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!
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
18 Comments
View All Comments
Antiflash - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
If Nvidia keeps the trend of upper prices to their new generations of cards. You´ll have to add new price segments like "Ultra High Rip off" segment in the next video guides.KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
vitamalt: Good points - but you are correct it's an awkward price point. The AGP version sells for about the same as the 6600GT AGP, which is fine cause SLI isn't an issue anyway. I think if prices were a little better they would get more attention.Kristopher
vitamalt - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
Why no mention of the 6800NU in these price guides?I know its performance is comparable to the 6600GT but still some people seem to prefer it as if I recall correctly, some 6600 cards (independent of brand) seem to have a problem of being DOA or having display problems.
I could be wrong, but it seems to be the case on most message boards that I've visited.
yacoub - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
On the last page:". In all likelihood, if you are considering a low end video card, it's TIME for a new rig,"
Left out the word TIME.
yacoub - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
You don't seem to have this one in your list for X800XLs:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...
That's the one I'd get, especially if it drops to $300 in the coming weeks. Extra cooling and quieter operation are huge benefits in my book.
yacoub - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
--"Would it be too much to speculate the GeForce 7800GTX line could drop $50 by December?"--See, that's exactly the point I was making elsewhere - They keep releasing them at higher prices but they don't drop quickly enough to make up for the overpriced rape they debut at. If it only drops to $550 by December, F that. It shouldn't have come out at more than $450 to begin with, but since the last two generations of GPUs have been jacked up in price to debut at $500 and $550, they had an excuse to try another $50 higher with this gen card. Pathetic.
KristopherKubicki - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
PrinceGaz: LOL.Kristopher
PrinceGaz - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
I suppose that 512MB 6200 could be useful if you aren't fussy about framerates but do want a cheap card that can run at 2048x1536x32 with 8xAA at high quality settings.The back-buffer and Z-buffer together would require 192MB at those settings, and another 12MB would be needed for the front-buffer, and possibly a further 12MB if using triple-buffering. With a 256MB card that would leave just 40MB for textures and anything else which wouldn't be sufficient for recent games at high-quality. The 512MB 6200 card solves all the memory problems though. Just imagine how nice EQ2 would look in Extreme quality mode at 2048x1536x32 with 8xAA and 16xAF. The framerate might be a touch on the low side though, I suspect ;)
PrinceGaz - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
page 2 "A particular favorite of ours, the Connect3D X800XL PCIe [RTPE: Connect3D Radeon X800XL 256MB], can be had for just under $250. However, if no-name brands are not your thing, ASUS has the X800XL for $30 more right now too."I wouldn't consider Connect3D a no-name brand these days, they're one of the main ATI partners.
at80eighty - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
btw...can we expect a shootout of the 7800 from the flavours from various vendors?the bit about the 7800 > 6800GTxSLI is pretty interesting... could save a few pennies for better performance ...hmmmm....