Fast 3D graphics cards (Albatron, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire)
In the last few months, the world of graphics cards has seen so many leaps forward that now a 64MB DDR board - which would have been top of the range some six months ago - is considered to be a budget, entry level card. Graphics cards fitted with 128MB of DDR memory are now very much the norm.
Nvidia’s long-lasting dominance of all sectors of the desktop market, and for that matter much of the mobile market, has been shattered by ATI. In just a few months, ATI’s prodigious output of chip varieties has been breathtaking, to such an extent that there is now some form of Radeon option for almost every market segment.
With the recent introduction of AGP 8X (i.e. the ‘8-speed’ implementation of the Advanced Graphics Port connector), Nvidia has had the chance to revamp some of its existing line-ups. Although AGP 8X does little to enhance overall performance, it does help Nvidia in the marketing battle with other manufacturers, particularly ATI.
AGP 8X doubles the bandwidth of AGP 4X - from 1.1GB/s to 2.1GB/s - and enables more complex models and detailed textures, which allow games designers to create richer and more lifelike environments. The uninterrupted data flow provides for smoother video streaming and faster, more seamless gameplay.
Not that these two companies are the only players in the market, even if it can seem so at times. SIS (Silicon Integrated Systems), the Taiwanese chip manufacturer, has a new version of its successful Xabre GPU (graphics processing unit), the 600, on the way. This offers a mid-level alternative to the two big names, but unfortunately retail boards were not available in time for this round-up.
We’ve benchmarked all the cards, comparing features, price and performance to determine which offers the best value for money for each particular type of application.
As we concluded this group test we were also able to have a quick look at some of the latest generation of GPU (or VPU as ATI calls them) chips by using manufacturer’s reference boards. The results, which are also included here, show that the race for speed is far from over.