Best GPU price / performance ratio: 3DMark

[Babrbarossa]

3DMark has developed a price/performance rating based on its own benchmark scores by comparing the averages with price information collected from around the web. While the 3DMark benchamrks may be a little limited in their representation of the entire spectrum of GPU performance, this might be a good place to start since their are a myriad of GPUs out there with confusing names and specs.

It's nice to see ATI at the top of the list and I hope that people spend tehir money accordingly, but for me, I'm interested in seeing where the high-performance cards land on the list as we generally pay a slightly disproportionate premium for having the best cards- it can be expected that they're quite a bit lower on the pts/$ scale. It's actually quite surprising that the 8800GT and the 3870 are so high on the list, beating out cheapo previous generation powerhouses like the 7600GT

[Ugly n Grey]

I agree with the concept insofar as it involves their benchmarks. For it to be accurate, you'd have to assume that their benchies reflect real world performance. They don't. It's about what card you need to run your specific games.

Having said that, I think the 3850 is the price killer card. Sells for a super low price in some spots, has awesome performance per buck and for the tweakers among us is relatively easy to vmod. I wish the 512 Meg version was a little cheaper though, because once you review the 512 meg prices, you can make a small jump to 3870 with the DDR4.

I think for the Crysis players the value of an 8800GT can't be beat however.

[Song]

Hmmm, around what number would the 2900pro get roughly?

[Mars]

Originally Posted by Song

Hmmm, around what number would the 2900pro get roughly?

Pretty close to the 3850, I think.

(Assuming they're around the same price, which they seem to be, according to ncix, and around the same speed, which I believe they are, from tomshardware putting the 2900xt a bit ahead of the 3850, overall.)

[Babrbarossa]

The 2900 was about 7th- Really starnge- I posted the table but the link is now broken and I can't find a new link anywhere- seems as all references to it have been pulled. hmmm

The inquirer linked to another site that had it posted but that link is broken too- something is amiss.

[Para_Franck]

I think my story can be intersting. I had a pair of 8600GT 256meg, and sold them. For the exact same price I sold my SLI setup, I purchased a 3850 IceQ 3Turbo (shipping included). Well the performance difference is verry noticeable. With no Vmod. On 3dMark05 I managed to get almost 2000 (from low 15 000 pts, to low 17 000 pts) performance gains. I run my card at 760Mhz core (780 Mhz seems to be the accceptable stability limit. But because I use my pc every day as a tool, I want it to be super stable, at 760Mhz, it is in a sweet spot with flawless stability) and i run my memory at 1060Mhz Memory. The temperature of the card never gets higher than 63'C. It once ran 3DMark06 at 835Mhz core (never could run it again) giving a score of 10 423pts. To give you a good idea of what it represents, here is my computer set-up.

mother board : Asus M2N-SLI deluxe (nforce-570)
Memory : 2X1gb Dual-channel Corsair Xms2 ddr2800 4-4-4-12 stock 2,1v(at DDR2-880 2,15v 44.2 Ns latency with everest)
CPU : AMD athlon 64 X2 5600+ stock 200Mhz fsb, 220Mhz Fsb with 1,375Volt
Cooler :Schythe Ninja plus RevB with 120mmm Fan
Video Card : His RADEON 3850 IceQ 3 Turbo, 512 meg
Power Supply : Mushkin 580 watt Sli-certified (easelily my best PSU yet)

I know That this is not the fastest set-up out there, but for a sub 1000$ Can, it makes for a great HTPC, with the high defenition 5.1 audio capability on the video card and HDMI connectivity, it is just perfect. Performances within my LCD HD-TV resolution (1360x 768) are great in all the games I play. A lot better than my previous SLI setup, my 3850 being a single card setup, I have no more SLI performance/scaling issues. Next step is a Multi HD, or Blue-Ray disc hd DVD, the 3850 has onboard high definition decoding capabilities so this seems like the next step to take on my HTPC/GAMING sytem/Work tool/Entertainement/Media center computer.

In conclusionl My experience with the 3850 has only been a gret suprise. For the price, performance and caracteristics, this card is amoung, if not the best choice best choice out there. Then again, newer generations of video cards are on there way, so these may not be considered the best choice for a long time period.
We should see with time.

Para_Franck
(forgive my wrong spelling, I am french and trying verry hard to wright in a sensible way in english)

[Ugly n Grey]

You did a great job writing up your experiences with the 3850 Real user feedback stories mean a lot more to me than benchmarks....

Vous avez fait un grand travail écrivant en haut que vos expériences avec les 3850 histoires de feed-back d'utilisateur Réelles me signifient beaucoup plus que les points de référence....

Pardonnez mon pauvre français, Je le trouve difficile

[biff]

Interesting study. Nice work.

[Babrbarossa]

Oh- I see the graph has reappeared