The Big GPU Shootout: Part I, Upgrade Now or Wait?

Introduction

Do I need to Upgrade? This is perhaps the most commonly asked question by today’s gamer.  Now with stiff competition between Nvidia and AMD, prices have fallen on the new video cards, Nvidia’s Tesla Geforce series and AMD’s HD Radeon series, and a lot of the newer DX10 games seem to be lagging on old standards like 8800GTX.  We also note rumors of newer refreshes of the current Nvidia line coming up soon, and many gamers want to know if it makes sense to upgrade now.  We will try to answer these and many more questions in our 5-part and potentially ongoing series that cover video card, motherboard and CPU upgrades.  This first article sets the stage for what is coming from us and shows the performance comparison between last generation’s top and midrange cards vs. today’s latest and greatest, including Crossfire X-3 combinations.

Do I need Crossfire X3?  You will spend close to $700 for 2 video cards!

Thankfully not for 19×12 for most games

Perhaps you are upgrading from a midrange card like 2900xt, 3800 or 8800GTS series.

The 2900xt is pictured above along with 8800GTX, the reference card for nearly 2 years

What about 8800GTX for 19×12?

Should you consider upgrading to 280GTX or HD4870 as pictured below?

Is it more than just a new look?  -Oh yes. Read on!

Explore with us as we make a complete platform change and analyze the performance increases as worth it, or not, for yourself.

Check out some of the latest hardware we will be exploring over this 5-part series devoted to upgrading for DX10 games.

You are now invited to explore with us and comment on this first article in a series of our video card reviews. When we started benchmarking well over 8 weeks ago with Catalyst 8-8 and Geforce 175.19, we were not quite certain exactly where we would go or what we would find. We did have a clear idea that we would try to determine if video cards from the last generation or so need upgrading; and we are referring particularly to Radeon 2900/3800 series, and Geforce 8800/9800 series. Our review is in several parts and will cover comparisons of Catalyst Drivers 8-8, 8-9, and 8-10 with 3 sets of GeForce 177.41, 178.24, and180.48