Performance Overview

Now that we've covered all of the various graphics cards that are currently available, you might be wondering which solution is really best for your needs. Users looking to upgrade to a faster graphics card might also be wondering how their current hardware compares to newer hardware, and how much money they might need to spend on an upgrade. One of the critical factors in determining how much graphics power you need is going to be your display. If you don't run at high resolutions with antialiasing, you really don't need a ton of horsepower for most games. Running tons of benchmarks with most of the graphics cards we've mentioned on a variety of games is beyond the scope of this article; however, we've created a rough summary of what sort of resolutions and detail settings you should be able to get from the various GPUs on the latest games. (Older titles are less demanding, so you should be able to crank up the details/resolution.)

This is of course somewhat ad hoc, and individual opinions about what is acceptable will vary, but you should be able to get some general guidelines of what to purchase - either for a new system or as an upgrade to your current hardware.

Approximate Performance Ranking
GPU Resolution Detail Price
Radeon X300 SE 640x480-800x600 Minimum-Med; 0xAA $38
GeForce 6200 TC 640x480-800x600 Minimum-Med; 0xAA $38
Radeon X300 LE 640x480-800x600 Minimum-Med; 0xAA $70
GeForce 7100 GS 640x480-800x600 Minimum-Med; 0xAA $49
Radeon X550 HM 640x480-1024x768 Low-Med; 0xAA $47
Radeon X550 640x480-1024x768 Low-Med; 0xAA $60
Radeon X700 640x480-1024x768 Low-Med; 0xAA $75
GeForce 7300 LE 640x480-1024x768 Low-Med; 0xAA $52
GeForce 7300 GS 640x480-1024x768 Low-Med; 0xAA $59
Radeon X1300 800x600-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $52
GeForce 6600 LE 800x600-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $66
Radeon X1300 Pro 800x600-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $75
GeForce 7300 GT 1024x768-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $75
Radeon X1300 XT 1024x768-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $108
Radeon X1600 Pro 1024x768-1280x1024 Low-High; 0xAA $91
GeForce 6600 GT 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $85*
Radeon X1600 XT 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $119
Radeon X1650 Pro 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $105
Radeon X800 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $85*
GeForce 6800 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $90*
GeForce 7600 GS 1024x768-1280x1024 Med-High; 0xAA $109
Radeon X1600 Pro CF 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $182
Radeon X800 Pro 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $125*
GeForce 6800 GT 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $175*
GeForce 6800 GS 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $135*
GeForce 6800 SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $170*
GeForce 6600 GT SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $170*
GeForce 7300 GT SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $150
GeForce 6800 Ultra 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $175*
Radeon X850 XT 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $135*
GeForce 7600 GT 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $135
Radeon X1650 XT 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $156
GeForce 7800 GS 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $230
GeForce 7600 GS SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $218
Radeon X1600 XT CF 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $238
Radeon X1650 Pro CF 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-2xAA $210
Radeon X1800 GTO 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $145
GeForce 7900 GS 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $186
Radeon X1800 XL 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $240*
Radeon X1900 AIW 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $220
GeForce 7800 GT 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $185*
GeForce 6800 GS SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $270*
GeForce 6800 GT SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $350*
GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI 1024x768-1600x1200 Med-High; 0x-4xAA $350*
GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $250*
Radeon X1800 XT 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $300*
Radeon X1900 GT v2.0 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $176
GeForce 7900 GT 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $246
Radeon X1900 GT 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $176
Radeon X1650 XT CF 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $312
GeForce 7600 GT SLI 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 0x-4xAA $270
GeForce 7950 GT 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $249
GeForce 7800 GTX 512 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $460*
Radeon X1950 Pro 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $206
GeForce 7900 GTO 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $310
Radeon X1900 XT 256MB 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $275
GeForce 7800 GS SLI 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $460
GeForce 7800 GT SLI 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $370*
GeForce 7900 GS SLI 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $372
GeForce 7900 GTX 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $430
Radeon X1900 XT 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $335
Radeon X1900 XTX 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $400
Radeon X1950 XT 256 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $259
Radeon X1950 XTX 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $378
Radeon X1900 GT CF 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $352
Radeon X1800 XT CF 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $600*
Radeon X1950 Pro CF 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $412
GeForce 7800 GTX SLI 1280x1024-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $500*
GeForce 7900 GT SLI 1600x1200-1920x1200 High; 2x-4xAA $492
GeForce 7950 GX2 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 0x-4xAA $465
GeForce 8800 GTS 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 0x-4xAA $455
GeForce 7950 GT SLI 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 0x-4xAA $498
GeForce 7800 GTX 512 SLI 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 0x-4xAA $920*
GeForce 7900 GTO SLI 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 0x-4xAA $620
GeForce 7950 GX2 QSLI 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 2x-4xAA $930
GeForce 7900 GTX SLI 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 2x-4xAA $860
Radeon X1900 XT CF 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 2x-4xAA $770
Radeon X1950 XTX CF 1600x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 2x-4xAA $774
GeForce 8800 GTX 1920x1200-2560x1600 High-Max; 2x-4xAA $610
GeForce 8800 GTS SLI 1920x1200-2560x1600 Maximum; 2x-4xAA $910
GeForce 8800 GTX SLI 1920x1200-2560x1600 Maximum; 4xAA $1220
* - Prices for these parts are prone to fluctuation, as these are discontinued products.

You can see in most instances that two slower GPUs will end up offering a worse price/performance ratio than a single faster GPU. That's why we've downplayed multi-GPU configurations throughout this article. Why buy two 7300 GT cards when you can get a single 7600 GT for less money? Until you max out the single GPU options, there's not much point in buying two GPUs.

In terms of the recommended settings, we generally feel that you should disable antialiasing and increase your resolution first, and only when you are running at your monitor's maximum/native resolution would we begin to worry about turning on antialiasing. That is especially true with LCDs, as running at anything less than the native resolution will tend to create a blurry effect. If you disagree and prefer lower resolutions with antialiasing, on average turning on 4xAA will have the same impact on performance as increasing the resolution one or two notches, i.e. 1024x768 4xAA will often run about as fast as 1280x1024-1600x1200 0xAA. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but it should serve as a good baseline estimate.

The recommended settings listed on the table above are basically an estimate of what settings more recent/demanding games will allow you to use - games like Prey, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2, Company of Heroes, etc. There are a lot of overlapping resolutions listed, which is to be expected. For example, the difference between an X1800 XT and an X1800 XTX isn't going to be so great that the latter allows you to run higher detail settings. If you are looking at upgrading your graphics card, you'll want to get something that opens the possibility of running clearly improved resolutions/settings. As another example, we wouldn't recommend upgrading from a GeForce 6800 GT to a GeForce 7600 GT, because even though the latter is faster they are fundamentally similar in terms of performance. You would be better off spending a bit more money to get something like a Radeon X1950 Pro instead, so that you would truly notice a difference in performance.

Extreme Performance GPUs Final Recommendations
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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:

    quote:

    Please keep in mind that Windows Vista will not be available to end-users until the end of January. We'd like to assure you that Vista drivers for the GeForce 8800 will be available to download when Vista ships to end users at the end of January.


    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.

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