Graphics Card: Identical Model, Different Price? 3

[BoulderBum]

What's the difference between this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150195

...which costs $239 and this:

http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos_single_product_results.phtml?product_id=242607

...which seems like the same card with different packaging, but costs $299?

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[paparazi]

The XFX 7900GT is running at the default speed of 450mhz for the GPU and 1.32ghz memory
Where as the eVGA is their KO overclocked version which runs 500mhz/1.5ghz

Are they different? only in as much as the eVGA comes "factory overclocked" which you could do for yourself with the XFX if you wanted to (memory and core are likely the same) although I believe eVGA do use a copper version cooler on this part.

Martin


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[BoulderBum]

Thanks again!

I can understand faster GPUs, more/newer RAM, but I have to admit, I find shopping for a graphics card confusing.

The Radeon X1950 is better than the Radeon 8800, there's the GeForce 7 series which is naturally faster than the 6 series, but who knows how it relates to the GeForce FX or nForce series.

You can get a card with 512 MB of DDR2 memory, but then there's another one with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory that's more expensive and while it's easy to assume that GDDR3 is better than DDR2, but how much better is it that buying only half the memory would be appealing.

Even when you find a card with a specific brand/model, the shopping doesn't end! There's designations like "Pro", "GT", "GTO", "KO", "Xtreme" all of which seem to be proprietary marketing terms!

I think I like upgrading software better than upgrading hardware. There's version 2, then you buy version 3. Easy cheesy.

Then again, with Vista Home, Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate plus the x64 versions, there's enough to keep my head spinning in the software department, too.





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[cdogg]

BoulderBum,
That's why a lot of peeps like you and I have a hard time keeping up with all the models! I used to stay neck and neck with the race between ATI and nVidia for so many years. Then about 2 years ago, I just lost interest for many of the reasons you brought up.

I can only say that last time I was paying attention, more memory on the video card didn't necessarily translate to better performance. It's still about clock/memory speed and architecture. Many games just don't need the full potential of 256MB yet, as the video card is often waiting for the motherboard's CPU/RAM to catch up. So 256MB usually provides enough headroom (for now anyway - you know it won't be long before we're seeing that 1GB is commonplace).

Yeah, I just don't know how nVidia and ATI are able to keep up with this endless charade...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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[Nelviticus]

It is baffling but thankfully sites like Tom's Hardware step up to the challenge of helping figure out which card is right for us.

If you visit

http://www.tomshardware.com

they have two links which are very useful - one is a comparative VGA chart where you can see graphs comparing the performance of dozens of cards under different circumstances, and the other is a simpler "which is the best card for my budget?" article. Both are frequently updated.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[kmcferrin]

Just to add to the confusion, I clicked both links and now they both show as $239 for me.

Here's the easier way to compare performance from the same GPU maker (i.e., comparing nVidia to nVidia or ATI to ATI):

If you go to their home page and look at the products you'll see them divided into distinct generations. Newer generations are faster than older generations. The main exception to that is when you're dealing with the sub-$100 cards. For example, an nVidia 7300-based card will usually be slower than an nVidia 6800 series card. But you can count on the rest of the 7000 series cards (7600 and up) on matching or beating the rest of the 6800 series.

Now if you are comparing cards within the same generation (this is where the GT, GTO, GTX, GS, XT, etc comes in) then the best differentiator of performance will be the technical specs. The three most important pieces of info will be core clock, memory clock, and number of pipelines. In most cases those three things will be the major difference between the entry level, midrange, and high end cards. Sites like NewEgg generally list this info too.

If you want to compare an nVidia card to an ATI card, then you're pretty much going to have to hit the benchmark sites to figure it out. Generally the top end cards from each manufacturer are roughly comparable in performance. Sometimes one is a little faster than the other. Nowdays it's more about personal preference, or Crossfire versus SLI, etc, than about raw performance.

 

[BoulderBum]

Just to add to the confusion, I clicked both links and now they both show as $239 for me.

That's funny.

I just got the MicroCenter ad today and it looks like a lot of stuff just went on sale.

Not bad prices on 150GB 10,000 RPM Raptors, either ($179.99 after rebate).

Nelviticus, good tip on TomsHarware.com. I've checked out their benchmarks before, but this is perfect:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/05/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/

It turns out I got one of "the best PCI-E graphics cards for ~$180", so that was reassuring.

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[cdogg]

BB,
If that's the first time you've heard of Tom's Hardware, then you should also bookmark

http://www.anandtech.com

and

http://www.hardwarezone.com

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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[BoulderBum]

I visit Tom's Hardware a fair bit to get benchmarks, but didn't know they had the frequently updated "best cards for the money" list.

I don't think I've ever visited hardwarezone.com before, though. I'll have to check it out.

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[paparazi]

The "VGA Charts" has been an ongoing feature on Tomshardware site (at least 3 years now) typically being updated twice yearly.
The Best Buy feature is much more recent and a very helpful tool when it comes to retail video card purchase.
It certainly helps with customer choice in the shop, being able to refer to this site.

Martin

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