After seeing the millions of posts asking the same question... what is the best card for X rupees, I felt that something needs to be done. Half of the the threads in this forum are filled with the same type of topics. Other ppl please do suggest corrections modifications etc to the same. Some of it is inspired by the Video card guide from THG forums but its been suitably "Indianized" by me. So well here it is
General Remarks: All NVIDIA GeForce FX cards have very poor Pixel Shader 2 performance compared to similarly priced ATI Radeons. Given a choice, grab the Radeon. However the new NVIDIA 6800 cards have excellent shader performance and are a better deal than ATI X800 series cards most of the times.
Budget - < Rs 2000:
Use onboard video. Get a board with decent onboard video nForce 2 IGP chipset or the new 915G chipset.
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Budget - Rs 2000-3000:
Available Cards : GF2 MX200, GF4MX4000 64bit, GF4MX4000 128bit, GF4MX440 128bit, GF4MX440-8X 128bit, GF4MX440-SE 64bit, SiS Xabre etc
Best card to buy : GF4MX 440 or GF4MX 440-8X (both 128 bit)
Cards to avoid : All the rest.
Pros : Decent DX7 performance in older games such as Quake3, UT etc
Cons : Already outdated, no shader support.
Notes : Buy only if you cannot stretch your budget and are on an old system. Current onboard solutions are as good if not better.
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Budget - Rs 3000-5000:
Available cards : Some varieties of GF4MX-460 (rare), GF4Ti 4200/4200-8X/4400/4800, Geforce FX 5200 (64bit), GeForceFX 5200 (128bit), Radeon 9200SE (64bit), Radeon 9200(128bit).
Best Card to buy: GF4 Ti 4200/4200-8X/4400/4800 (hard to find), GF FX5200 (128bit), Radeon 9200 (128bit)
Cards to avoid : All 64bit memory based cards,GF4MX cards. Note the bit not MB. That refers to the data access path inside the card. Do not be fooled by the amount of memory on the card. Cards in this price segment typically come with 128MB of memory. However some vendors put 256MB of memory to lure users. This is makes no performance difference to these cards, in fact it might reduce performance as the 256MB cards might have slower memory!
Pros(GF4 Ti): DX 8.0 Shader support. Best performance in its class, Can play DOOM3 at 800x600 med detail, highly overclockable.
Cons(GF4 Ti): No DX 9 support means latest games with new shader effects won't look as good, Some cheaper ones have poor 2D quality compared to 9200 cards. Bad AA/AF performance
Pros (GF FX5200): DX 9.0 shader support, decent performance for price.
Cons (GF FX5200): Poor performance in games with lots of DX 9 shaders (all new games). Not as fast as the older generation GF4 Ti series.
Pros (Radeon 9200): DX 8.1 shader support, decent performance for price, shaders are not a gimmick like in FX5200, excellent 2D and video quality.
Cons (Radeon 9200):No DX 9 support means latest games with new shader effects won't look as good, Not as fast as the GF4 Ti4200 cards.
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Budget - Rs 5000-7500:
Available cards : Radeon 9550 (64bit), Radeon 9600SE(64bit), Radeon 9550(128bit), Radeon 9600(128bit), GF FX5600(128 bit), GF FX5600XT(64 bit), GF FX5700LE, GF FX5700.
Best Card to buy:
This is tricky... if your budget is at the lower end of the spectrum, get the 128bit Radeon 9550, if its on the higher side, get the Radeon 9600.
Cards to avoid: all FX5600 cards, all the 64 bit variants of the above cards.
Pros(9600/9550): Both the 9550 and 9600 use the RV350 core. The only difference between the two is the clock speed (250MHz/325MHz). Good DX 9 shader performance. The 9600 can run most games with decent setting(medium-high) with some AF/AA.
Cons: AA/AF performance is not very good as the cards are bandwidth limited.
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Budget Rs 7500-10,000:
Available Cards: Radeon 9600 Pro, Radeon 9600XT, GF FX5700-128MB, GF FX5700-256MB, GF FX5700Ultra(? not sure of prices) - All cards are 128bit.
Cards to buy: Radeon 9600 Pro/ Radeon 9600XT
Cards to avoid: Vanilla FX5700 cards, FX5700U
Pros: Very good shader performance, Good AA/AF performance, runs all games with moderately high settings with AA/AF.
Cons: Doesn't perform too well in Doom 3 at high resolutions, memory bandwidth starved architecture.
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Budget Rs 10000-15000:
Available Cards: Radeon 9800 Pro(128MB) - 256bit, Radeon 9800SE, Radeon 9800 Pro-128bit (Powercolor), GF FX 5900/5900XT/5900Ultra.
ONLY Card to buy: Radeon 9800 Pro(128MB) (256 bit).
Cards to avoid: All other cards mentioned. All of them perform poorly compared to the 9800 Pro and are poor value for money.
Pros(9800 Pro): Excellent DX9 shader performance, runs all new generation games with high res and high settings with AA/AF. Good AA/AF performance. Best value for money card.
Cons(9800 Pro): Faster solutions available for more price, mediocre performance in some OpenGL applications compared to Direct3D performance.
Notes: The 9800SE and 9800 Pro -128 bit versions should be avoided at all costs since they perform very poorly compared to the 256bit 9800 pro and are priced nearly the same.
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Budget Rs 15000-25000:
Cards available: Radeon 9800 Pro(256MB) - 256bit, Radeon 9800XT, GF6800 Non Ultra(if available?), GF FX5950U.
Cards to Get: GF6800 non ultra (first choice if available?), 9800XT (if price is right)
Cards to avoid: 5950U at all costs.
Pros (6800): Very good performance for the price, Supports shader model 3, faster than 9800XT in most situations. Extreme Doom 3 performance.
Cons (6800): Only 128MB of memory, 9800XT is faster at high resolutions with AA/AF in some situations.
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Budget : More than Rs 25000:
Cards available: Radeon X800 Pro, Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition, GF 6800GT, GF6800 Ultra.
Cards to buy: GF 6800GT (better value), GF 6800U or X800XT PE (Best performance).
Cards to avoid: Radeon X800Pro.
Cons(X800): No shader model 3 support
Cons(6800): Bigger performance hit than X800 with AA/AF.
Notes: All the above cards are extremely good and can play most games at extreme resolutions with AA/AF. The X800XT and 6800U are almost impossible to find. Which is faster is difficult to decide, each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Amongst the 6800GT and X800 Pro, the GT is faster and also supports Shader model 3 which rules out the X800.
Best Buy: Gainward 6800GT Goldensample (clocked at Ultra frequencies)
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