FPSLabs : AMD Dominates Tom’s Hardware’s Video Guide

Tom’s Hardware has posted its monthly “Best Video Cards for the Money” list, and for the first time in recent memory, AMD is pretty much unanimously preferred across the board. Starting at the under $100 range, THG actually prefers the GeForce 9500GT card from NVIDIA. This makes sense, since it is a pretty capable card for people on a low budget. Also, those of you afraid of that G84 problem we have discussed recently need not be worried, as the 9500GT is an all-new part for this last generation.

For video cards at $100, Tom’s selects the ATI Radeon HD3850. Although this is a last-gen part, the performance you can get out of this card is still pretty good. You won’t be able to play games at the highest settings at high resolution with the card, but the 512MB of memory (it is the only card in the $100 range with this asset) will still pump pixels on large screen sizes with medium details. At the $125 price point, Tom’s says there is a tie between the ATI Radeon HD3870 and the NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT. I can’t say that I agree with this selection; in all of my tests I have found the Radeon HD3870 to be a bit superior to the 9600GT in performance, and in image quality comparison light years ahead. To me, this makes the HD3870 the obvious choice at this $125 price point, but hey, I didn’t write the article.

Next up was the $150 price point, at which Tom declared the GeForce 8800GT 512MB card the winner. I would agree with this decision if I couldn’t find the Radeon HD4850 at this same price, which I can, as it is far superior to the 8800GT and is a good enough card to really win at several price points. Then in the $175 range they have the HD4850, which I guess makes sense because that is about the normal asking price for this card. However, I cant help but think Tom’s has prepared this article a little too early and is basing their selections off of pricing a couple of weeks old. Again, the HD4850 is the obvious choice here.

From the $175 price point they jump up to $280, where they proclaim the Radeon HD4870 is the best card for the money. I would agree with this at $280, but when I can get the Radeon HD4870 for right around $250 on Newegg most of the time, I struggle to think how there can be any other option. There are only two other cards in this price range really, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, and the GeForce 9800GX2. In tests the Radeon HD4870 blows past the GTX 260 in every regard, though the older 9800GX2 does keep up. This is largely in part due to the fact the 9800GX2 is essentially two video cards in one. The drawback here of course is that when you buy the 9800GX2 you also get a space heater. The power requirements for the card are pretty high, and the audience is limited to people with strong enough power supplies. With the GX2 you also do not get support for DX10.1, which will be the API of choice for several major titles coming out in the near future.

The real coup happens at the next price point, which is the $350 to $400 range. This segment is typically dominated by NVIDIA, who tends to produce powerful and overpriced monolithic cards that wealthy enthusiasts jump all over for the price. However, Tom’s has wisely selected the configuration of 2 Radeon HD4850 cards in CrossFire for $350 as the champion in this range. This is a great decision for two reasons. First, CrossFire scaling has increased tremendously with this new generation of graphics card, so performance of two of these cards in CF trumps even the likes of the GeForce GTX280. Second, the added image quality options you get out of ATI cards in CrossFire is a tremendous advantage for the HD4850’s over competing solutions in this price range. As a bonus, since the Radeon HD4850 is a single-slot card, you don’t have to sacrifice other enthusiast-oriented luxuries like sound cards and TV tuners that would otherwise have no accessible slot.

It is not a stretch to think that a configuration of two Radeon HD4870’s in CrossFire would be selected if Tom’s had moved up to another price point. This months hosts the launch of the Radeon HD4870X2 as well as supposedly a few new cards from NVIDIA, so next months guide should be even more interesting. We might have to start making our own monthly guide like this. Hey, whatever happened to our hardware guides? Uhhh…

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