Best Bang Per Buck Gaming Graphics Card, January 2010

Price [in US Dollar] / Graphics Card:

• (~$50) Radeon HD 4650
• (~$65) Radeon HD 4670
• (~$65) GeForce 9600 GSO
• (~$90) GeForce 9800 GT
• (~$110) Radeon HD 4850 512MB
• (~$110) GeForce GTS 250 512MB
• (~$125) GeForce GTS 250 1GB
• (~$125) Radeon HD 4850 1 GB
• (~$155) Radeon HD 5770
• (~$200) Radeon HD 4890
• (~$250) 2 x GeForce GTS 250 1GB in SLI Configuration
• (~$250) 2 x Radeon HD 4850 1GB in CrossFire Configuration
• (~$310) 2 x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire
• (~$400) Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration

 

If you are looking for a budget gaming card, the Radeon HD 4650 is it. In case you prefer Nvidia from ATI, your next choice is the GeForce 9600 GSO.

 

Looking for a nice single card, and would like to upgrade to SLI or Crossfire config later on? The GeForce GTS 250 1GB (for SLI) or Radeon HD 4850 1GB (for Crossfire) are good cards to consider. When the budget comes up, you can buy another card for that dual graphics setup. (Make sure your motherboard supports this first!)

 

[info derived from Tom’s Hardware article]

EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW Intel Motherboard Reviewed

The EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW ($US200) is a motherboard for Intel that features:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium EE, Pentium D, & Pentium processor support
• Nvidia nForce 750i SLI MCP and SPP chipset
• dual channel DDR2-800 memory support, up to 8GB
• 8x USB 2.0 ports
• 4x Serial ATA II, with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, and JBOD
• Gb LAN
• 2x 1394a ports
• Azalia High-Definition audio
• 2x PCI Express v2.0 x16 slots

"... users who would like to build an SLI graphics subsystem have very limited options when it comes to choosing mainboards for LGA 775 processors. Nvidia nForce 6 series doesn't support contemporary Intel processors, NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI and nForce 750i SLI run very warm and unstable during overclocking. ... we can only leave the decision making to SLI fans here. You may either use only one graphics card, or give up CPU overclocking altogether or overclock to pretty mediocre speeds. You may wait for new Nvidia chipsets or even switch to ATI graphics cards. The choice is yours, and at this time we cannot recommend any Nvidia nForce 750i SLI based mainboards. None of them are really good, so no wonder very few companies have them in their product range." [X-bit Labs | EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW Mainboard Review: Rehabilitated?]

As it seems, overclocking fans won't be interested in the nForce 750i SLI mobos. If you just have to have a system with an Intel processor and 2 graphics cards in SLI, probably the best way to have it is to run it at stock speeds.

Technorati : 750i, evga, intel, motherboard, nforce, nvidia, review, sli

Is Two GeForce 9600 GT Cards in SLI Worth It?

X-bit Labs tests a system with two (2) mainstream GeForce 9600 GT graphics cards in SLI, and compares its performance with premium-class single graphics cards. The idea is to know if this two 9600 GT tandem is a good alternative to the higher priced GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, GeForce 9800 GTX, or the Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards.

"The GeForce 9600 GT SLI configuration has done very well in our tests, showing high performance and proving that the G94 chip has optimal architecture. ... The GeForce 9600 GT SLI had higher performance than one such card in nearly all of our tests. ... But in most of the tests the GeForce 9600 GT SLI subsystem had the same or higher performance as such cards as ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. ... Summing it up, the GeForce 9600 GT SLI is currently a high-quality and fast graphics subsystem." [X-bit Labs | Affordable Multi-GPU: Two GeForce 9600 GT in SLI]

So, is it worth it to put two 9600 GTs in SLI? If you already have a single 9600 GT, and a motherboard that supports SLI, then buying a second 9600 GT is a great affordable graphics upgrade, increasing graphics performance to the level of the GeForce 9800 GTX and Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards.

Technorati : 9600, card, geforce, graphics, gt, nvidia, review, sli

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX Cards Reviewed

Tom's Hardware, AnandTech, ExtremeTech, HardwareZone test the new Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX graphics cards (US$299 - 349).

GeForce 9800 GTX Baseline Specs:

• G92 Core Code
• 65nm manufacturing process
• 675MHz Core Code
• 128 Stream Processors
• 1688MHz Stream Processor Clock
• 2200MHz GDDR3 Memory Clock
• 256-bit DDR Memory Bus
• 70.4GB/s Memory Bandwidth
• PCIe ver 2.0 x16 interface
• SLI Multi GPU technology