Entry level cards (Less than 4k)

Friday, October 03, 2008

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This category of GPUs serve users who are looking to boost their system's graphic processing capabilities in order to run well, at least the less graphic intense games and also for running Windows Vista smoothly with Aero. This category had GPUs from both Nvidia and ATI.

3D Mark 06
We were not expecting anything spectacular when it came to 3D Mark scores in this category as compared to cards in the higher price segments, but a couple of cards did manage to surprise us with scores more than 5k. Nvidia ruled the entry level segment with a huge lead over ATI, with the Zotac 9500GT scoring a staggering 7028 which is amazing for its price.

Company of heroes
With the intricate detailing of infantry, vehicles and other elements of a war zone, the game requires a decent graphic processor to run smoothly. COH made things really simple for us as there was a huge difference between the winner and others. It was the Zotac 9500GT which held the pole position again with 91 fps leaving every other card in this category far behind.

Crysis
Regarded as one of the most graphically demanding gaming titles of all times, we had no hope from any of the GPUs to survive the Crysis thrashing and well, we were right.

MSI NX 8500 GT

The GPU that scored the highest here was again Zotac 9500 GT scoring a meager 18 fps but nonetheless for the price it comes for we can safely say that it's more than decent.

Call of duty 4: Modern Warfare
COD4 is an FPS title and is considered as one of the better looking shooter titles. We were expecting a bit decent scores for this one as the game is a DX9 title. With a score of 35 fps, it was the Zotac 8500GT that won this battle and was closely followed by MSI NX8500 GT and XFX 8500GT. Seems like the Nvidia 8500 series has been tweaked to run COD4 better than the other GPUs in this category.

Unreal tournament 3
UT3 is a title where we saw even the entry level GPUs stretching themselves to the limit. It was the Zotac 9500 GT that led the pack with a score of 83 fps followed by the Asus EAH 3650 Silent at 69 fps.

Zotac 9500 GT

Verdict
This being the price specific category, maximum weightage was given to price as compared to the weightage for performance and features. Though by the end of testing, it became quite obvious that it would be the Geforce based Zotac 9500 GT that would win it. The second and third positions were taken by the ATI based Asus EAH 3650SILENT and Sapphire HD 3650.

Editor's choice
The Zotac 9500 GT was the clear winner in the entry level segment. The GPU has a 512 MB GDDR3 RAM and even though it is the costliest card in the lot, the edge in performance and features helped it claim the top spot with an overall score of 70 out of 100. Overall, a good buy in terms of performance and cost.

Labs recommended
The MSI NX 8500 GT was in close proximity in terms of overall scoring. Though it lagged a little behind the Zotac but had the added advantage of an HDMI port. Another reason for it coming out as the winner even though its performance was just decent is its price. At the price it is sold at the MSI is a steal.

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