Radeon Video Card Hierarchy

[homestarmy]

Hey guys, can someone please enlighten me on the hierarchy from lowest to highest as far as Radeon video cards go? The way they release them is erratic, and as I have seen, a higher number doesn't necessarily mean a faster card.

Any gems out there... for maybe under $100? I'm biased towards ATI, but I could possibly do a GeForce card. Light gaming, but I would like current games to at least be smooth at low resolutions.

 

[homestarmy]

And if you're up for it, can you tell me the equivalents in GeForce cards...?

 

[Badjokesben]

For less than 100 I'd say a Geforce 4 Ti 4200. Great for light gaming and it's about 80.

I don't know all the cards of the top of my head and I may be inventing some but here we go (from lowest to highest):

Radeon 9200 = FX 5200
Radeon 9100 (last gen card) = FX 5200
Radeon 9500 (last gen card) = FX 5600
Radeon 9600 = FX 5700
Radeon 9500 Pro (Last gen card)
Radeon 9600 Pro = FX 5700U
Radeon 9600 XT = FX 5700U
Radeon 9800
Radeon 9700 Pro (Last Gen card) = FX 5800
Radeon 9800 Pro = FX 5900U
Radeon 9800 XT = FX 5950U
Radeon X800 Pro 256 (next gen card) = 6800 GT or 6800
Radeon X800 XT (next gen card) = 6800U

There is also All in Wonder models and even older generations that those. There are also SE models that I won't bother to mention. The 9800 Pro comes in 128MB and 256MB versions. I may be wrong on some, so someone correct me please. The equivalents are very rough equivalents.

Geforce FX 5200
Geforce FX 5600 (last gen card)
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (DirectX 8 card but great nontheless)
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4800
Geforce FX 5700
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra
Geforce FX 5800 (Last gen card)
Geforce FX 5900 XT
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB
Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB
Geforce 6800 (next gen)
Geforce 6800 GT (next gen)
Geforce 6800 Ultra (next gen)

 

[Corporate Thug]

the 9100 is better than the 9200 and there is a 9550 somewhere is there

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Badjokesben
For less than 100 I'd say a Geforce 4 Ti 4200. Great for light gaming and it's about 80.

I don't know all the cards of the top of my head and I may be inventing some but here we go (from lowest to highest):

Radeon 9100 (last gen card) AKA RADEON 8500
Radeon 9200 AKA RADEON 9000

These two should be flipped -- the 9100 is faster than the 9000/9200.

Radeon 9500 (last gen card)
Radeon 9600
Radeon 9500 Pro (Last gen card)
Radeon 9600 Pro
Radeon 9600 XT

Note: the 9500Pro is faster than the 9600Pro, and sometimes a bit faster than the 9600XT. I'm not sure if the 9500 is faster than the 9600, but it wouldn't surprise me (and many 9500s can be softmodded into 9700Pros).

Radeon 9800
Radeon 9700 Pro (Last Gen card)

These two are very close in performance.

Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon 9800 XT
Radeon X800SE (next gen)
Radeon X800 Pro 256 (next gen card)
Radeon X800 XT (next gen card)

There is also All in Wonder models and even older generations that those. There are also SE models that I won't bother to mention. The 9800 Pro comes in 128MB and 256MB versions. I may be wrong on some, so someone correct me please.

Note that "SE" models have half the memory bandwidth of regular cards -- or, in the case of the 9800SE, half as many pipelines (and some of those ALSO have half the memory bandwidth). There are also 128-bit "9800Pro" cards on the market now; you have to be careful when buying them to make sure you get a 256-bit model. As far as the next-gen cards, the X800SE has 8 pipes, the X800Pro has 12, and the X800XT(PE) has 16.

Geforce FX 5200
Geforce FX 5600 (last gen card)
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (DirectX 8 card but great nontheless)
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4800
Geforce FX 5700
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra
Geforce FX 5800 (Last gen card)
Geforce FX 5900 XT ~= 5900SE
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB
Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB
Geforce 6800 (next gen)
Geforce 6800 GT (next gen)
Geforce 6800 Ultra (next gen)

 

[orangat]

I'm in the same boat, researching and one advise is to definitely make sure that your card is 128-bit or 256-bit (for Radeons/Nvidia). Even the Radeon 9800 has a 128-bit (instead of 256) version which sells for less which is a rip-off for the unwary consumer.
Check recent budget card threads. I'm on the verge of getting a 9800SE for softmodding.

ATIs website has comparison feature chart which helps some.

 

[Badjokesben]

Yeah, I didn't know the actual numbers so I put what I could think of. As far as the SE's, I didn't even want to bring them up since they are overpriced midrange cards IMO.

 

[Badjokesben]

Be very weary of 9800 Pro for less than 190. They are normally the 128 bit variety.

 

[SickBeast]

They shouldn't be allowed to call it a R9800PRO if it's only 128-bit. ATi should shut these guys down, it's giving them a bad name. On top of that, it only takes $15 at most for them to build a card that is 256-bit as opposed to a 128-bit one.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
They shouldn't be allowed to call it a R9800PRO if it's only 128-bit. ATi should shut these guys down, it's giving them a bad name. On top of that, it only takes $15 at most for them to build a card that is 256-bit as opposed to a 128-bit one.

That's really speculative. These could be made out of R350 chips that have problems in part of their memory controller, just as some 9800SEs are made from chips that have one or more bad pipelines. If that's the case, the marginal cost of *not* selling them as 128-bit cards (and just throwing them away) could be a lot higher.

I also think it should not be called a 9800Pro if it doesn't have a full 256-bit memory interface. The 64-bit 9200s are 9200SEs, and the 64-bit 9600s are 9600SEs. Shouldn't the 128-bit 9800s be 9800SEs? Or come up with some other extention to tack on the end of it...

 

[GeneralGrievous]

They shouldn't be allowed to call it a R9800PRO if it's only 128-bit. ATi should shut these guys down, it's giving them a bad name. On top of that, it only takes $15 at most for them to build a card that is 256-bit as opposed to a 128-bit one.

The cost difference between the cards is almost negligible. But using the 9800 pro's name induces foolish or uneducated people to buy one of them, get pissed off at performance, and buy another card.

 

[SickBeast]

I'm sure I could have easily bought one of those cards and I'm very experienced with computer hardware. I would have just assumed that since it's an R9800PRO that it would have a 256-bit bus. AFAIK it's a standard feature of the 9800 listed on ATi's website even.

It's dishonest business policy to produce/sell these cards as 9800's.

 

[Schadenfreudex]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Any gems out there... for maybe under $100?

Geforce 4 ti4200 is the best for under 100. New off pricewatch for around 80. DX 8 only
ATI 9600 Pro is only a little above at 110. Check the pinned thread in the hotdeals forum.
110 shipped from ATACOM. About the same power as a GF4 except it is a full DX 9 card so it's
a little more furture proof.

Yeah those 128 bit "9800 Pro"s are whacked.

 

[Elfear]

I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to graphic card stats. When you say the 9800Pros should be 256MB is that the memory bandwidth or the type of DDR ram? I've seen 9800Pros that advertise a 256Mb bandwidth and a 128MB DDR ram. From the review on Tom's Hardware it looks like the performance difference between the 256MB DDR and 128MB DDR models is negligible. Review
I'm buying one of these for my brother-in-law and I don't want to get him a piece of junk.

 

[Schadenfreudex]

Yeah the difference between 128 and 256 megabytes memory is not worth the money.
However, you for sure want a card with a 256 bit memory bus. 128 Megabyte memory with 256 bit bus is the best deal.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Elfear
I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to graphic card stats. When you say the 9800Pros should be 256MB is that the memory bandwidth or the type of DDR ram? I've seen 9800Pros that advertise a 256Mb bandwidth and a 128MB DDR ram. From the review on Tom's Hardware it looks like the performance difference between the 256MB DDR and 128MB DDR models is negligible. Review
I'm buying one of these for my brother-in-law and I don't want to get him a piece of junk.

The amount of memory (64, 128 or 256MB -- that's megabytes) is seperate from the width of the memory bus (64, 128, or 256 bits). Basically, the wider the bus, the faster the memory transfers data back and forth to the GPU on the card.

For a 9800Pro, you want a card with a 256-bit memory bus, and 128MB of RAM. You are correct in that doubling the amount of RAM does little for performance (except at super-high resolutions with AA and AF enabled -- and at those settings, even the 9800Pro runs slowly). However, cutting the memory bandwidth in half (128-bit as opposed to 256-bit) lowers performance significantly.

 

[Elfear]

That makes sense. I'll watch out for the 128-bit versions of the 9800Pro. Is any brandd better than another for that particular model? (Sorry to use your post homestarmy)

 

[PrayForDeath]

Sapphire's 9800P are good ~200$, but if you wanna get a card with a warranty that lasts longer, you could get a made-by-ATI 9800P, it costs a little more though (around 210 I guess)

edit: if you overclock, then you could forget about the warranty, and if you're looking for software bundles, I don't know much about that (each manufacturer has its own bundles), I hope somebody else helps you out in this.