Holiday Buyers Guide, Part I: CPUs, GPUs, Mobos, and RAM

Graphics Galore

While plenty has happened in the graphics industry of late, the operative word these days is availability. Our preferred cards are currently difficult to come by, regardless of brand or manufacturer, so we will focus on chipsets rather than on specific offerings here. Outside of any extra warranty of factory overclocking, most of the cards come with nearly identical features and use the reference designs anyway.

Entry-level (IGP)

Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H: $75

AMD Radeon X1250 (690G Chipset)

For those using IGP systems, the 690G chipset represents remains one of the best solutions. Considering the IGP market accounts for 90% of PC shipments, it makes sense for both AMD and NVIDIA to have strong packages in this area. The 690G features low power consumption and ATI X1250 graphics performance with HDMI output and full HDCP support. It also includes DX9 and Shader Model 2.0 (SM2.0) support along with excellent audio and video capabilities. Don't expect to be doing much gaming on the 690G (especially with the latest games), but for general home or office PCs the 690G IGP is an excellent choice for AM2 systems.

In reality, the graphics performance offered by the three top IGP solutions - Intel GMA X3100, AMD 690G, and NVIDIA GeForce 7050 - is pretty similar, at least when drivers are up to date and working properly. Intel's Windows XP drivers have been ahead of their Vista drivers for a while, but the gap is finally narrowing. X3100 also offers SM3.0 support, as does NVIDIA's 70xx IGP, putting them one step higher on the feature checklist. We would still give the edge to AMD and NVIDIA, however, since we appreciate better graphics driver support. The inclusion of DVI and/or HDMI/HDCP on more motherboards plus the lower price is one more reason to choose AMD/NVIDIA offerings instead of Intel.

Budget Gaming

AMD Radeon HD 3850: $179

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB: $???

With the availability of the 8800 GT causing prices to rise above the $300 mark, the HD 3850 could not have come at a more fortuitous time for AMD. They have been struggling on to the CPU and GPU fronts for the past year, but the pricing and availability of HD 3850 cards - not to mention great performance for the price - gets our recommendation for a budget gaming system.

There are cheaper graphics cards that provide adequate performance and DirectX 10 support, but the difference in performance between the $100 you might spend on the Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB/GeForce 8600 GT 256MB and the HD 3850 is substantial. Let's not even get into a discussion of performance requirements for Crysis, Hellgate: London, or Unreal Tournament 3. Needless to say, there are plenty more titles coming out where $100 graphics cards will need to drop down to lower resolutions and medium detail settings in order to provide adequate performance. NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should also start showing up with a similar price to the Radeon HD 3850; availability remains a concern, naturally.

While we're on the topic of availability, we must say that we don't know how long AMD will continue to keep up with demand for the Radeon HD 3850/3870. As with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, many resellers are now backordered and we wouldn't be surprised to see prices begin climbing. Assuming these cards are available at MSRP, all four options are viable. Users with motherboards that support CrossFire will probably prefer AMD cards, while nForce SLI users will prefer the 8800 GT. Hopefully, we will see increased supply and reduced prices in the near future. These are great cards when priced between $180 and $250; at $250-$300 (or more), we're a lot more hesitant to recommend any of them.

Midrange/High-End

Radeon HD 3870: $219 MSRP

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB: $249 MSRP

CrossFire or SLI optional

Given what we just finished saying about availability, we obviously have a problem coming up with any reasonable upgraded solutions. If you don't mind the price gouging (and can still find cards in stock), Radeon 3870 and 8800 GT 512MB comprise our midrange recommendation. The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is faster, but it also has a higher MSRP, so price/performance ends up being a tie.

CrossFire or SLI with any of the above offerings would be our next recommendation. Obviously, you need the appropriate motherboard. We showed in our recent HD 3850/3870 article that 3850 CrossFire performance roughly matches what you get from a single 8800 GTX; at current prices, that should make HD 3870 CrossFire about $60 cheaper and significantly faster - $60 which would then go towards the price of a CrossFire compatible motherboard. That said, we prefer the smaller card size and added features that you get with the newer cards.

High-End/Extreme Performance

GeForce 8800 GTX SLI: $1000

GeForce 8800 Ultra SLI: $1200

(Mail-In Rebates available)

We're loath to recommend anyone purchase an 8800 GTX/Ultra card at this stage, let alone two. NVIDIA has confirmed December 3 as the launch date for the 8800 GTS (G92 core), and GTX and Ultra editions will no doubt follow in time. If you haven't already, it makes little sense to purchase an older model GTX/Ultra now. Still, if you want maximum gaming performance right now, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra in SLI is the most stable, mature, currently best-performing option at the extreme end of our price range. Just remember that the 8800 GTX/Ultra cards are often CPU limited at 9x266MHz (2.4GHz) CPU speeds on current Intel platforms. With SLI, you definitely don't want to skimp on the CPU.

Although we considered including AMD's Spider platform for the Extreme Performance option, it's a bit early for that. Outside of the HD 3850/3870, this has so far been a paper launch by AMD. Motherboards with the required AMD 790X/FX chipsets are still in their infancy and Phenom X4s are almost impossible to find without paying a price premium. We recommend waiting for AMD to iron out some of the inevitable bugs before making any move to the Spider platform. It looks like that won't happen until January at the earliest, at which time we will be more than happy to reevaluate the platform.