So many GPUs, so little time. With both ATI and nVidia having such a variety of GPUs on the market at any given time, finding price/performance gems can be a tall order. We sifted through a whole lot of rocks to find the diamonds. We present those, plus a boatload of test data for your surfing pleasure.

There's much to tell today, so let's get to it.

The Rundown

There are so many GPUs to choose from, in large part, because of speed-binning, the industry practice of sorting chips by their fastest stable speed as they roll of the assembly line. For instance, we looked at four different ATI processors that share an identical architecture (only clock speed differences separate them). On the nVidia side, we also tested four GPUs that are architecturally identical, with only clock rates differentiating them.

The other driving force behind this practice is the longer design cycles that newer, more complex DirectX 9 GPUs required. Both ATI's and nVidia's high-end GPUs have over 100 million transistors, most of which are logic (as opposed to cache memory). Both companies have discovered that, as yields and manufacturing processes improve, they can get faster-clocked parts to roll off the production line. The two manufacturers can then create "kicker" products like ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro and 9800 XT, and nVidia's GeForce FX 5900 Ultra and 5950 Ultra.

We looked at 15 different GPUs -- eight from ATI and seven from nVidia:


GeForce FX 5950 Ultra - Radeon 9800 XT
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - Radeon 9800 Pro
GeForce FX 5900 - Radeon 9800
GeForce FX 5900 XT - Radeon 9700 Pro
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra - Radeon 9600 XT
GeForce FX 5700 - Radeon 9600 Pro
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra - Radeon 9600SE
- Radeon 9200 Pro

As you can see, these cards represent the companies' current crop of GPUs, pretty much from top to bottom. There are a few models we didn't include, like ATI's Radeon 9800SE, a four-pipe version of the Radeon 9800 Pro. Actually, it winds up effectively being a Radeon 9600 XT, which we did include. We also omitted ATI's Radeon 9100 Pro and 9500 Pro, since they've become pretty scarce among online retailers. The GeForce FX 5500 Ultra, which according to nVidia is a retail-only, slightly beefier version of the 5200 Ultra, was also excluded.

Here are their respective clock rates:

GPU Clocks (E/M)
Radeon 9800 Pro 378/675
Radeon 9800 325/580
Radeon 9700 Pro 325/610
Radeon 9600 XT 500/650
Radeon 9600 Pro 400/600
Radeon 9600SE 325/390
Radeon 9200 Pro 250/400

GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 475/950
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 450/950
GeForce FX 5900 425/950
GeForce FX 5900 XT 400/850
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 475/900
GeForce FX 5700 425/550
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 325/650