Quick Video Card Comparison FYI

I know there is always debate regarding CPU vs. video upgrades so I thought I would provide some recent first hand experience:

In the coming weeks I am going to build a new rig. In the meantime, I thought I would go ahead and order my video card and tinker just to see what kind of gains I would get. My current system is and AMD 4000+ with 1 gig of memory and a BFG 7900 GS OC video card on an ASUS A8N-E motherboard.

Initially I ordered another BFG product, a BFG 9600 GT OC. I was quite pleased with the performance and price of the 7900. I cleaned all the previous drivers, removed the card both physically and in XP, and then I installed the 9600 GT. There were no gains whatsoever. I was hoping for a few fps here and there, but nothing! That is all moot though, it seems this particular card has a nasty habit of just dropping the video signal. There seems to be no rhyme or reason. This seems to happen regardless of setups and components. It happens unpredictably. The screen goes blank, but the system still runs. I will solve that problem by purchasing another card.

I return the card to the store and I order from NewEgg. I get a PNY 8800GT. I got a great price and it was at my house before I even new it. So, wash, rinse, repeat the device\driver removal steps. I can say this card is about 20% in my system than the 7900. I have no official benchmarks, but for example in NWN 2 with my settings on my old card, and the 7900, I was getting around 21-25 fps in the particular area I was using to test. With the 8800, I was getting around 30 plus a few more in some at times. This was about the same I tested with other games too.

Although there was quite a noticeable improvement in performance, I am not sure it would be worth $200 for the amount of improvement. Of course, if you are building an new system, then that would be a great choice.

As for explaining the result, my layman's knowledge seems to be that the 8800 just does more processing for the CPU and frees it up a bit more than the 7900. But, as benchmarks seem to indicate, as both are pushed by faster processors the 7900 can keep up with the 8800, although it has to work harder to do it.

Well, there is my first hand experience on swapping video cards in and out of the same system. Now, get back to whatever you were doing . . . .

 

In respect of the 9600GT vs 8800GT, the former has 32 pixel pipelines whereas the 8800GT has 56 pp and so can 'process' more information.

Read more on TomsHardware site

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/21/nvidia_geforce_9600_gt/page8.html

Good Luck

 

I am aware of Tom's. However, I did not see that article. Thanks for the tip. I have not read the entire article, but what was the test setup? I could not find any specs for the system they used. Maybe when I go back and read.

I was aware of the technical differences between the two. I just wanted to provide some perspective for others. The 9600 is a great deal. Although the 8800's are only a little bit more money - either card is an incredible deal. I can't wait to build my new system.