Onboard vs. Dedicated Video - A Special Case

[leptooners]

So, here's my problem.

I have a mobo with the ATI Radeon HD 4290 onboard GPU. I also have an old Dell Geforce 6800. I don't know which is better, maybe you can help.

Here are the specs of both GPUs.

ATI Radeon HD 4290
Interface: Integrated - 890GX Chipset
Core Clock: 700mhz
Mem Clock: 1333mhz DDR3
RAM: 128mb SidePort onboard memory + 512mb shared
Shader Pipelines: 40
DirectX Version: 10.1

nVidia Geforce 6800
Interface: PCI-Express 1.0
Core Clock: 325mhz
Mem Clock: 350mhz DDR1
RAM: 256mb discrete
Shader Pipelines: 12
DirectX Version: 9

Will the 6800 be better automatically, simply because it's dedicated? Note that I cannot use Hybrid CrossFireX because this is an nVidia card, but I'd guess that the equivalent ATI card would be too old for that anyway.

 

[CurseTheSky]

What are you trying to do with the computer, play games? If so, what games, and what resolution do you game at?

 

[Vette73]

Yea hard to say. The 6800 might bet better in some older games due to being non-shared memory.
But the 4290 will have better video decoding.

Really just spend $25 and get a 5450 and have good video decoding and better light gameplay.

 

[leptooners]

I'd normally have no problem spending $25 (or $100 for that matter) on a video card, but it's christmas and I'm in debt up to my eyeballs for the foreseeable future. lol

I would like to play all the latest games, but as it is now with the 6800 OCed to 580/420mhz, I play The Sims 3 + all expansions on med-high settings (AA turned off) in 1024x768 with about 40 FPS average, FFXI on max settings in 1280x1024 with 80 FPS average, and Civilization 5 on med-high settings (AA turned off) in 1280x1024 with 35 FPS average. I play some other games but those are the only ones I have installed right now. Note that this is NOT the mobo with the 4290. This is an older Pentium D 940 system with DDR2 ram.

I'll be playing games (at 1280x1024) way more often than encoding video, but I do home movies every now and then.

EDIT: OH you said DEcoding LOL. Yeah I will be watching HD movies but not nearly as often as I play games.

 

[Vette73]

I lean toward the 6800 for games, but that may change on the game and settings.

But easy way to tell is play with onboard then put card in and retest.

You could always leave the card in and just turn it on/off in the Bios to use with which one works better

 

[NoQuarter]

Hm, digging through some benchmarks it seems like the Radeon HD 4290 IGP should be a bit faster than the 6800 GT.

The HD4290 IGP is about 1/3 the speed of a Radeon 5450, which is equal to a Radeon 4650, which is about 5-6 times faster than the 6800GT. If everything works out right the onboard should be 2x the speed of the 6800GT.

The IGP is clocked pretty high and even though its 128MB onboard memory and 512MB shared memory are all DDR3 instead of DDR1. Additionally you'll get much better driver support on the HD 4290 than the 6800GT. I can't even use anything past 176.xx for my 6600GT.

 

[leptooners]

Thanks NoQuarter. That really helps.

 

[Arkadrel]

the ATI 4290 is faster than the Geforce 6800.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

My guess is that they'll effectively be the same. The 6800 faster in some situations and the 4290 faster in others. You may not even notice the difference anyway. Just stick with the 4290 and save power consumption.

Radeon 5450, which is equal to a Radeon 4650

4650 is much faster than a 5450, so that throws all of your estimations out the window. Did you mean the 3650? 5450 should be pretty close to a 3650, but I'm not sure a 3650 is 6 times faster than a 6800GT. Maybe it is, but I don't think anyone has done any real-world testing with these two old cards.

 

[NoQuarter]

My guess is that they'll effectively be the same. The 6800 faster in some situations and the 4290 faster in others. You may not even notice the difference anyway. Just stick with the 4290 and save power consumption.


4650 is much faster than a 5450, so that throws all of your estimations out the window. Did you mean the 3650? 5450 should be pretty close to a 3650, but I'm not sure a 3650 is 6 times faster than a 6800GT. Maybe it is, but I don't think anyone has done any real-world testing with these two old cards.

Oops you're right. Guess I got mixed up with the 4550 while comparing benches. In that case they look about equal as you said. So only benefit will be drivers.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Get a GT240 for around $40 or an HD5670 for around $60

 

[Absolution75]

The ATI card is dx10 right? The 6800 series is only dx9. They are probably very close though. . .

 

[leptooners]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

The ATI card is dx10 right? The 6800 series is only dx9.

Yes and yes.

Get a GT240 for around $40 or an HD5670 for around $60

I'm broke. You wanna buy me one?

 

[thescreensavers]

lol, I paid 400 bucks for my 6800gt, now its beat by 50 buck cards

yea I know but damn

 

[RavenSEAL]

I'm broke. You wanna buy me one?

Stop buying beer for 2 weeks and you'll have enough to buy one.

 

[Arkadrel]

lol, I paid 400 bucks for my 6800gt, now its beat by 50 buck cards

yea I know but damn

Its beat by a "free" onboard video card, that comes with the motherboard you buy. ^-^

 

[Absolution75]

On a side note, how much faster is the 6800 GT than intel's integrated x3100? I have both sitting at home.

 

[Vette73]

On a side note, how much faster is the 6800 GT than intel's integrated x3100? I have both sitting at home.

I would think it would beat intels 3100 easy. Hell it beat a 4500 probably.

 

[leptooners]

Stop buying beer for 2 weeks and you'll have enough to buy one.

I don't drink, but I smoke like a chimney so even if you're trying to be sarcastic you kinda have a point. lol

 

[Ben90]

lol, I paid 400 bucks for my 6800gt, now its beat by 50 buck cards

yea I know but damn

Crap, my $600 7800GTX is now competing with IGPs.