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Budget Graphics Cards Compared

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bang-for-the-buck dept.

EconolineCrush writes "Tired of reading reviews of high-end graphics cards that cost several hundred dollars or more? The Tech Report has a round-up of three budget cards that cost $80 or less. ATI's Radeon X1300 Pro, NVIDIA's GeForce 7300 GS, and S3's Chrome S27 are compared in an array of gaming, video playback, power consumption, and noise level tests against not only each other, but also a typical integrated graphics solution. As one might expect, the budget cards offer significantly better 3D performance than integrated solutions. What's even more impressive is the fact that even with newer games, the sub-$80 cards still have enough punch to deliver respectable performance."

24 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Unanswered Question. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK, the article tells us about 3dmark, quake 4 specs, video playback, etc etc etc.

    But, they don't tell us which one (if any) has a vendor supported OSS compatable driver.

    Since XGL, etc (and I'm sure I'm not alone here), I've been on the lookout for a cheap & good 3d card, that doesn't give me 'kernel tainted' messages when I insert the driver.

    Does anyone know if any of these have good open support (I'm going to presume patchy [at best] for ATI, closed fast drivers from nvidia & good drivers [but crappy hardware] for the s27)

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    1. Re:Unanswered Question. by Grant29 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That wasn't necessarily the point of the article though. They did a good job comparing the budget video cards for performance. Is there a linux tech site that reviews hardware under different flavors of linux? That would be a useful site. Especially if they dived into driver compatibility issues on different distributions.
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    2. Re:Unanswered Question. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They did a good job comparing the budget video cards for performance.

      Nitpicking I know, but they actually did a good job comparing the budget video cards+software driver for performance.

      The review (while great for gamers) is pretty useless to Apple + Linux fans out there... and as this is a mixed site, I thought I'd ask.

      Is there a linux tech site that reviews hardware under different flavors of linux? That would be a useful site. Especially if they dived into driver compatibility issues on different distributions.

      That would be pretty cool - that's what I was hoping someone would reply to my comment with a link to! :-)

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    3. Re:Unanswered Question. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nowadays I don't buy anything but nVidia graphics cards

      Well - if performance is all you care about, you're making the right decision.

      However, some people are worried about including closed software in their kernel - they don't want linux to turn into the windows driver bugfest for starters....

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    4. Re:Unanswered Question. by BecomingLumberg · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The review (while great for gamers) is pretty useless to Apple + Linux fans out there... and as this is a mixed site, I thought I'd ask.

      I would argue that a article that is useful to a vast majority of users has certainly achieved its goal.

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    5. Re:Unanswered Question. by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 2, Insightful

      However, some people are worried about including closed software in their kernel - they don't want linux to turn into the windows driver bugfest for starters....

      While you can verify and possibly enhance an open source video driver, being oss is no guarantee for quality, neither is being closed source a guarantee for lack of quality. Incidentely, nvidia has done pretty well with regards to this where ati consistently makes a mess out of it.

    6. Re:Unanswered Question. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      being oss is no guarantee for quality, neither is being closed source a guarantee for lack of quality.

      I'm afraid that it's a guarantee for lack of support. (Running a tainted kernel guarantees you won't recieve support from the core kernel group if you're having troubles.)

      Furthermore, while being oss is no guarantee of quality, inclusion in the mainline kernel tree is (to some extent anyway).

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    7. Re:Unanswered Question. by TheJediGeek · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Most new OEM computers often have integrated crap for video, so a budget card would let them be able to game. Now, how likely are they to come across this review, well that is kinda doubtful.

      While it's true that most OEM computers DO come with integrated video, how many will also come with a PCI-E slot? Most of the time you'd be lucky to get an AGP slot, let alone a PCI-E slot.
      If there were some fairly new AGP budget cards, that would seem to be more useful than a budget PCI-E card.

    8. Re:Unanswered Question. by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And if it doesn't? Seems to be an awful lot of weird behaviour that only happens to people running nvidia's DRI. Nvidia's not going to help you with other hardware, kernel folk aren't going to help you if you're running a tainted kernel.

      First of all, I have used nvidia drivers on different platforms, including Windows, Linux (various distributions including FC4, Debian (testing from about 6 months ago), Gentoo) and FreeBSD. On none of those I found that the nvidia drivers were generally the cause of problems. In cases where they were, and where it was reported to nvidia, there usually followed a fix for the problem.

      If you can show that their code causes the problem then they will at least try to help. I can say this from repeated experience. Yes it would be nicer if all the source was available. Yes you do run a risk of ending up with unsupported hardware over time when relying on a closed source driver, but knowing those risks, I find it highly preferable over not having the functionality it provides, esp. since as long as you don't buy the latest and greatest cards, I can buy a new one for less then I get payed for an hour of work.

      So, what you indeed lack in support from the kernel developers, you can at least partly get back. But hey, pick whatever works best for you.

      Supposed bugs or their potential existance is not an argument for using one piece of software or the other, all software has bugs, but few of those affect you most likely. Quality of code, seriousness of potential bugs, how do those get fixed, and support in general are usually good arguments however. If you feel more comfortable with only using open source software then be my guest, but stop spreading fud while trying to convince the world that your view is the only valid one.

      And tested in more hardware configurations then nvidia ever will...

      Yes. nothing new there. Guess what, in most untested cases it still works.

      And it's not so easy to get code put into the kernel as you think - the code has to be portable, 64/32 bit safe, smp & kernel preemption friendly, etc etc. Many of these things will shake out bugs you wouldn't have known existed.

      I have been involved in OS development for over 15 years, I am pretty aware of all that. I have code in 2 operating systems that are in current use, and some in one that is no longer being used much. I have worked with Microsoft developers, IBM developers, Linux developers, FreeBSD developers and many others. Yes, writing software can be quite complex and difficult. Sometimes a large group does a better job at it, sometimes a tiny group of very dedicated people do a better job at it, there is no telling in advance.

      The one clear advantage that oss has is that you can interfer yourself, and while I have the capabilities often to do so, I seldom actually get to do so because in virtually all cases asking the current developers and providing them with GOOD INFORMATION for reproducing and locating the actual bug is a lot more effective, regardless of dealing with open source or closed source software.

  2. Impressive by suv4x4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's even more impressive is the fact that even with newer games, the sub-$80 cards still have enough punch to deliver respectable performance.

    No, what's impressive is that most gamers have been successfully brainwashed that they need a $500 video card to play a modern game, while the low range has been excellent for the past 3-4 years.

    At the same time, people are shocked about PS3 being $600. I wonder what the hell happened to common sense, where we lost it and will we find it again any time soon.

    1. Re:Impressive by fatduck · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As is explained every time this topic comes up, "most gamers" don't think they need $500 video cards. Cards are priced based on supply/demand, and eventually there will be a more advanced card for $500 and the old $500 card will be in a price range that we find reasonable. If they only made $80 video cards because they're "good enough" then what is the incentive to spend on R&D for better technology?

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    2. Re:Impressive by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, what's impressive is that most gamers have been successfully brainwashed that they need a $500 video card to play a modern game, while the low range has been excellent for the past 3-4 years.

      Case in point, my younger sibling has been nagging me for the last week for money to get a new graphics card. His current one runs fine. I tried explaining to him about buses and such in a effort to get across that the reason his games were running slow had little to do with the graphics card, and more to do with shoddy programming, a slow bus, etc, etc. He listen patiently and then proceeded to nag me more for ~$250 for a minor upgrade to the machines current graphics card.

      Meanwhile, when there are few agents on screen, every game runs smoothly and perfectly. On one game, Dawn of War, you can pause the action and rotate the camera around. When you do this, the pan is smooth regardless of the number of agents. This applies at reasonably high settings as well.

      Someday, maybe, people will realise that how good a game looks has less to do with the polygon count and texture rates than it has to do with artistic design. Super Mario World looks better than 95% of most games on the shelves today. It's image will stay in your mind long after the sterile landscapes of the current console high res wars have faded into oblivion.

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    3. Re:Impressive by iamlucky13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My personal experience has been that I start to have noteworthy trouble tracking with my crosshairs once the framerate falls below that off TV (24 Hz). Above that I consider it playable, although perhaps people whose eyes are more attuned to games are more sensitive. I don't notice any improvement in the fluidity of movement above 60 Hz, and I'm extremely skeptical of any North American gamer who claims otherwise. Any improvement above ~40 Hz appears very marginal to my eyes, so I go ahead and keep the settings turned up if I can manage, but I still have a blast playing Day of Defeat even though heavy smoke can momentarily drop my framerate down below 10 fps on my ancient GeForce 2.

  3. Just one question... by Vo0k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Will any of them give me more than 10 FPS during "Breaking Siege of Kvatch", "Battle for Bruma" and the final fight in Imperial City in Oblivion?
    That should be current benchmark method. All the budget cards I know of simply can't do it.

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  4. AGP versions? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it humorous that there is such a push for budget cards using a fairly new interface. Where are the AGP versions of these cards? You know, for people who really are on a budget and can't afford to buy a new motherboard to use with a new budget card...

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    1. Re:AGP versions? by deander2 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      the nvidia 6600 AGP is the best (and likely last) option you're going to have in AGP. AGP is dead for new product development.

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    2. Re:AGP versions? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not to mention, please find me a Socket A mobo that has a PCI-E slot. What? There are only a handful (none at newegg). And none have the same features that my current mobo has that I use. Suddenly, this "budget" videocard is costing me a new motherboard and processor, plus a handful of PCI cards. No thanks.

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  5. Are they bloody serious?! by ceeam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not much of a gamer but - well - my current Radeon 8500 looses it on most modern games (though I'm still happy with it in IL2 and GPL, that I mostly play). So I thought for some about a new video card (and a bloody new MB apparently since they decided to kill AGP, bastards). Nothing over $100-150 - just something with support for modern features and reasonable performance. Nice article for me....

    But hey!! Check out power consumption figures! They state 85 watts in idle and 145.6 watts under load for their "winner" card (Radeon X1300). W.T.F.?! That's like three times more than my 90nm AMD64 CPU, right? You know what - go to hell. Call me back when you have something reasonable with passive cooling.

  6. Instead of today's budget cards ... by Ihlosi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... just consider buying one of yesterdays "mainstream" cards. An X800 GTO will wipe the floor with any of the crippled budget cards, while being in the same price range (assumed you can find the version with 128 MB GDDR1 memory, the slightly faster GDDR3 versions cost a bit more).

  7. Compare that to people buying shoes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I've worked in the 12 volt industry for quite some time... mainly installs, and helping out with sales when needed. The same logic applies there. People buy the cheap radios that we all that work here know are going to crap out and are cheaply made. (Mainly jensen). The eclipse units are amazing but people still only go by the price. Yet these same people who can't see past the price savings are also the ones who have those $$$ Nike Shocks on. Ok... buy a nice radio that's going to be inside of a car, more or less out of the weather.... or buy some expensive ass shoes (cost as much as the entry level eclipse headunits we have) that are going to be walking around in dirt, water when it rains, etc.

    Same can apply to any consumer electronics... get the cheap DVD player, the cheap receiver, but I'm gonna spend that cash on them shocks!

    1. Re:Compare that to people buying shoes! by LunaticTippy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I disagree. My attidude has been "It's all made in China, buy on price" and it has served me well. My cheapest-I-could-find dvd player is on its 5th year. My friend who got a low-end "videophile" dvd player is on his 3rd.

      You shouldn't get equipment that is missing features, or that has easily perceptible video/sound quality problems. Aside from that, buy on price. It'll only get better and cheaper. Don't act like it's an investment. It's a commodity that is constantly and rapidly dropping in value.

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  8. Comparison to older cards? by CSG_SurferDude · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why don't they ever compare graphics cards to slightly older cards? I have an ATI 9200 but have not a clue if these cards are the worse, the same, or better than the card I already have in my box...

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  9. Not budget cards!! by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's the point in reviewing budget cards if the require investing in a top computer?

    All of the cards require PCI express and consume extreme amounts of power requiring motherboards and PSU less than a year old!

  10. IMHO, LCD monitors caused much of this.... by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With a CRT monitor, all of the supported resolutions display equally well. Unfortunately, as gamers upgraded to fancy, new 19" and 21" LCD monitors, they only look good at a single, native resolution - which is usually much higher than people ran their CRTs at.

    This translates to needing a beefier graphics card to get the frame-rates you expect, vs. the "old way" of just playing all your 3D games at a lower resolution like 800x600.