Best of Graphics Cards: Gaming at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600

why in Metro 2033 not used MSAA 4X ?
in Alan wake - use FSAA. no logic test...

Very nicely put together article! But to bad I no longer have a desktop computer to put a kick butt card in, seeing my old Dell went to go meet it's maker! For now, as some have said, I haven't meet a video game or program that my video solution couldn't handle! My Toshiba x205 runs two Nvidia 8600M GT's, DDR3 and almost a total of 1 gig of memory, got to love SLi

How are they related? No need to explain but I will anyway. When Metro 2033 came out it was too demanding for most cards so we didn't enable AA, this was not the case with Alan Wake. That's the logic behind the test setup, now I just need to understand the logic in directly comparing two radically different games.

logical - use all max. graphics settings in game. without force settings in driver. IMHO

I'm having difficulties with posting with facebook, does anyone have it?!
In topic, I own a HD 7950 and I'm pleased, bought it cheap as soon as the gtx 670 released. Still I think it's price is not according to the gtx 670. This card is like Anderson Silva of graphic cards.
My question is crossfire vs sli of these two, what would be a better solution? Price inclued.

The only issue is obtaining a monitor that supports these resolutions. 1920x1200 monitors on NewEgg start at $260.00.

I just got my GIGABYTE GTX 670 Windforce 3X in, scored a P9138 3DMark11. (http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3863270)
Thing is a beast.
(Just hit P9419 with a small OC)

My systems specs are

- Asus P6TD Deluxe
- i7 930 @ 4.0Ghz (24/7)
- 6GB OCZ 8-8-8-20
- 180GB Agility 2 + 1TB 7.2K Barracuda
- XClio Windtunnel
- Dell Ultrasharp U3011

LOVE this GPU.
Very good brute force power, solid minimum frames.
I play at 1600p and this GPU pulls strong.

I'm running eVGA 580 Classified's in SLI I with you friend ;-)

Glad to see those of us that game at 2560 x 1600 ultra get some love in a review. I always have bought the top end never settled for second tier cards. So few of us out there that game at this res. Thanks for the review good info.

I think you'll find that the article is an overview of reference cards- a buyers guide if you will. As is the case with all AIB non-reference cards, the PC card isn't available in all markets- nor are the Asus GTX670 DC2T ($430 incidentally), or PoV TGT cards.

HD 5800 and 6800/6900 series cards are usually found at a heavy discount in relation to their Nvidia card counterparts - sometimes with good reason. People generally don't want to take a chance on buying a card that has spent it's entire life -24/7-at 100% GPU usage in a Bitcoin mining rig. If the seller can guarantee that isn't the case, or there is a sizeable portion of the warranty remaining (and can be easily utilized by a second owner), the sale price is generally higher than the average.

One reason could be that the card hasn't actually been released. Since the decision to market the card is an AIB matter only ( reference samples were for PR/review only), and AIB's are already marketing similar-or higher clocked models, for many vendors it's a case of competing against themselves so I sincerely doubt the card will be much more than a flag waving exercise. A better candidate might be the upcoming HD 7950 GHz Edition.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...DeactivatedMark=False&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

I said 1920x1200, not 1920x1080.

You do realize they are virtually the same resolution. We test at 1920x1200 because it is slightly more demanding being a 16:10 ratio but the data is valid for 1920x1080 screens as well, at least we assume the reader will work it out that way.

I realize that, going from a height of 1080 to 1200 would barely make a difference in game quality, especially for less graphically-intensive games. The issue is not gaming at a high resolution, but gaming at a resolution higher than 1080p, which grants bragging rights unto itself. The only problem is that buying a monitor that supports resolutions higher than 1080p is 2-3+ times the cost of a 1080p monitor, even though - as you said - the difference is barely visible.

I currently game at 1080p, with two AMD Radeon 6790s. I could get a decent FPS at 1920x1200, but can't because the a monitor that supports that resolution costs the same as two 1080p monitors, not to mention that gaming at 2560x1600 is improbable for the normal gamer, seeing as the cheapest 2560x1600 monitor on NewEgg is $1,180.00.

I think you will find its more a case of 1920x1080 resolution monitors replacing 1920x1200 and now with few of the latter resolutions models available you will pay a price premium. There are no bragging rights in owning a 1920x1200 monitor over a 1920x1080 monitor as most view it as the same thing, although I do prefer the 16:10 aspect ratio myself.

"HD 5800 and 6800/6900 series cards are usually found at a heavy discount in relation to their Nvidia card counterparts - sometimes with good reason. People generally don't want to take a chance on buying a card that has spent it's entire life -24/7-at 100% GPU usage in a Bitcoin mining rig. If the seller can guarantee that isn't the case, or there is a sizeable portion of the warranty remaining (and can be easily utilized by a second owner), the sale price is generally higher than the average."

^^ That doesn't even make sense for 3 reasons:

1) HD5800/6900 cards can make $ mining, which means their value should be at least as high if not higher since they can make $30-40 every month mining, which pays off for a used card rather quickly, especially if electricity cost is cheap where you are at.

2) Videocards don't wear out, only the moving parts like the fans do. Unless we are dealing with Bumpgate scandal where the solder degraded over time on GeForce 8 series, then you can use a GPU 1 hour a day or 24 hours a day for 5 years straight. It makes no difference whatsoever, especially once you consider the rate at which GPUs become obsolete (no one who games with a 6900 series will keep it for 10+ years). A GPU is not like a car's engine. It's designed to last 10 years working 100% non-stop, easily.

3) Cards with 2GB of VRAM such as the 6950/6970 are far more preferable to the 570 simply because it already runs out of vram in games such as max payne 3, GTAiv, civilization v, shogun 2, etc.

4) Your argument doesn't hold water since cards such as 5970 and 6990 have higher resale value than dual-GPU cards from NV specifically because of bitcoin mining.

The most logical explanation is that there are just more 6900 series of cards available for sale in the used market. Most of us 7900 series owners dumped 6900 series and will continue to mine and make even more $. Gamers who own 570/580 cards have no upgrade path without dropping $400-500 on 670/680 cards, which start depreciating from day 1 and making no $. As a result, it's only logical that most 5800/6900 owners will want to dump (or have already dumped) their old gen AMD cards and upgraded for nearly free to 7900 series while GTX500 series owners are more likely to wait until GTX670 comes down in price. It's really a matter of supply and demand.

Also, another possible explanation is people with 5800/6900 made a ton of $ bitcoin mining which means they just want to dump those cards and move on. They don't care about $25-30 as much as GTX570/580 owners who'll be stuck with a $400-500 670/680 depreciating asset that makes no $.

Your explanation that 5800/6900 series cost less because they've been "used" more is odd given that almost every tech enthusiast knows that chip transistors don't wear out the more you use them. What wears the out is overvoltage/electron-migration. The transistor is just a switch. You don't wear it out by using it.

Nope. Bitcoin rig owners usually aim for the highest hash rate they can get. I know more than a few Bitcoiners that update their rig with every new architecture. If you aware of the process you would realize that power usage is a critical factor in realized profit - hence the constant upgrades, as well as...

Absolute garbage. For example, bad design caused HD 5970 failures (VRM placement + lack of heatsinks), add a bad fan profile crappy airflow and you can add the HD 4870 and 4890 cards to the equation
Maybe you should take some time to read the feedback from Bitcoiner's
And while you're at it, maybe check out some thermographs


(HD 4870's)


(HD 5970)

(GTX 590)

Nvidia cards hold their value in the resell market for precisely the same reason that Nvidia cards generally hold a price premium in the retail market. Have you never noticed that Nvidia cards are generally more expensive than AMD/ATi cards at the same performance point...of course you have -you just made the same observation! (post #16). The argument you're making is immaterial to why AMD cards are cheaper second hand than Nvidia cards- now you're just trying to justify that they shouldn't be.

More rubbish. HD 5970.......HD6990....GTX 590....and maybe we should include the GTX 690 since a few seem to be popping up in the resell market

Might be a possible contributing factor, but GTX 560Ti/570/580 sales are in the same ballpark (see verified owner Newegg reviews and the Steam HW survey for example-The month-to-month usage is probably more an indicator than overall %), and of course, the biggest roadblock in your argument is that the absolute numbers don't tally with what you're saying. Here's Mercury Research's discrete desktop (as opposed to IGP, APU and workstation/HPC) graphics share breakdown for Q2 2011. Note the units sold in both $200-300 and $300+

The story is much the same going into 2012 (Investor Village amongst others carry the info).

I thought you just said:

And overvoltage - or more typically, fluctuating voltage/current for a failing circuit- is a product of failing voltage regulation, and/or a corroded/broken choke, and/or a failing solder joint. None of these are "moving parts", (nor are failing VRAM IC's -another prevalent cause for card failure-for that matter). And while some fail due to fan failure, a greater percentage seem to fail from design flaws, aging of components, and most importantly, the vendor pushing the extreme upper limits of the specification -hence failure rates tend to be higher as the specification/performance price point increases. You seem to be contradicting yourself.

Nice test.

How convenient this test was released immediately after the Radeon price drops. HD 7970 wasn't $450 a couple weeks ago.

haha yet we recommended the GTX 670, I think you are on to something!

Also your Internet must be slow, price cuts came in a lot longer than a week ago.