Massive Graphics Card Review

Brian Tonka writes to tell us that rojakpot has posted a pretty comprehensive graphics card review including over 240 different desktop graphics cards. With each of the vendors given their own section and using 15 different points of comparison this should be quite a starting reference for the enthusiast and casual buyer alike.

This isn't a review

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a fricking table of all the cards and their specifications. It doesn't review a single card at all.

Re:Review?

[Anonymous Coward]

And how is this considered a "comprehensive graphics card review" when it only has ATI cards?

when do we get a complex database

[spacerodent]

So with all these benchmarks lately when do we get an extrapolating database where you and build a virtual system and get an estimate on what its proformance will be?

Stop the madne...er, linking

[greg1104]

Can somone give the useless and ad-ridden articles at rojakpot their own section, so I can filter them all out automatically? If I wanted a graphics card review that actually gave useful information, I'd visit a site with real content in that area, like Tom's hardware [tomshardware.com].

Re:This isn't a review

[ergo98]

It's a fricking table of all the cards and their specifications. It doesn't review a single card at all.

Exactly. It's full of irrelevant specifications (including for some ancient, not-a-chance-in-hell cards) that no one can use to choose a card (and processor speed and hypothetical megatexel speeds are largely irrelevant in the real world. Micron manufacturing process...well that's just retarded). What a waste of a story spot.

Re:This is really cool

[Mr. Vandemar]

It may be cool, but it's sure as hell not a review.

I would like to see

[ysegalov]

a gfx card that can draw not only polygons, but also natively draw round objects (i.e. circles).

Slogan

[DietCoke]

"Where the best in technology gather."

Let me finish that.

"Where the best in technology gather, overload a server, then leave still wondering how the hell this constitutes a review."

A bit wordy, but accurate.

Re:simple: open source drivers?

[Baloo Ursidae]

Follow-up: can Red Hat or Novell or somebody please offer a certification logo program for some of these cards? You know, a sticker that you can find on the boxes in CompUSA or something, which says that it's not going to be a stink to get running on Linux?

Wrong question. Better question: Can a vendor-neutral consortium please offer the same.

Re:Dell 2405FPW?!?!?!

[rwa2]

Well, its native resolution is 1920x1200 - which is incidentally the limit on the single link DVI-D spec. You'll probably want to run at 32 bits per pixel (8 bits for red, green, blue, and alpha transparency), so you'll need a card with at least 10 MB of RAM... most cards have much more than this (32MB +), the extra which can be used for offscreen buffers and stuff. So pretty much any decent card with DVI-I outputs will do for 2D. Probably best to stick to the ATis and NVidias, though, since I'm certain they will support that monitor's physical screen rotation feature.

Uh, you'll probably have to go pretty high end if you want decent 3D framerates at 1920x1200 with anti aliasing and stuff. But if you're looking for that, you pretty much have to set your price point ($100? $200? $300?) and go see what http://anandtech.com/ [anandtech.com] or http://tomshardware.com/ [tomshardware.com] has to recommend.

Re:This isn't a review

[h4rm0ny]

I hope whoever paid /. for this story spot doesn't think they'll get their money's worth. 98% of the page hits will be people who clicked the link, saw a meaningless collection of statistics and closed the tab before the ads had even finished loading. And most people will open the story first, see the first three comments describing the article as rubbish and not bothering to click the link at all.

Re:This isn't a review

[Anonymous Coward]

Frankly, I don't consider PCI a real option for high-end gaming. Sure, you can throw a video card in a PCI slot...and I'm sure it'll perform reasonably well...but it'll be sharing the bus with all your other PCI devices. Regardless of the theoretical performance of PCI; once you're sharing your bus with a USB card, a 1394 card, a sound card, and a NIC your performance is bound to drop.

Most OEM PC's these days come with an AGP slot. Yes, there are still some out there that are on-board with no AGP slot for expansion, but they are most definitely in the minority. I know that most OEM's are somewhat deceptive in their packaging... I've bought computers that claimed to have an AGP video card only to discover that it's an on-board AGP card, with no slot for expansion. But, realistically, if you're savvy enough to be looking at benchmarks to upgrade your video card...if you're savvy enough to know that your PC doesn't have any AGP slots...then I have to assume that you're savvy enough to make sure your PC has an AGP slot when you purchase it, or install a new motherboard that has an AGP slot.

Like it or not, AGP is really the standard for video expansion right now. Yes, PCI cards are still manufactured, but no serious gamer is going to use one if they have a choice. Is it any wonder that the review sites focus on the technology than 90% of their readers are interested in? Yes, I'm sure some kind of a "bargain basement video card blowout!" review would do well... But you can't honestly expect PCI cards to get the same kind of coverage these days as AGP. Especially when AGP itself is starting to lose ground to PCIx.

I don't know that PCIx actually offers much over your standard AGP card...other than SLI... It may be that it is purely motivated by marketing... But I have no doubt that given a few years of improvement there will be a very distinct difference in performance between PCIx and AGP. Just as today there is a very distinct difference in performance between AGP and PCI.

Re:This isn't a review

[kesuki]

Like it or not, AGP is really the standard for video expansion right now.

sorry to nit pick, but AGP is dead, for the latest and greatest the AGP and PCI Express version of the same card, and the AGP version costs $150 more. you can buy a Very nice motherboard for that price difference....

AGP is a legacy product, in it's death throes. the cards require more circuitry, and they cost more. buying a motherbord with an agp slot relegates you to obsolete (or budget) 2005 model cards or paying a super premium on the high end 2006 cards.

Why? because you can only have 1 AGP slot in a mother board, you can have 4 PCIEx16 slots, and still keep slotfans below them.. like it or not PCI Express x16 is here to stay, and agp is going the way of the dinosaur it was.

there may not be a 'real world performance' issue between the two technologies, until you put a pair of gt7800's in SLI mode... or a pair of radeon X1800's in crossfire mode... then you see why agp is dead and dying.