Price Guides, June 2005: Video Cards
by Kristopher Kubicki on June 26, 2005 3:49 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
High End Graphics
In all fairness to ATI, NVIDIA doesn't have nearly as clear cut victory in the $200 to $300 segment. Most AGP GeForce 6800GT video cards are just barely breaking the $300 barrier with mail in rebates (if that even counts?). On the PCIe end, GeForce 6800GT cards are ridiculously expensive still, upwards of $350. If you don't care about SLI - and if you follow our price guides enough you probably shouldn't right now - X800XL cards are really competitive on PCIe. Derek has some excellent benchmarks demonstrating where the X800XL falls in relation to the GeForce 6800GT, but on any game with DX9 the results are very comparable. Below you can see how the price on the ASUS Radeon X800XL PCIe [RTPE: EAX800XL/2DTV/256] cards continues to plummet.
ASUS Radeon X800XL 256MB
We really like PCIe - and the X800XL is another case where the better value goes to a PCIe card opposed to an AGP one. 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.
With the Radeon X800XL, the other Radeon X800 lines seem almost foolish to buy. Sapphire's vanilla AGP Radeon X800 256MB [RTPE: 100117] may be the only exception to that, but for $10 more you can buy the Connect3D X800XL; the decision should be easy. For the PCIe camp, Sapphire's X800 256MB [RTPE: 100107] is the card to buy. MSI has a very tempting X800 128MB [RTPE: MS-8997-01S] version floating around for the PCIe bus but be wary of the memory size when buying. Below you can see how Radeon X800 prices have stabilized - even increased - over the last couple months.
Sapphire X800 256MB
Sapphire X800XL 256MB
As we mentioned earlier (and in the last couple price guides), the 6800GT cards really only make sense for the AGP market, even if you have your heart absolutely set on SLI. With the introduction of GeForce 7800GTX, buying a 6800GT for SLI configuration would be a really poor idea. You can buy a single GeForce 7800GTX for just under the cost of an XFX GeForce 6800GT [RTPE: PVT45GUD] (even after the rebate). So if you're going to buy two, the 7800GTX is the way to go. As for an AGP recommendation, the AGP equivalent of the card we just mentioned is the best way to go [RTPE: PVT40AUD]. It is more cost effective to buy an X800XL on PCIe, particularly if you play DX9 games, but some people just refuse to let go of their AGP bus.
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at80eighty - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
the "By the power of Castle Greyskull" bit above the graph on the 1st page was corny..but i still laughed ..thanx!hoppa - Monday, June 27, 2005 - link
I agree with #2. It would be great to see charts that show some performance per dollar figure for each card. And if you are doing that you'll almost certainly do something else along the way which I'd love to see: a general performance rating of procs/VCs/anything, based on some compilation of all the benchmark data you have. Once that number is in, just divide it by the cost and you have cost per $ as well, and that would be very helpful for a great many people.dumbnewbie - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
Aww yeah! Sitting here with an Asus v7700 GeForce2 Ti! Still haven't seen anything new come out yet to make me switch, even FAR items. Give me dual HDTV like supposed PS3 with only a heatsink for cooling and maybe I'll be interested. Oh and my other computer is using a TNT2.cryptonomicon - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
hmm, is it safe to still buy 128mb cards?shouldnt i buy a 256 for the future?
Dukemaster - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
but=bought :PDukemaster - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
I just but a second handed XFX Geforce 6800 256MB for just 190, with over a year of warranty left on it. Now that's what i call a sweet deal.bloc - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
Some of the suggestions are obviously made without plotting $$ vs FPS.Every $30 is a new market segment.
So with the 9800 pro at $125 and the 6600 GT at $151
That's a 20% increase in price. Well the FPS for major games is about a 15% spread too. This makes the 9800 pro a solid deal as it provides as good $$ vs fps ratio as the 6600 GT. I can easily recommend a 9800 pro or a 6600 GT. This wasn't the case 3 months ago as the 9800 pro and 6600 GT were the same price.
A FPS vs $$ graph is a way better way to compare video cards than raw prices.
ryanv12 - Sunday, June 26, 2005 - link
ha, that 512mb 6200 kills me. I kind of want to get one just to tell everyone I have a 512mb card ;)