The last few months we have seen an influx of several new high performance graphic cards on the market. With so many choices available it is sometimes difficult for the average game player to understand all the jargon around the product description. We at Red Dog Technologies approached a few computer shops in our vicinity, and asked them to provide us with information on what they believe to be a good performing gaming card. To our shock we realized that most of the information given to us was second-rate at best, most of the staff members could not answer one single technical question about the product the recommended.
So what is Red Dog Technologies view on graphic card technology? First we believe that you need to take into account what type of game play you refer to. Secondly the amounts of time spend playing games. And thirdly the budget of the client. So what we try to do is to pair up a gamer with a product that will suit their needs.
How do we do that? We take in account the above mentioned factors in no particular order of importance. Me personally will start with the clients budget, this a good starting point, because at the end of the day the client must still be able to afford the advice given. I have had clients that believe you can get good gaming performance from a graphics card costing less the R 2000.00, well that is not true. In this day and age we live in these cards cannot perform to the level gamers has come to expect from their game play.
These cards are suited to the once in a while game player, while all serious game players will steer clear of them. With prices ranging from R600 – R 7500.00 we can continue arguing the fact that cheap cards do perform well or at least well enough. Since Red Dog Technologies was formed to provide solid and reliable services to their clients, we also research all our products thoroughly so that we can provide you with the information you really need.
ATI and Nvidia. Two names we became familiar with over time, are the only two manufactures of Graphic Processors units referred to as GPU’s. The battle of the giants has been going on since 1995. ATI was always seen as the underdog and that Nvidia is the only way to play. We beg to differ on this point, not only are ATI more affordable, but when it comes to performance they don’t have to back off for any Nvidia product. In most cases the ATI’s outperform the Nvidia’s. We would also like to point out that we don’t have a clear favorite and that performance figures are so close that they become meaningless.
From here on we will divide the different cards into categories that reflect the gamer it was meant for:
Beginner(occasional) level gamer:
ATI: X1650Pro 256Mb
Nvidia: GeForce 7600GS 256Mb
Intermediate gamer:
ATI: X1900GT 256Mb
Nvidia: GeForce 7800GTX 256Mb
Professional Gamer:
ATI: X1950XTX 512MB
Nvidia: GeForce 7950GX2
The GeForce 7900 GTX is Nvidia's answer to the X1900 XTX. Both of these heavyweights have their strengths and show superiority in different games and benchmarks, but neither will disappoint. The 7900 GTX will have the advantage in texturing speed, and the X1900 XTX will have the advantage in shader speed.
One of the fastest gaming cards on the planet today, the Radeon X1900 XTX boasts slightly higher clock speeds than its XT brother. The Radeon differentiates itself from its 7900 GTX competitor slightly with the ability to use OpenEXR High-Dynamic-Range lighting (HDR) and antialiasing at the same time.
If you have money to burn, or money-is-no-object and you need to play at the highest resolutions available with high levels of AA, then SLI or Crossfire setups is the way to go.
Red Dog
By: Red Dog