X-bit labs

Mainstream Graphics Cards of the Spring 2004: Overclocker’s Best Choice

Category: Video

by Tim Tscheblockov

[ 04/24/2004 | 11:55 AM ]

Today we would like to offer you the second part of our extensive roundup including all existing mainstream solutions from the two leading graphics chip developers of today: ATI and NVIDIA. We will review and test 13 graphics card to see how they compare with one another in different testing environments, games, and during overclocking. Make the right choice today with the help of our latest article!

Table of contents:

• ATI RADEON 9600 XT
  
• ATI RADEON 9600 PRO
  
• ATI RADEON 9600
  
• ATI RADEON 9600 SE
  
• ATI RADEON 9200
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GDD3
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 LE
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 XT
  
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
  
• NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200-8x
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance in Gaming Tests
  
• Far Cry Demo
  
• Halo
  
• Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
  
• Deus Ex 2: Invisible War
  
• Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo
  
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
  
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  
• IL-2 Sturmovik: Aces
  
• Lock On: Modern Air Combat
  
• Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
  
• Conclusion
  

Every overclocker faces a difficult task when choosing the graphics card for his/her home system today. Instead of well-ordered ranks of graphics cards with sharp separating lines between price niches we see a confusing crowd of devices where high-quality and fast products stand next to value cards, which sometimes have a higher appeal to the user due to their lower price at a tradeoff of a slightly lower performance. Some graphics cards don’t even try to look fast – they just come under loud names, allure the user with cooler highlighting and take him by fright with the futuristic shape of the heatsink.

Many graphics cards are overclockable to some extent. There also exist unique graphics cards that offer you excellent overclocking opportunities or permit modification to reach the level of much more expensive products.

In our previous article, we examined top-tier expensive graphics cards and their cheaper versions. Each card underwent overclocking and, if possible, modification, like the RADEON 9800 SE. The frequencies and benchmark results that we achieved don’t pretend to be an etalon. Overclockability is of course an individual trait of each particular graphics card. I hope, though, that our testing the cards in popular games gives you more information about available products and helps you to make your shopping decisions.

In our previous review, graphics cards on the RADEON 9600 XT and GeForce FX 5700 Ultra were the bottom bar. We took them as mainstream products that could compete with “cheapened” top-end cards.

In this article, these graphics cards are on top as we are going to talk about mainstream graphics cards and their cheaper modifications. We also carry on our tradition of including graphics cards of a lower class, which look competitive against the mainstream produce.

By the way, the “lower class” means GeForce FX 5200, ATI RADEON 9200 and NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200-8x here. The latter two graphics processors were not originally positioned as “weak and cheap”, but after more advanced DirectX 9-comaptible GPUs appeared, their prices went down into the “value” sector. It doesn’t mean, though, that the RADEON 9200 and the GeForce4 Ti4200-8x have to lose in performance to their new neighbors in the price niche.

Well, you will see the results of the tests shortly. Right now, let’s examine graphics cards participating in today’s tests.