graphics cards comparison (theoretical)

gsharm

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2006
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hi, i hope i'm not spamming here, but just thought i'd point out a comparision between graphics cards that me and some friends have been working on:

http://www.finaldigits.com/GraphicsCards.aspx

it's a basic comparison of the key features of interest in current graphics cards (pipelines, pixel shading/vertex shading throughput, memory bandwidth etc), and might make a handy reference to some of you upgrading.

we hope you find some of it helpful, anyway :) suggestions etc welcome.
 

Steelski

Senior member
Feb 16, 2005
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i dont really agree with some of the standings...especially with the X1600 standings. they seem a little high. but otherwise all looks nice.
 

gsharm

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2006
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the default ranking is based on pixel shader throughput, which seems to becoming the main performance indicator in upcoming/new titles and also even dictates performance in windows vista's hardware window rendering mode.

most current/older games though would still be more dependent on raw fillrate/TMUs, which is why the geforce cards still provide decent competition.

but by all means i think it's fair to assume a highly clocked part with 12 pixel shader pipelines (such as the X1600) is a very good bet for upcoming games that demand shader processing capabilities more than previous generation titles (where the higher fillrates and bandwidth on the geforce cards has always helped).

if you look at the comparison between the 7800GTX and X1900XT cards you'll see a similar thing happening - the X1900XTs have less piplelines at similar clock speed but their disproportionately added pixel shader pushing power pulls them significantly ahead in some titles.
 

mwmorph

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2004
8,877
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not bad, but therotically is bad. ati cards are usually less efficent. x850xyt is slower than a 7800gt.
x1600xt is way slower than a 6800ultra.
7800gs is faster than a x850 pro/x800xl
6800xt is slower than 6800gs
x800pro si slower than 6800gs
6800 is a little faster than a 6600gt

too many inconsistencies and gpixel output is not min determinant of performance. nice looking page though.

x1600pro are horrible. they have 12 pixel shaders at high frequencies but the texture rops actually bottlenecks any help that the pixel shaders could do. 4 rops makes it abbout as slow as a 6600gt. x1600xt is same, but slightly faster.
 

gsharm

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2006
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it is currently ranked by pixel shader throughput, which perhaps isn't the best way of ranking them overall. if you check the individual bars you will find that things balance out. thanks for the feedback however i will try and make some adjustments to make it more meaningful :)
 

gsharm

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2006
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ok, the ranking is now based on raw fillrate.

maybe it will be re-adjusted after windows vista and a few more next gen titles get released ;)

let me know of any other thoughts. thank you for the constructive feedback.
 

mwmorph

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2004
8,877
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well now the 7800gtx 512 is winning even though x1900 is much faster.

i think some formula should be thunk up for this something about averaging out fillrate v.s. vertex shading, texture rop, memory bandwith, etc.

then you have to remember, the intergenerational gap. The next generatino is usually much different from the previous as far as effectiveness of it's use of resources is concerned.
 

gsharm

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2006
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yeah. tricky balance :)

the problem with thinking up a generic formula would be that it different games use these aspects of performance in different ways and amounts, so it again would be vague at best.

perhaps i'll try and build up a set of real gaming scores to add to this, but then inconsistencies between different CPUs across generations adds to the complication. it wouldn't be fair to keep around athlon 64 + radeon x800 scores now when next year everyone will have athlon X2s (or X4s) with their graphics cards.

anyway, i hope this helps as a vague guide of sorts. as long as it's understood most modern and older games are likely to still run faster on the geforce 7800 GTX 512mb, and that newer titles that use pixel shaders a lot will get a boost from the HUGE pixel shading throughput advantage on the newer radeons :)