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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."

20 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 strider44 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      Try http://www.phoronix.com/

    4. Re:Unanswered Question. by strider44 · · Score: 3, Informative

      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)

      You presume right. Nowadays I don't buy anything but nVidia graphics cards - I like my Doom 3 and co. and I can never be bothered rebooting to Windows. Hell I got Serious Sam 2 with my 7600GT and I can't even be bothered installing it and playing it.

    5. 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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    6. 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. Feh by The_Isle_of_Mark · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I can't do 27,000,000,000,000 triangles a second for under $80 I'll not buy one!

  3. 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 Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Exactly! I use the horribly outdated and underpowered Geforce FX6600 card and I can play ANY game very nicely. Even the Quake 4 watermark is very VERY playable at 1024X768 at mid level quality settings.

      and the point is playability. because you can play at 1280X1024 at full res does not make it feel any better when the 13 year old kid waxes you hard every time with his 640X480 and lowest quality settings.

      if the game is smooth and fun then that is what matters.

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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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  4. 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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  5. 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 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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  6. A better option by Doomstalk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Budget video cards almost always suck. You're better off buying the best of the previous generation or, even better, buying refurbished or open box hardware from sites like Newegg. I was browsing their open box section the other day for a friend, and came across a Radeon x1600 Pro 256mb for $90. A little bit more money than their target, but for $10 you get a card that's not intentionally crippled.

  7. Power hungry and Noisy by pjrc · · Score: 3, Informative
    Ok, I thought, "hmm, maybe this is the time to upgrade that crappy but silent card I bought some time ago?". I believe it was a nvidia 6600LE... which as I understand is the graphics equiv of the low-end 6200, but has its own dedicated 256 meg memory.

    Why would I buy that? Well, cost wasn't the concern. At the time, it was the best card on the market that was passively cooled. No fan = no extra noise!

    So I clicked the link to TFA, and jumped right to the end, and it turns out the quietest card is 44 dBA. No thanks! Not after the low noise power supply, an after-market super-quiet chipset heatsink/fan, and installing 120 mm low-rpm fans (20 dBA), and the quiet Seagate drive. Even worse, from TFA:

    Unfortunately, none of our budget cards are intelligent enough to lower fan speeds at idle, and none offer silent, passive cooling

    So does anyone know of better cards that ARE passively cooled, and will work inside a case with scant airflow due to using large but very low speed fans.

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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. And the winner is.... by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Their conclusion? The best budget card is the most expensive one they looked at, the Radeon X1300 Pro.

  10. 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!

  11. 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.