 54W
Stock X1900 GT: 75W
JarredWalton - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
Speech-recognition + lack of proofing = lots of typos"... out of a hat..."
"I would definitely weight..."
"... level of performance they have is..."
Okay, so there were only three typos that I saw, but I was feeling anal retentive.
Sharky974 - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
Not too beat this to death, but at FS the X1900GT vs 7900GT benchmarksX1900GT:
Wins-BF2, Call of Duty 2 (barely)
Loses-Quake 4, Lock On Modern Air Combat, FEAR (barely),
Toss ups- Oblivion (FS runs two benches, foliage/mountains, the cards split them) Far Cry w/HDR (X1900 takes two lower res benches, 7900 GT takes two higher res benches)
At Xbit's X1900 gt vs 7900 gt conclusion
"The Radeon X1900 GT generally provides a high enough performance in today’s games. However, it is only in 4 tests out of 19 that it enjoyed a confident victory over its market opponent and in 4 tests more equals the performance of the GeForce 7900 GT. These 8 tests are Battlefield 2, Far Cry (except in the HDR mode), Half-Life 2, TES IV: Oblivion, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, X3: Reunion and both 3DMarks. As you see, Half-Life 2 is the only game in the list that doesn’t use mathematics-heavy shaders. In other cases the new solution from ATI was hamstringed by its having too few texture-mapping units as we’ve repeatedly said throughout this review."
Xbit review: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/pow...">http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/pow...
Geraldo8022 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
I wish you would do a similar article concerning the video cards for HDTV and HDCP. It is very confusing. Even though certain crds might state they are HDCP, it is not enabled.tjpark1111 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
the X1800XT is only $200 shipped, why not include that card? if the X1900GT outperforms it, then ignore my comment(been out of the game for a while)LumbergTech - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
so you want to test the cheaper gpu's for those who dont want to spend quite as much..ok..well why are you using the cpu you chose then? that isnt exactly in the affordable segement for the average pc user at this pointPrinceGaz - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Did you even bother reading the article, or did you just skim through it and look at the graphs and conclusion? May I suggest you read page 3 of the review, or in case that is too much trouble, read the relevant excerpt-