Mid-Range GPU breakdown by Tomshardware

[Deleted]

In before TH bashing

Anyway, they did a nice breakdown of the Mid range GPU market measuring performance, temperature and noise.

Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.5 GHz

Prolimatech SuperMega + Noiseblocker Multiframe PWM

Asus P67 Sabertooth Rev. B3

8 GB Kingston HyperX 1600 "Genesis"

256 GB Samsung MZ5PA256HMDR-01000

Cougar GX 1050, 80 PLUS Gold Windows 7 - 64 bit

I'll only post the benchmarks under load for both noise and temperature and stick with a performance index for rating performance.

For more details visit: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...hics,2977.html

Performance Index



Efficiency under load (take note that Nvidia cards are all more efficient when idle).



Noise under load.




/discuss

[vesseblah]

/discuss

What's there to discuss, it shows what's been said all along on the forum:
Factory overclocked GTX560 is best midrange card, and AMD cards use less power than Nvidia cards.

[BicycleMafioso]

Yea, I'm not taking this seriously, considering the selection of cards. :x
One 6950 (of each memory) and millions of 560 Ti's?
Be more biased

[vesseblah]

Yea, I'm not taking this seriously, considering the selection of cards. :x
One 6950 (of each memory) and millions of 560 Ti's?
Be more biased

Yes, it's silly comparing factory overclocked gtx560 to stock r6950. This thread is now officially about TH bashing because they deserve it.

[naadra]

Ya that is def alot of 560s there lol. Ya wheres my overclocked reference 6950 2GB!

[Deleted]

Yea, I'm not taking this seriously, considering the selection of cards. :x
One 6950 (of each memory) and millions of 560 Ti's?
Be more biased

I don't get what you're problem is.

They took a large number of Mid-Range GPUs are benchmarked them in various categories. This isn't about 1:1 comparisons and the models range from costing 150 USD to about 250 USd.

It just gives people a rough idea how much bang for their buck they can expect.

If you're going to be a hater, then please expalin on what objective basis you're hating.

Because as I see it, they are benchmarking these cards on a single system, just like any other site or company would do.

[Saithes]

I don't get what you're problem is.

They took a large number of Mid-Range GPUs are benchmarked them in various categories. This isn't about 1:1 comparisons and the models range from costing 150 USD to about 250 USd.

It just gives people a rough idea how much bang for their buck they can expect.

If you're going to be a hater, then please expalin on what objective basis you're hating.

Because as I see it, they are benchmarking these cards on a single system, just like any other site or company would do.

There's six GTX 560 Ti's which is more than any GPU on that chart. Toms has been discredited by many many people as the 'leading' source of reviews since they began spilling out biased bullshit.

[naadra]

Well first there is like 8 560 tis listed and like one of a few other types. It also is comparing some overclocked 560tis in there where if you take a few of those other cards like the 6950 2gb reference card and overclock them, well then the results do not look as favorable. So even I would have to agree that it is kinda biased.

[Deleted]

Sorry but I don't see how that's biased. So they benched a lot of 560 Tis....so what? How does that make the results any less objective?

We're still being presented with each cards individual results. They aren't saying Nvidia or AMD is better, they are simply comparing GPUs between 150 and 250 USD.

When you purchase a product you still have to chose from which manufacturer you want to buy. And that benchmarks shows that some models are clearly better than others.
The only way you'd find those results biased is if you didn't understand the context.

And btw no one has come up with any logical or reasonable argument against THG except for hearsay.

But if I'd give hearsay on these boards any credit I'd probably never by an AMD CPU, never buy an SSD, ony ever by Seasonic PSUs and Asus Motherboards.

[Sykotic13]

That was a rather sparse article by their normal standard. One thing I didn't see mentioned is whether or not they hacked the 6950s to run the 6970 BIOS and what effect that had on their standings in the rankings. Anyway, just my takeaway from that article.

[Skelly]

Sorry but I don't see how that's biased. So they benched a lot of 560 Tis....so what? How does that make the results any less objective?

We're still being presented with each cards individual results. They aren't saying Nvidia or AMD is better, they are simply comparing GPUs between 150 and 250 USD.

"Hey look at all that green near the top, all the red is near the bottom!" The problem is, by colour coding the chart, they are trying to say that NVIDIA is better than AMD. They tested a butt ton of higher end NVIDIA cards, and a load of lower end AMD cards..

Its true that if someone Tknowlegdeable were to look at this, they could take some valuable information away, but not enough people are going to come away from this with the right info. An unbiased graph they could have made, would be performance per $, but I don't see that anywhere.

[Uggorthaholy]

"Hey look at all that green near the top, all the red is near the bottom!" The problem is, by colour coding the chart, they are trying to say that NVIDIA is better than AMD. They tested a butt ton of higher end NVIDIA cards, and a load of lower end AMD cards..
<snip>
An unbiased graph they could have made, would be performance per $, but I don't see that anywhere.

I agree with this 100%. TH has been showing some major favoritism in some of their comparisons and also has a tendency to do things in an unbalanced manner. This is one of those times.

Testing more NVidia cards than AMD, and the NVidia cards they used are known to be overclocked and perform better, while using stock or reference models of the AMD cards without overclocks. Creates a major bias.

Then, color code it to show NVidia winning, and don't give a performance avg/$ and bam, NVidia bias right away. Have a feeling someone's servers may be chipped in for by a certain manufacturer...

[Deleted]

Lol, I wasn't even going to respond to that argument because of it's raw ignorance and stupidity but I can't see it catch on like that.

You realize I just pre-selected 3 of the many, many benchmarks they performed during that test? And you do realize that AMD cards all have a higher efficiency? And did you even bother to read the complete article or did you just jum on the THG hate badwagon without even sparing a thought on what it's actually based on.

If you'd have read the artice you'd have seen that almost all Nvidia cards use more power than AMDs under load and less when idle.

Also at no point did you mention the price. A Geforce 560 Ti costs almost 250 bucks and is the "high-end" mid-range card.


The idiocy of your argument is that it's based on something as arbitrary as color coding which you interprit as favoritism.

Mod Warning: Keep the hostility level down. Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean that their argument is idiotic or ignorant. Argue without resorting to the low brow tactics. That goes for both sides of the argument, as well. - Cilraaz

[Uggorthaholy]

Sweet mother, hostile much? Why didn't they use a "high-mid range" AMD card if they used one from NVidia?

That's my questioning. It was not a completely even test, yet again, from THW.

Do you understand the logic behind what I am saying? You're the one being a THW fanboy right now, so stop accusing me of hating. I call them how I see them. I used to use THW A LOT a while back. Now, there are better sources of information.

[Deleted]

Sweet mother, hostile much? Why didn't they use a "high-mid range" AMD card if they used one from NVidia?

That's my questioning. It was not a completely even test, yet again, from THW.

Do you understand the logic behind what I am saying? You're the one being a THW fanboy right now, so stop accusing me of hating. I call them how I see them. I used to use THW A LOT a while back. Now, there are better sources of information.

No, because you're not using logic. You're spouting BS based on ...nothing really except for your unexplained hate towards THG.

I'm not being a fan boy. I just know how to read stats and benchmark results.


Yes, ideally they should have had 15 AMD models and 15 Nvidia models but for whatever reason they did not. Maybe there were less OC'd Nvidia models available or they couldn't get their hands on models that were different enough to warrant benchmarking them.

It still doesn't diminish the relevance of the results.

It's like complaining that a magazine compared 4 new BMW models against 6 new Mercedes models. Since we're talking about absolute results here, the sample size really doesn't matter. (e.g. BMW will use X amount of fuel over 100 miles, no matter against what car you compare it).

[Deleted]

damn just bought the hd6950 2gig today :P it didnt seem to do too well in the tests. in fact the 1gig beat it everytime :P

[Deleted]

damn just bought the hd6950 2gig today :P it didnt seem to do too well in the tests. in fact the 1gig beat it everytime :P

2GB of video RAM might not pay off right now but they will in the future. Especially if you plan to expand beyond the tested 1080p resolution.

Getting 2GB of Video RAM is like buying 8GB of DDR3 RAM for your new rig. It won't improve your performance today, but it will sometime in the future.

[naadra]

The nice thing about the 6950 reference is you can unlock it and overclock it, and the crossfire performance of the 6950s is awesome. This is just a snip but take a look at the full review for them. http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...firex-review/1

bah graph didnt post lol, but check the article they perform very very well.

[Jurwi]

2GB of video RAM might not pay off right now but they will in the future. Especially if you plan to expand beyond the tested 1080p resolution.

Getting 2GB of Video RAM is like buying 8GB of DDR3 RAM for your new rig. It won't improve your performance today, but it will sometime in the future.

So not only a THW fanboi but also a clairvoyant, sweeet.

Except that 4GB is already too little for people who multi task a lot, it's not something for the future, while 2GB of video ram can very likely still be useless in years.

[haxartus]

Less power means less heat, which means less noise and a better cooling, which means a longer lifespan of the GPU and the components inside your PC. For me the 6870 Twin Frozr II is the best middle range GPU.