middle range video card comparison and benchmark

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MIDDLE RANGE VIDEO CARD COMPARISON AND BENCHMARK

MIDDLE RANGE VIDEO CARD COMPARISON AND BENCHMARK

Posted:2007-05-30 By Video card review
Number of View:27828

MIDDLE RANGE VIDEO CARD

COMPARISON AND BENCHMARK

By :Video card review

Posted:2007-05-30

xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source

Middle range video card comparison and benchmark

In the last week we published a review about the geForce 8600 GT on new NVIDIA g84 chip .

Thus, in today\'s review we will introduce the geForce 8600 GTS, its temperature conditions and overclocking potential.

1. Today\'s competitors NVIDIA geForce 8600 GTS and their technical characteristics

Let us begin from the recommended price Of geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb. NVIDIA set this last at the level 199-229 US dollars. According to some large capital stores, the geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb ( OEM- version ) prices is located in the range from 235 to 280 US dollars. Those new video card, did not have any serious competitors in this price segment , and selection with the attracting directX 10 support , for many will be complex. H

Thus into today\'s tests were added four video card. The first is the GeForce 7950 GT with 256 mb memory volume ï¿½ actually this good old top- card with the doubly reduced memory volume is sold today for ~235-250 US dollars .

Two others video card are representatives of AMD radeon cards : The X1950 pro with 256 mb and 512 mb memory volume . The cost of such video card is ~170 and ~230 US dollars, respectively. We did not plan initially to add those card in tests, since they are not from the same price segment with GeForce 8600 GTS, but, we think that difference in speed for identical video card with doubly larger memory volume will be interesting . Radeon x1950 pro 256 mb used in this test is released by ATI company ; therefore there is no special interest for detailed examination . The second video card x1950 pro with 512 mb memory volume is produced by powerColor company and deserves a certain attention;

Last video card is the radeon x1950 XT in with 256 mb memory volume . The cost of similar video card today is located in 225 US dollars range, This card is the most advantageous in relationship price/speed . Radeon x1950 XT is represented here with HIS video card , whose production is always different from competitor ( effective and quiet cooling systems, and also in terms of quality performance ).

Let us look to the technical characteristics of those video card :

Technical characteristics NVIDIA geForce
7950 GT NVIDIA geForce
8600 GTS AMD radeon
X1950 pro AMD radeon
X1950 XT

Graphic processor G71 (TSMC) G84 (TSMC) RV570 R580+

Technical process, m 0.09 0.08 0.08 0.09 (low- k)

Number of transistors, mln. 278 289 330 384

Area core, mm2 196 169 230 352

Graphic processor Frequency , MHz
550 675
(1458 shader) 575 625

Effective video memory frequency , MHz
1400 2000 1380 1800

Memory volume, MB. 256/512 256/512 256/512 256/512

Type of supported memory GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3/OF GDDR4

Memory interface , bits 256 128 256 256

Interface PCI-Express 16x PCI express 16x PCI-Express 16x/AGP PCI-Express 16x

Number of shader pixel processors,
24 32 * 36 48

Number of vertex shader processors,
8 8 8

Number of textural processors, 24 16 12 16

Number of blocks (ROP\'s), 16 8 8 16

Supported pixel shaders/vertex shaders version 3.0/3.0 4.0/4.0 3.0/3.0 3.0/3.0

Video memory Bandwidth, Gb/s
~ 43.7 ~ 32.0 ~ 43.4 ~ 57.6

Theoretical maximum fill rate speed , GPics./sec ~ 13.2 ~ 5.4 ~ 6.96 ~ 10.0

Theoretical maximum sample textures speed, Textures./sec ~ 13.2 ~ 10.8 ~ 6.96 ~ 10.0

Peak of the required power in 3d mode, watts ~ 85 < 71 ~ 66 > 100

Power unit Requirements , watts ~ 400 ~ 350 ~ 400 ~ 450

standard design video card Sizes , mm
190 x 100 x 15 180 x 100 x 15 236 x 100 x 15 236 x 100 x 34

2 x DVI,
TV-Out, HDTV-Out 2 X DVI- I (Dual-Link),
TV-Out, HDTV-Out,
HDCP 2 x DVI (Dual-Link),
TV-Out, HDTV-Out,
support VIVO 2 x DVI (Dual-Link),
TV-Out, HDTV-Out,
support VIVO

Additional support SLI support SLI support crossfire support crossfire

Recommended cost, US dollars ~ 229 ~ 199-229 ~ 199-229 ~ 235

2. Tested video card review :

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb.

Here is the video card from Sysconn :

Connection cable for additional power ;
Fan adapter;
cable S -Video;
15 pin DVI/D -Sub adapter;
CD with drivers .

This Video card has the reference design PCB , even the plastic cover (over the cooling system) is designed by NVIDIA company :

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb the card
Like all NVIDIA geForce 8600 GTS, product from Sysconn is equipped with a pair DVI- I (Dual link) and TV out:

From the back side it is possible to learn that this video card is produced in China:

In the right PCB side we have the load-bearing elements and additional power connector. According to NVIDIA specifications : GeForce 8600 GTS require power unit not less than 350 watts, which ensures 18-20 A on the +12 v line .

The graphic processor g84 revision A2 is released in Taiwan ( at the end of February in the present year ) :

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb naked gpu
The frequency of graphic processor is equal to 675 MHz (shader block ï¿½ 1450 MHz), which completely corresponds to specifications.

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS is equipped with 256 mb video memory GDDR3 standard , four memory microcircuits are from samsung production :

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb memory
The default access time ( to memory ) with K4J52324QE-BJ 1a is equal to 1.0 ns, which corresponds to the effective frequency 2000 MHz, at which the memory functions.

The cooling system video card consists on four components: copper base, two copper thermal tubes, aluminum cover with aluminum edges :

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb cooler

Copper base make contacts with the graphic processor through the gray color thermal-paste, the aluminum cover make contact with memory chips through soft thermal-padding .

The cooling system effectiveness was checked in closed case at room 22c temperature with the aid of firefly forest from the synthetic graphic benchmark 3DMark 2006 without AA or AF enabled. Temperature Monitoring was with RivaTuner v2.01. As result the graphic chip geForce 8600 GTS was working at 76 degrees:

In 2d- regime the chip temperature was 51-52 degrees. We note that in 3d- regime the cooler make some serious noise, this is essential minus in all GeForce 8600 GTS, equipped with reference cooling systems.

It is clear , that the high GPU temperature will note help the overclocking potential , so we installed on this card a cooling system from Arctic cooling, and precisely - Accelero S2 with quiet 120- mm fan up to ~1000 rp/min (Sharkoon luminous blue LED). In this case the max GPU temperature was 52 degrees and 42 in idle regime .

With Accelero S2 without loss in stability and picture quality , we was able to reach 756 MHz on core and 2322 MHz on memory :

And we check again the temperature conditions:

The core temperature increase only by 2 degree Celsius .

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb.

The following participant in today\'s test is released by XFX company .

Here is the card box :

This card come with game ghost recon: Advanced war-fighter. On the box back side it is possible to see the cooling system.

S -Video cable;
15 pin DVI/D -Sub adapter;
DVD with game ghost recon: Advanced war-fighter;
instruction about video card and drivers installation ;

cable for additional power connection ;
CD with drivers .

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb the card
XFX installed a passive cooler with thermal tubes : cooler master coolViva Z1 . Two copper thermal tubes transfer heat to the second radiator, located in the back side :

It is possible to place 80- mm fan over the radiator to improve the video card cooling.

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb cooler
According to the thermal-paste on the copper base , contact with GPU is achieved in the center .

This cooling system does not overlap the SLI connector .

We have two DVI- I and TV out ready:

On the back side we have information about video card model , volume and memory type and also the country and release date :

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb note
Typical for XFX products , dark gray PCB , did not become exception, for this card :

Here is the video card GPU :

The frequency of graphic processor XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb was increased from the reference geForce 7950 GT to 612 MHz (+ 11.3%).

XFX also increased the effective video memory frequency , from 1400 MHz to 1593 MHz (+ 13.8%). We note that XFX company did not install memory with lower access time, since video card was equipped with samsung microcircuits with default access time equal to 1.4 ns:

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb memory
The chips ï¿½ K4J55323QG-BC14, and their default supply voltage is 1.8 v.

Temperature conditions was checked with the same procedure, as with GeForce 8600 GTS from Sysconn, but here without alternative cooler . As result , the temperature conditions for XFX video card and passive cooling system was 97c under load:

97 (!) degree Celsius in peak load !!!! . We note that in this high GPU temperature , the video card stably functioned in all tested applications and games. However, this will limit the video card overclocking potential . We installed the cooler Accelero S2 with 120- mm fan , then we get a temperature reduction to 43-44 degree Celsius .

After some overclocking test the max GPU Frequency was 668 MHz , while memory frequency reached it limit with 1620 MHz:

If we count that default frequencies in GeForce 7950 GT are (550/1400 MHz), then we have a quite good result, (+ 21.5% on GPU and 15.7% for the memory).

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb.

As we said in the beginning of this review, we will test two video card radeon x1950 pro , but the first with 256 mb memory volume is the copy ATI radeon x1950 pro reference ; therefore it do not present any interest to overclocker. We add that this card did not demonstrate anything impressing overclock result  , it was able to overclock up to 621/1648 MHz. But here the second video card radeon x1950 pro, released by powerColor (TUL) company witch differ from the reference card in terms of the doubly increased video memory volume , has a lot better result .....

Here in the powerColor radeon x1950 pro with VIVO support :

Inside all component are placed in two sections.
PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb complete set
Here is the full complete set list :

15 pin DVI/D -Sub adapter;
HDTV;
cable for additional power connection ;

Installation instruction ;
S -Video cable;
Crossfire connector (!);
CD with cyberLink program ;

CD with video card drivers.

Video card is equipped with cooling system from Arctic cooling (model accelero X2).

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb the card
Here is the video card back side :

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb. is equipped with two DVI- I and also TV out:

Here is the video card PCB without cooling system :

The Graphic processor is released in week 44 - 2006:

GPU Frequency is increased from the default (575 MHz) to 600 MHz, for this reason, the video card get the prefix xtreme.

Eight memory chips are from qimonda production , there are released after the graphic processor, precisely ï¿½ on weeks 50 (2006):

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb memory
The default access time (memory) with HYB18H512321AF-14 is 1.4 ns, which corresponds to the theoretical effective frequency 1400 MHz, at which memory functions .

Let us briefly talk about the cooling system from Arctic cooling. its based on copper base with three thermal tubes and aluminum radiator:

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb cooler
Besides the thermal tubes and copper base, the memory chips make contacts with this cooler through thermal pad .

The radiator consists on two halves:

The fan rotation speed is rated at ~2000 rp/min:

This cooling system is quiet. We have only to verify its effectiveness at the default Radeon x1950 pro frequencies:

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb temperature
Temperature conditions for this card cooled with accelero X2, is just good.

The Overclocking potential of this video card proved to be modest: he graphic processor was possible to reach only 621 MHz, while the video memory was limited to 1498 MHz:

The replacement of cooling system by Accelero S1 did not influence the overclock results , but the new cooler was able to decrease a little the temperature conditions :

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb.

Here is HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb with its black PCB:

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb box
The complete set appears as follows:

adapter HDTV;
two 15 pin DVI/D -Sub adapter;
S -Video ;
instruction on video card installation ;
CD with video card drivers ;

coupon to choose between three games ;
CD with full powerDVD version ";

CD with overclock utility and monitoring (iTurbo);

DVD with complete version : game dungeon siege and different software.

Let us look to this video card:

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb the card
The cooler is made by HIS, we will talk about its effectiveness later on this review . The card has a beautifully look.

Two DVI- I (Dual link) and TV out :

Here is the video card back side :

This video card was released in China.

We removed the cooling system iceQ 3 :

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb naked
The video memory microcircuits are covered with aluminum radiators, which make contact with chips through thin thermal paste.

GPU was released in Taiwan on 29 week , last year. The default frequency of the graphic processor completely corresponds to radeon x1950 XT specifications with 625 MHz (621 according to monitoring data ).

This video card is also equipped with chip ATI rage theater, released on 18- week 2006:

Now let us examine the most interesting : the cooling system iceQ 3:

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb cooler
The copper radiator sizes with one thermal tube is modest on today\'s measures .

iceq 3 cooler
The fan rotation frequency is automatically regulated by the card from 1500 to 3760 rp/min (according to monitoring data ). As a result Radeon x1950 XT from HIS reached 85.8 degrees :

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb temerature

Note that in full load regime the fan rotation speed do not go over 2021 rpm.

According to the bios data , In the automatic regime in peak temperature less than 86 degrees , the fan work only at 36% of its power:

After making the need change to the video card bios , the fan work at 100% in all mod , and the following temperature were obtained:

In this case it is possible to observe not only reduction in core temperature by 17 degrees, but also to listen to the noisy HIS fan :-) .

But now let us look how accelero S1 will cools the Radeon x1950 XT 256 mb.

It is clear that default His cooler is better in 100% regime and worse by 4 c in 36% mod .

As rule, overclocking top end ATI chips is always poor . It is Rarely possible to attain considerable increase in graphic processor frequency . Unfortunately, Radeon x1950 XT from HIS did not become exception, since the GPU frequency without loss in stability was able to reach 675 MHz. Video memory from default 1800 MHz was overclocked to 2070 MHz:

After video card overclock its temperature grew a bit (in the limits of 2-3 degrees ).

Here is the utility iTurbo which allow to overclock the card and also to track its temperature :

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb his turbo
His turbo advaned

3. Test configuration and testing procedure

Motherboard: ASUSTek P5B deluxe/wiFi-AP (Intel p965), LGA 775, BIOS 1101;
Cooling system (chipset): Thermaltake extreme spirit II (~2500 rp/min);
Processor: Intel core 2 Duo e6400 2133 MHz, 1.325 v, L2 2048 KB, FSB: 266 MHz x 4, SL9S9 malay (Conroe, B2);
Cooling system (CPU): Enzotech Ultra- X (~1450 rp/min);
Operational memory: 2 x 1024 mb. DDR2 corsair dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D (SPD: 1142 MHz, 5-5-5-18, 2.1 v);
Disk system: SATA- II 320 Gb, Hitachi (HDT725032VLA360), 7200 rp/min, 16 mb., NCQ;
Power unit: MGE magnum 500 (500 W) + 80- mm fan glacialTech silentBlade (~1700 r/min, 19 dB).

Central processor during our test was overclocked to 3600 MHz with vcore 1.4875 v :

Core 2 duo @ 3600 mhz
In this case memory worked at 900 MHz with latency 4- 4- 4-8 and voltage 2.25 v.

All tests were executed in the operating system Windows XP professional edition SP2 (with all updates). Motherboard chipset Drivers - Intel chipset drivers version 8.4.0.1009a. We used directX 9.0c (release date ï¿½ April of 2007), and also video card drivers : Catalyst 7.4, ForceWare 93.71 (for GeForce 7600 GT and 7950 GT) and ForceWare 158.19 (for GeForce 8600).

Video card performance test was in two resolutions: 1024 X 768 and 1280 x 1024 with the following quality setting :

High Quality ï¿½ Driver setting set to High quality, anisotropic filtration and full screen smoothing are switched off;

High qual+AF16x+AA2 (4) x ï¿½ Driver setting set to High quality, anisotropic filtration set 16x and full screen smoothing set to 2x or 4x (depending on game).

For conducting the testing performance video card was used the following collection of synthetic benchmarks and the games:

3DMark 2005(Direct 3d) - build 1.3.0, resolution 1024 x 768, default settings;

3DMark 2006(Direct 3d) ï¿½ build 1.1.0, resolution 1280 x 1024, default settings;

Serious sam 2 (Direct 3d) ï¿½ game version 2.070, standard demo;

Quake 4 (OpenGL) ï¿½ game version 1.3.0 build 2393, our custom demo, detail in game where set to ultra quality;

F.E.A.R. Extraction point (Direct 3d) ï¿½ game version 1.01, built-in benchmark, all setting are set to Maximum, Soft shadows = off;

The elder scrolls IV: Oblivion (Direct 3d) ï¿½ game version 1.1.511, maximum quality, Bloom effects, distant rendering;

Prey (OpenGL) ï¿½ game version 1.2, maximum quality;

Company Of heroes (Direct 3d) ï¿½ game version 1.3.0, maximum quality, built-in benchmark ;

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.- Shadow Of chernobyl (Direct 3d) ï¿½ game version 1.001, shader 3.0, Full dynamic lighting ;

4. Performance tests Results

Here is the list of used card and their overclock:

GeForce 7600 GT 256 mb. 560/1400 MHz, @670/1584 MHz (delta -90);
GeForce 8600 GT 256 mb. 540/1400 MHz, @770/1858 MHz;
Radeon x1950 GT 256 mb. 500/1188 MHz, @688/1485 MHz;
GeForce 7950 GT 256 mb. 550/1400 MHz, @668/1620 MHz;
GeForce 8600 GTS 256 mb. 675/2016 MHz, @756/2322 MHz;
Radeon x1950 pro 256 mb. 575/1364 MHz, @621/1647 MHz;
Radeon x1950 pro 512 mb. 575/1390 MHz, @621/1498 MHz;
Radeon x1950 XT 256 mb. 621/1800 MHz, @675/2070 MHz.

We start from futuremark synthetic benchmarks , all test where with default settings .

3DMark 2005

In the first synthetic benchmark we note the sufficiently good appearance Of geForce 8600 GTS in comparison with today competitors. Even GeForce 7950 GT remained far behind, only Radeon x1950 XT was faster than new NVIDIA chip in the default frequency rating.

3DMark 2006

Similar situation , in 3DMark 2006 the GeForce 8600 GTS does not succeed in leading, This video card hold the second place after the Radeon x1950 XT.

We pass now to real gaming performance .

Serious sam 2

We have a new performance chart in serious sam 2. In the simple quality regime ( without AA and AF ) the geForce 8600 GTS over four today\'s competitors, and also in average the Radeon x1950 GT look faster .

The activation of anisotropic filtration and HDR are in favor of the 8600 GTS :

The GeForce 7950 has a large performance loses with anisotropic filtration and HDR, which as result make the geForce 8600 GTS faster The GeForce 8600 GTS at its default frequency is about faster or equal to Radeon X1950 GT/pro. Leadership on speed in all regimes and resolution belongs to the Radeon x1950 XT.

Quake 4
Quake 4 Quake 4 Quake 4 Quake 4
Quake 4 Quake 4 Quake 4 Quake 4
In Quake 4 it is possible to observe a serious decrease in performance for geForce video card after transfer to quality regimes . Full screen smoothing 4x together with resolution 1280 X 1024 completely kill all tested today NVIDIA chips.

F.E.A.R.: Extraction point

In F.E.A.R.: Extraction point game , the geForce 8600 GTS appears completely worthily against its competitorsï¿½ but only in regime without filtration. After the activating of full screen smoothing and anisotropic filtration , the system bus 128- bit of new video card (8600 GTS) can compete only with Radeon x1950 GT, which is cheaper by 80-90 US dollars. The situation with F.E.A.R is clearly not in the benefit of 8600 GTS.

The elder scrolls IV: Oblivion

The elder scrolls IV: Oblivion. Did not become exception for the GeForce 8600 GTS, which in its default frequency lead over all other card with exception Of radeon x1950 XT, but in regime with filtration and HDR this last is completely out from the competition.

Prey
Prey Prey Prey Prey

In Prey we observe the attempt Of geForce 8600 GTS to keep up with leaders. In some degree this video card was able to compete with other in HQ regime and the resolution 1024 X 768, but the same condition with higher resolution make the 8600 GTS faster only than the weakest 7600 GT, which is completely regular.

Company of heroes

And again new Nvidia card is in loss . The GeForce 8600 GTS in game company Of heroes is capable to be competitive only to Radeon x1950 GT, which successfully takes revenge in overclock (The GeForce 7600 GT as competitor to 8600 GTS is not examined :-) ). We note here the successful appearance Of radeon x1950 pro with 512 mb memory volume . This video card demonstrates essential advantage over its similar card with doubly smaller memory volume and also above Radeon x1950 XT 256 mb. Here the large memory volume clearly proved its use.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of chernobyl

And again Radeon x1950 pro 512 MB is the leader .This game is very demanding to the video memory volume .

Conclusion

First , the GeForce 8600 GTS appeared to be a completely worthily card against others video card from similar price range . but as average the video card is over priced . For over 200$ , user can get now not only Radeon x1950 pro 512 mb., but also Radeon x1950 XT with 256 mb memory volume ., which was leader in the majority of tests .

The second today comparison , became the result of two Radeon x1950 pro with memory volume 256 and 512 mb. The advantage of video card with doubly larger video memory volume exists . For example in games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow Of chernobyl, Company of heroes, F.E.A.R.: Extraction point and Quake 4.

Sysconn geForce 8600 GTS 256 mb. ï¿½ This is not a remarkable product with completely typical for this class video card delivery set ( for OEM card). The video card is the precise copy of reference design NVIDIA geForce 8600 GTS both on PCB and in frequencies. 3d- regime is noisy and the partially effective cooling system will hardly intreset overclocker. After cooling system replacement , this video card demonstrated a completely decent overclocking potential.

XFX geForce 7950 GT extreme 256 mb. ï¿½ noiselessness card ï¿½ This card was heating a lot with the default cooler , its Complicated to say how long will this card live with such high temperatures . However, overclocker have to replace the radiator with something more effective, or as minimum, equipe the card with 80- mm fan. The video card Delivery set is not characterized by special items ....

PowerColor x1950 pro xtreme 512 mb. ï¿½ The most complete from the examined today delivery set . average performance and low overclocking capability ....

HIS radeon x1950 XT iceQ 3 turbo 256 mb. ï¿½ Leader in today review. This card was the fastest , beautiful, and also has a quiet work regime . With low noise level we note the high efficiency of cooling system for this video card class . ....

xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source

Middle range video card comparison and benchmark

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