Entry Level Buyer’s Guide, July 2005

Graphics Recommendations

We've given a few integrated graphics options for both platforms, so if you decide to go with one of those motherboards, you can skip the graphics recommendations. Office work and surfing the internet has very little use for even moderately powerful 3D accelerators, though that could change when Windows Longhorn is released next year. Our graphics recommendations, therefore, assume that gaming is at least a small consideration in terms of what the computer needs to handle. The only drawback of the integrated graphics solutions is that most of them don't include a DVI port - none of the boards that we've mentioned in this Guide have DVI, at least. While we won't be recommending an LCD for the budget system, it's something that a lot of people may use down the road and we will suggest one for the upgraded configuration. In either case, you'll need a graphics card with DVI to get the best quality from your LCD.

Since we've gone with PCI Express motherboards for all of the systems, we only need to provide a budget and upgraded recommendation in this Guide. If gaming is an interest, the graphics card is probably the most critical factor. You could get very decent performance out of any of these systems with the upgraded graphics card, though you may at times be limited by the CPU for the budget models. Here are our two picks.

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Budget Graphics Recommendation: MSI X300SE 128MB
Price: $53 shipped (Retail)

Due to new information, we have changed our graphics card recommendation from what was initially listed - you'll find out why below. Since this is a budget card and we're just looking for a decent price and specific features, we've ended up with the cheapest PCIe card that we could find that still includes a DVI port. The difference between this $53 card and something like an X600 Pro or 6200 (non-TC) is around $30 for up to twice the performance. If you're truly interested in graphics performance, though, we strongly recommend the upgraded recommendation below.

Our only real requirement for the budget graphics card was that it needed a DVI interface, so we ended up with this MSI card. With a 325MHz core clock and 400MHz RAM using a 64-bit interface, it's nothing special, but it will work. You can't really find much cheaper, but there are several alternatives that offer similar performance. The 6200TC with 16MB RAM starts at $55, as do the ATI X300SE HyperMemory cards, and both have a DVI interface. Besides the ability to connect your PC to an LCD, DVI interfaces are also useful for hooking up your computer to most HDTVs. If you've ever used the S-VIDEO or Composite Out features of a PC to connect to a standard television and ended up disappointed, HDTV connectivity my change your mind - you need an HDTV for this feature to be useful, of course.

So why the change? We knew that we wanted 6200TC card for our budget setup, but determining which card is the right one can be difficult. Manufacturers seem content to let the obfuscation continue, unfortunately. If you've read our TurboCache vs. HyperMemory article, you know that the 64-bit memory interface models are desired, but you also want 700 MHz RAM rather than 550 MHz RAM. The 64MB RAM 6200TC cards ship with slower RAM and end up being outperformed by the 32MB models in most cases. The 16MB models are all 32-bit interfaces, so they're the slowest of the 6200TC cards (and not surprisingly the cheapest).

We searched diligently to find a 32MB 64-bit card with 700MHz RAM, but we can't seem to find such a model anywhere. As a particularly bad example, Newegg lists an ASUS board as having a 128-bit interface with 700 MHz RAM, while ASUS says it is a standard model - 64-bit, 64MB 550MHz. (We're going to trust ASUS on this one.) It's still a reasonable choice, but it's not exactly what we wanted. (This was our original selection until a reader pointed out the error.) We found plenty of 32MB cards with 700MHz RAM, but they were all 32-bit interfaces as far as we could tell, making them lower performing than the 64-bit 64MB models. If you can find a model with a 64-bit interface and 700MHz RAM, please let us know. It could be that those cards are not available as they outperform the supposedly superior "TurboCache with 256MB support" - it's all about market segmentation, unfortunately.

Update: ASUS has updated their specifications on their web site, listing the RAM as being 700 MHz now. Apparently Newegg had it right the first time. For the extra $20, it's a reasonable upgrade to performance, but it's only really useful if you plan on moderate gaming. Hopefully this is the correct spec and will remain static now.

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Upgraded Graphics Recommendation: Gigabyte GV-RX70P128D Radeon X700PRO 128MB
Price: $112 shipped (Retail)

Our upgraded graphics recommendation offers roughly twice the performance of the budget card in modern games, and it can handle any current title on the market - though you'll have to tweak the detail levels for optimal performance. With a 425 MHz core and 860 MHz GDDR3, the X700 Pro roughly matches the performance of the old 9800 Pro 128MB cards. The original MSRP of the X700 Pro was $199, but prices have dropped substantially in the past month, making the X700 Pro a great value. Models with 256MB of RAM are also available, though the benefits of adding more RAM to a slower graphics card are dubious. Games that can really make use of 256MB of graphics memory will often require the higher performing models to actually reach playable frame rates.

If you're opposed to purchasing an ATI card for whatever reason, NVIDIA offers several alternatives worth mentioning. At the lower end of the price scale are the 6600 and 6600GT. The 6600 is outperformed by the X700 Pro in every test, but some people will prefer NVIDIA regardless. The 6600GT on the other hand beats the X700Pro in the majority of gaming benchmarks by a reasonable margin - it should, given the specifications. The added benefit of the 6600/GT is that it supports SM3.0, not to mention SLI which allows you to run two of the cards in concert on an appropriate motherboard. There are quite a few 6600GT PCIe cards available, and most of them are similar in performance and features. We like the XFX model with dual DVI ports, though it isn't the quietest card around. Leadtek, Gigabyte, Chaintech, MSI, ASUS, eVGA, and several other companies all offer competing products - you can check out our 6600GT PCIe Roundup if you want further information on any of these models. We had issues with the HSF mountings on quite a few of the cards in our 6600GT roundup, and we're not sure whether or not these issues have been addressed.

Moving beyond the X700 Pro price, the X800 cards currently have a $30 mail-in rebate available from ATI, putting their price slightly lower than the 6600GT if you can wait for the rebate check to arrive. They typically outperform the 6600GT cards as well, giving them a price/performance advantage. We've been going on for a while about how NVIDIA has the better GPU lineup with the 6600GT and higher models, particularly with the SLI advantage. With the launch of the 7800GTX, ATI has responded by cutting prices on many of their models. We give credit where credit is due, and while NVIDIA may hold the performance crown, ATI should be able to sell a lot of their mid-range models over the coming months with the current pricing advantage.