Some time ago I remember finding a table comparing video cards by breaking them down into performance tiers. Now, of course, when I try to search for the table I find everything except what I’m looking for.
I don’t know that the tiers were based on any specific benchmark, but were intended as a general sort of comparison. I seem to recall that it was mentioned that it wasn’t worth upgrading to new card unless it made an increase of 3 tiers or more.
If someone knows a link to this table it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
That would be useful, and I haven’t seen one.
I’d just figure out your budget and then compare cards in that budget from ATI and NVidia.
My coworker just bought a 9600 GT for under $130 USD today, and that seemed like a good deal ( Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! )
Aha! After a night’s sleep I tried some different words in Google and found it:
What About This Other Card That’s Not On The List? How Do I Know If It’s A Good Deal? - Tom’s Hardware : Best Graphics Cards For The Money: July '08
It looks like this table is periodically updated.
I found it by using Google for <video card upgrade tiers> which brought me to an earlier version of the table. I then looked in the video cards section of Tom’s Hardware which, luckily, gave the updated table as one of the first entries in the latest articles.
What would be even better is an idea to give a performance per dollar metric. It wouldn’t be perfect but you could use PassMark or some overall benchmark score for each card, and then list price for each card. What I’m looking for is the “sweet spot”.