X-bit labs

Seven Friends of a Gamer: GPUs vs. Games Spring 2007 (page 4)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 03/30/2007 | 12:55 PM ]

Performance-Mainstream Class

The Radeon X1900 XT once used to be a definite leader among Performance-Mainstream products. It used to have most advanced technical characteristics in the class, but now it is challenged by the dangerous GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. Our tests show that the new card from Nvidia enjoys a big advantage in low resolutions, but the gap between the two shrinks from 30% to less than 15% in 1600x1200 already. It must be due to the lack of graphics memory (this GeForce has 320 megabytes of memory as opposed to the AMD card’s 512 megabytes). The Radeon X1900 XT then strikes back in 1920x1200, outperforming the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB by about 20%.

The GeForce 7950 GT cannot compete with the Radeon X1900 XT and was never meant to, actually. The Radeon X1900 XT used to be opposed by the GeForce 7900 GTX, which is currently out of production but can be still seen in shops, and is currently successfully rivaled by the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. Instead, the GeForce 7950 GT attacks the Radeon X1950 Pro, and indeed with some success. The speed is comfortably high in resolutions up to and including 1280x1024, which is good considering how large the scenes of Battlefield 2142 are. The GeForce 7900 GS is obviously limited by the speed of its GPU. It cannot stand competition in the Performance-Mainstream class and is not a rival to the Radeon X1950 Pro. We’ll view this graphics card as belonging with the Mainstream class henceforth.

So, the GeForce 7950 GT and the Radeon X1950 Pro are practically equals if you put aside the latter’s higher-quality anisotropic filtering. Considering the arrival of the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB with its official price of $299, these graphics cards are going to move one step down, into the Mainstream category.

At this time it’s hard to predict the future market situation as AMD can only respond with the Radeon X1950 XTX which belongs to a higher price category. The Radeon X1900 XT is a leader among graphics cards with non-unified architecture in this class, but is slower than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB in the display resolutions demanded most by the gamer.

There is only one thing I can conclude with all certainty: GeForce 7900 GS should only be purchased if you’re replacing an even weaker graphics card or have been using an integrated graphics core, and also if you are not planning on enabling full-screen antialiasing in modern games and own a not very powerful power supply unit.

Mainstream Class

The performance difference between Radeon X1650 XT and GeForce 7600 GT is smaller, than between Radeon X1950 Pro and GeForce 7900 GS, yet it is noticeable and is not in favor of the Nvidia solution, either. The speeds are not sufficient for comfortable gaming, though. The average frame rate is about 40fps in the lowest resolution of the pure speed mode whereas you want 60fps to have full comfort in a first-person 3D shooter.

You can achieve a higher speed by lowering the level of detail, but the game’s visuals will suffer as a consequence. Thus, the graphics hardware from the bottom segment of the mainstream class does not suit quite right for playing Battlefield 2142.