Six Generations Of Videocards Tested

@ 2009/02/05
Our journey begins in 2004: Nvidia's NV40 also known as Geforce 6800 Ultra is released in spring and sweeps the competition until Ati counters with the X800 XT-PE. In December a refresh is delivered in from of the X850 XT-PE, which is regarded to be the fastest card of the X800 series. In 2005 we saw the Geforce 7 series and Ati's Radeon X1800 XT-PE, which again resulted in the fastest model of the series; theX1950 XTX. For some time Nvidia is able to keep the pace with the 7900 GTX and in 2006 the dual GPU card 7950 GX2 is able to conquer the performance crown. Later that year the G80 chip is causing a stir and the 8800 Ultra is the new spearhead of the offensive. Ati's answer, the R600, takes a long time - the HD 2900 XT isn't released until early summer 2007, but doesn't pose a threat to Nvidia.

Comment from geoffrey @ 2009/02/07
And there is still plenty of room to tweak that old G80 for a lot more FPS
Comment from jmke @ 2009/02/07
I bought mine december 2006, it still runs the latest games at OK resolutions (1600x1200), we're now more than 2 years later... the difference between 7900GTX and 8800GTX is huge
Comment from geoffrey @ 2009/02/07
8800GTX is best buy high-end card from last few years no doubt.
Comment from Kougar @ 2009/02/06
8800GT is still worthwhile card, can run CUDA.
Comment from jmke @ 2009/02/06
aha, 7800 GT SLI is still worth a few HWboints
http://hwbot.org/quickSearch.do?hard...+GT+%281513%29
Comment from blackened @ 2009/02/06
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kougar View Post
I have a 7800GT if you want to start a collection...
I can throw my 7800gt on the pile. Along with my 6800gt. And maybe in a few months my 8800gt. Although keeping that around for Physx would probably be worth while.
Comment from Kougar @ 2009/02/05
Just confirms that buying last generation flagship cards isn't usually the best solution. Interesting that the X1950XTX is par with or better than the X2900 card once AA is used. What a useless card the X2900 was!

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmke View Post
I still have a 7900 GT lying around, looking at these results makes me cry
I have a 7800GT if you want to start a collection...
Comment from jmke @ 2009/02/05
I still have a 7900 GT lying around, looking at these results makes me cry