Video Card Price vs Performance (11-18-2010)

Here is a graph that I made to help determine what gaming video card might be the best bang for the buck. This graph compares the price of each card taken from newegg.com on 11/17/2010 and 11/18/2010 and graphs it against each cards' performance in Crysis: Warhead at 1920x1200 resolution. The tests were performed and published by anandtech.com. I made the graph to get a better feel for each card's value.

Processor Gaming Performance vs Price

To go along with my previous post comparing the Left 4 Dead 2 performance of various processor families, I decided to post these two graphs as well. These take the same Left 4 Dead 2 performance test from Tom's Hardware and graphs it against September 27, 2010 prices of each desktop processor that I could find at Newegg.

The first graph is all desktop processors that I could find on Newegg. The second graph is a magnified version of the less expensive processors. I was looking for a good value under $200 and was curious how things looked around $100. It just seems that the goal in this benchmark is something in the 200 fps range which puts you in the $150 to $200 range.

Just like on the last post - one test doesn't completely illustrate the benefits and pitfalls of a particular processor. But, I am considering parts for a computer that I want to build currently and I have to draw the line somewhere and eventually make a decision. I decided that to try to compare processors and prices on several benchmarks is too much work for one computer building decision. This is especially true when a processor like the Core i5-750 is such an obvious choice if I decide to go the Intel route.

Hopefully, this work is of value to someone else that is considering processors to make a similar decision.

Gaming Performance by Processor Family

I just read Mike Magee's column from the September 2010 issue of Computer Power User (CPU) about how difficult it is for typical computer shoppers to differentiate between the different processors and processor families available today.

It got me thinking and I put together a couple of little graphs comparing the performance of current processor families in a Left 4 Dead 2 benchmark run and published by Tom's Hardware. The benchmark is conducted at 1680 x 1050 screen resolution and medium settings.

I'm not sure how great this test is but I have found it useful in determining that the Core i5-750 and some of the Phenom II X4 processors are pretty good bargins for gamers based on current prices at Newegg.

If you find the picture hard to read, click on it to open it up and click on it again to open it full size. You can make out most of the processor family names that are container in the boxes on the graph.

The higher on the graph a particular box goes, the higher the framerate of that family of processors in this game test.