Monday, May 01, 2006
ATI vs. Nvidia - $300 and $500 Price Points Examined
The x1900xtx and 7900gtx are flagship products; they offer the best performance possible for a single card from either camp. For the rest of us though we can put a pretty decent computer together for around $1000, so $500 just for the video card is out of the question. $300 is much more manageable but what exactly do you loose with that $200 in savings?
ATI’s x1900xtx and x1800xt are for all intents and purposes identical visually so I don’t need to bore you with two pictures. They share the exact same cooler and even the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is pretty much identical.
The differences come to light with the cores used on these cards. The x1800xt is based on the R520 core for example which features 16 Texture Units, 16 ROPs, 16 Pixel Shaders and 8 Vertex Shaders. The R580 on which the x1900xtx is based, everything is left unchanged with the exception of an additional 32 Pixel Shaders. Yes you read that correctly, the R580 features a total of 48 Pixel Shaders, double that of even the 7900gtx. The x1900xtx is clocked at 650MHz for the core and 1550MHz for the memory while the x1800xt clocks at 625Mhz and 1.5GHz.
I should note fan noise here. The x1800xt and x1900xtx tested were quite loud. They had a high pitched whine that was noticeably distracting. Anyone who values low noise would be wise to replace the cooler with a vf700 from zalman or a arctic cooler silencer.
Here you can see the 7900gtx adorns a dual slot cooler like the x1800 and x1900 cards but it also features heat pipes to aid in cooling.
The 7900gt and 7900gtx feature 24 texture units, 16 ROPs, 24 Pixel Shaders and 8 Vertex Shaders. To differentiate the gt and gtx Nvidia has opted to change the gpu clock/memory speeds rather than disable parts of the chip. The 7900gtx runs at 650MHz for the core and 1.6GHz for the memory while the 7900gt is clocked at a more docile 450MHz and 1320MHz.
The 7900gtx cooler is far from quiet but it doesn’t have the same whine the ATI coolers did. Even the hum generated from the 80mm fan on the heatsink was much less noticeable. It still isn’t “quiet” territory but it is easier on the ears.
Here you can see the small cooler used on the 7900gt, it is pretty amazing to see the difference in size between the 7900gtx or the dual slot coolers from ATI. The noise generated from it is also quite a bit lower than the other cards tested today. I still wouldn’t call it quiet but I could definitely live with it.
We used the following system configuration for testing:
| CPU | Athlon 64 X2 4800+ |
| RAM | 1GB G.Skill (2x512) PC3200 (2.5, 2, 2) |
| Motherboard | DFI Ultra D 6.70 Drivers |
| Graphics Card 1 | Sapphire x1900xtx 512MB 6.4 650/1550 |
| Graphics Card 2 | Sapphire x1800xt 512MB 6.4 625/1500 |
| Graphics Card 3 | Leadtek 7900gtx 512MB 84.21 650/1600 |
| Graphics Card 4 | Biostar 7900gt 256MB 84.21 450/1320 |
Nvidia cards have always been strong here in Doom3 and they do not disappoint. The ATI cards perform almost on par with Nvidia’s which is good company to keep in OGL.
The ATI cards take the lead here in Fear. In the $300 contenders realm we see only a 3fps difference here.
The ATI cards are yet again on top here in Far Cry. During testing the x1800xt had visible artifacting, it seemed to be particularly bad during fast movement such as driving in a vehicle. I tried reducing the gpu and memory clocks and even tried a reinstall but alas I couldn’t fix the problem. I assume it is driver related due to it not exhibiting this behavior in any other games. It doesn't seem to influence performance either as the card tracks with other results.
Half Life 2 wraps up our testing here and the ATI cards end on a good note.
As you can see the extra $200 does give you tangible benefits in increased performance. How much that increase is worth is up to you, the consumer. Personally I find both of the $300 cards performing admirably even at these stressful conditions. So long as you aren’t playing at really high resolutions the cards pull in superb frame rates.
All cards tested today are available on various online stores at this very moment. I should note the ATI cards are also generally selling for less, roughly $20-30 less in fact. Although it would be wise to buy a third party cooler for the ATI cards due to the unsettling noise they produce, even after you take that into account the cards are priced similarly.
The ATI cards also support AA+HDR while the Nvidia cards do not. HDR+AA adds that much more quality to the game and surprisingly the combination isn’t that stressful on the card. With that in mind and the already better overall performance I have to hand this one to ATI.
One should keep in mind that these were price points chosen by me, you may find a card more to your liking from Nvidia or ATI within a different price bracket so this by no means reflects all possible choices.
source:http://www.techarray.com/video/ati_vs_nvidia__300_and_500_price_points_examined.html
