Holiday 2006 Shopping Guide: GPUs
by Jarred Walton on December 13, 2006 5:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Entry Level GPUs
The next step up from the budget GPUs is going to be the Entry Level category, with prices ranging from $75-$125. You will also see more expensive versions of the Ultra Budget graphics cards, either due to extra features, factory overclocking, or even the manufacturer's name. We're going to focus primarily on the new GPUs that become available with the increased budget, rather than continuing to mention slightly faster clocked versions of the Ultra Budget offerings.
At the lower end of this price range, ATI has the X1300 XT, which is simply a renamed version of the X1600 Pro. Right now the X1600 Pro (128bit version) is slightly cheaper, but that will likely change in the future. Driver optimizations since the launch of the X1600 Pro have improved performance quite a bit, but in reality the card isn't a whole lot faster than the GeForce 6600 GT cards, which are really quite outdated these days. Certain titles will prefer ATI hardware, but in terms of value in we would definitely take the cheaper 7300 GT cards over the X1600 Pro/X1300 XT.
The X1600 XT is better, with clock speeds that are quite a bit higher - the X1650 Pro is practically the same, coming with a negligible 10/20 MHz increase on the GPU/memory - but despite the more impressive sounding specifications the X1600 XT is really only slightly faster than the GeForce 7600 GS. At the top of the price spectrum, the least expensive GeForce 7600 GT cards are definitely the best way to go. Prices currently start at about $130, but you can find $20 mail-in rebates on the EVGA cards that drop the final price down to $110. Even without the rebate, we would still recommend spending the extra money to get a 7600 GT over any of the other cards at the top of this price bracket - at least if graphics performance is important to you.
The AGP market continues to be relatively unimpressive, with prices that are typically $20 more than the equivalent PCI-E graphics cards - at least where cards are available on both platforms, which isn't all that common. GeForce 7600 GS cards might be worth a thought at the top end, along with the X1600 Pro and X1300 Pro ATI models. Perhaps because demand for AGP cards is really starting to diminish, there are currently a lot of mail-in rebates available that might make some of the AGP cards worth considering as a final upgrade. Keep in mind that everything short of a 7600 GT is usually going to be slower than something like a GeForce 6800 GT/GS card (or X800 Pro), so if you already have such a card it might not be worth upgrading to anything faster.
As we did with the Ultra Budget GPUs, here is a quick breakdown of the features and specifications of the various Entry Level GPUs we've mentioned. Again, we have sorted the table roughly in order of increasing performance. When you consider the clock speeds of the 7600 GS, it really is surprising that the much higher clocked X1600 XT isn't able to outperform it by a large margin - which is of course why ATI went back to the drawing board and created the X1650 XT, but more on that when we get to the Midrange GPUs on the next page.
The next step up from the budget GPUs is going to be the Entry Level category, with prices ranging from $75-$125. You will also see more expensive versions of the Ultra Budget graphics cards, either due to extra features, factory overclocking, or even the manufacturer's name. We're going to focus primarily on the new GPUs that become available with the increased budget, rather than continuing to mention slightly faster clocked versions of the Ultra Budget offerings.
At the lower end of this price range, ATI has the X1300 XT, which is simply a renamed version of the X1600 Pro. Right now the X1600 Pro (128bit version) is slightly cheaper, but that will likely change in the future. Driver optimizations since the launch of the X1600 Pro have improved performance quite a bit, but in reality the card isn't a whole lot faster than the GeForce 6600 GT cards, which are really quite outdated these days. Certain titles will prefer ATI hardware, but in terms of value in we would definitely take the cheaper 7300 GT cards over the X1600 Pro/X1300 XT.
The X1600 XT is better, with clock speeds that are quite a bit higher - the X1650 Pro is practically the same, coming with a negligible 10/20 MHz increase on the GPU/memory - but despite the more impressive sounding specifications the X1600 XT is really only slightly faster than the GeForce 7600 GS. At the top of the price spectrum, the least expensive GeForce 7600 GT cards are definitely the best way to go. Prices currently start at about $130, but you can find $20 mail-in rebates on the EVGA cards that drop the final price down to $110. Even without the rebate, we would still recommend spending the extra money to get a 7600 GT over any of the other cards at the top of this price bracket - at least if graphics performance is important to you.
The AGP market continues to be relatively unimpressive, with prices that are typically $20 more than the equivalent PCI-E graphics cards - at least where cards are available on both platforms, which isn't all that common. GeForce 7600 GS cards might be worth a thought at the top end, along with the X1600 Pro and X1300 Pro ATI models. Perhaps because demand for AGP cards is really starting to diminish, there are currently a lot of mail-in rebates available that might make some of the AGP cards worth considering as a final upgrade. Keep in mind that everything short of a 7600 GT is usually going to be slower than something like a GeForce 6800 GT/GS card (or X800 Pro), so if you already have such a card it might not be worth upgrading to anything faster.
As we did with the Ultra Budget GPUs, here is a quick breakdown of the features and specifications of the various Entry Level GPUs we've mentioned. Again, we have sorted the table roughly in order of increasing performance. When you consider the clock speeds of the 7600 GS, it really is surprising that the much higher clocked X1600 XT isn't able to outperform it by a large margin - which is of course why ATI went back to the drawing board and created the X1650 XT, but more on that when we get to the Midrange GPUs on the next page.
| Entry Level GPUs | |||||||
| GPU | Pixel Shaders |
Vertex Shaders |
ROPs | Core Speed |
RAM Speed |
Memory Interface |
Price |
| X1300 XT | 12 | 5 | 4 | 500 | 800 | 128bit | $108 |
| X1600 Pro | 12 | 5 | 4 | 500 | 800 | 128bit | $91 |
| 6600 GT | 8 | 3 | 4 | 500 | 1000 | 128bit | $85* |
| X1600 XT | 12 | 5 | 4 | 590 | 1380 | 128bit | $119 |
| X1650 Pro | 12 | 5 | 4 | 600 | 1400 | 128bit | $105 |
| 7600 GS | 12 | 5 | 8 | 400 | 700 | 128bit | $109 |
| 7600 GT | 12 | 5 | 8 | 560 | 1400 | 128bit | $135 |
* - Prices for these parts are prone to fluctuation, as these are discontinued products.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Has been for about a year now, but a lot of people keep dragging their feet. The fastest AGP systems are still able to run most games okay, but if you really want high-end graphics performance you are going to have to upgrade to PCI-E.pottervillian - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Merry Christmas, and thanks for a great guide!aakoch - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
I've never tried to run two/dual monitors. I have an old CRT (VGA) and a new LCD (DVI). Can any card with both slots run 2 monitors? Or only specific ones?Chapbass - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
I cant think of any gfx card that has dual outputs that CANT support dual monitors...so im gonna go with all of them can. definitely all the ones listed in this article (meaning everything that is current or close to current tech.) in fact, im doing dual monitors on my 6600gt (soon to be 8800gts!) right now : ).kleinwl - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
One point to add, would be PCI video cards. Since there are a number of Dell machines that have shipped without AGP/PCIE slots, it would be nice to know what PCI card you would recommend as bang for the buck. Right now I'm using Radeon 9250s... but I don't know if that is the best option. Yes, it's slow... but it's still cheaper than canning the entire system for people that want something just a little faster.JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
The fastest currently available PCI video card is going to be a Radeon X1300 I think, going for around $110 (and I see at least one that has a $20 mail-in rebate). That isn't a very fast graphics card to begin with, and I would expect the PCI interface to further bottleneck the card, but I'm not sure there's anything better if you're stuck looking for PCI parts.I'm just looking around on Newegg, so perhaps there's something better elsewhere (I seem to recall seeing GeForce 6600 cards on PCI at one point, which might be slightly faster in some cases), but if you need more performance from your graphics subsystem you really will need to look at upgrading to a new motherboard/computer that supports something other than PCI graphics.
mgambrell - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Geforce 8800 may be fast, but it can't run directx10.http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=22248">http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=22248
Witness the driver debacle. Just beware.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Given that DirectX 10 is not actually available -- no games support it, Windows Vista hasn't shipped, and even after Windows Vista becomes available it will probably be a couple months at least before you get DirectX 10 enabled games (i.e. games that actually add new DirectX 10 features). NVIDIA says it best:The inability to run beta/nearly finished Windows Vista with all of the features enabled on brand new hardware isn't something that I consider a major problem. The nature of beta/release candidate software is that there are still many known problems. For all we know, DirectX 10 performance on the G80 chips is going to be terrible... or it might be the greatest thing since sliced bread. The only way we will find out for sure is when Windows Vista is finally released and we actually get games that use DirectX 10's new capabilities.
Jodiuh - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
You guys list an EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR, but the one I got from Fry's electronics differs at the end w/ EVGA 768-P2-N831-FR. Does the FR=Retail, AR=Online? Or would AR be the newer "fixed transistor" SKU?Thanks for the guide!!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - link
Honestly, I have no idea. EVGA (and many GPU manufacturers) tend to have so many different SKUs available with only negligible differences between them. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the models has a slight tweak to the transistors, but as for which one is "newer/better" I don't know. You could always email EVGA and ask.