Sub-$250 graphics cards

Eleven cards. Lotsa testing. We compare the current crop of budget video cards on the market.

Here at Atomic we’re used to the biggest, fastest and best. But sometimes this isn’t always practical, nor realistic in the real world to always be on the bleeding edge. Naturally, and struck with some inspiration, we decided to find out so that you don’t have to.

With cards ranging from the low-end to mid-high-end, and prices from all walks of life, we have benched cards from ATI and NVIDIA, and evaluated each one. There are so many cards out there on the market, how is a budding enthusiast or wizened guru going to choose the best for their needs? Well, enter Atomic.

First we took the eleven cards, and threw them together inside a locked room. We checked back on them a few weeks later, and discovered who the victor was. Was it an NVIDIA card, or an ATI card? Was it horrendously expensive, or surprisingly affordable? Was there a victor, or did each card manage to finish the others off completely? The answer, as always, lies just over the next few pages.

How we tested
Graphics cards are a relatively simple affair to test. Each result can be kept comparable to the next as we can use the one test rig – meaning that performance is relative to each other card in this roundup. Many different readings were taken, and any standout features or issues were noted.

Here are the specs for the test rig:Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Intel E8400 @ 333x 9 = 3000MHz
TeamXtreem DDR2 @ 1066MHz
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W
WD Velociraptor 300GB
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

The operating system was Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1, with no audio or network drivers installed. Drivers used for NVIDIA cards were Foreceware 180.42, while ATI cards were treated to a beta release of Catalyst 8.11.

Four benchmarks were used with the cards, including the Crysis built-in GPU test, the Company of Heroes built-in test, 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage. Both 3DMark programs were run at default settings, while the games were run at 1280x1024, all settings set to High, with 4xAA used in CoH only.

Sound measurements were taken with our magical sound probey stick of wonder (otherwise known as a sound-level meter), and temperatures were recorded via the latest version of GPU-Z, 0.28. Where temperatures would not report, our expert fingers felt instead. Just remember that if you’re going to attempt to emulate the extremely manly, modest and powerful Atomic Staff, to be careful that you don’t burn yourself!

All these benchmark tools are readily available to download for free online, and if you’ve bought the games, they have them enabled and ready to use. Feel free to compare your results to ours, and see where your rig stacks up in the budget world. Just keep in mind any discrepancies in CPU or other factors if you get a different score to ours with the same card.

Check out our nifty comparison table as well, to, well, compare the different cards. The graphs are also quite handy for those who need to see a visual, or don’t have time to read the text.

Now that you know how we went about testing, flip the page to get into it!