The new VGA and CPU guides from Tomshardware are out. Links below.
My interpretation of the results:
No reason to upgrade CPU's for gaming.
FPS variation from $80 single core to $950 dual core is 6%.
The results from the ATI cards are much better against the Nvidia than they were last fall. It looks like the programmable shader enhancements that ATI announced in January have been rolled into the latest drivers. The X800+ and x1800+ series cards are doing better in OpenGL now. They don't have test results from the 7900 series cards. :-(
I thought I saw an improvement in BF2 on my X800XL after I loaded the latest Radeon drivers, it looks like I was right. The 6800GT is now benching out at lower FPS than my card in all games. The 6800GT benched higher than the X800XL when I bought last fall. Note my 3dMark05 and 06 scores did not change after the latest ATI driver upgrade.
Ignore any test results you see from Futuremark in review articles. They do not represent in game performance. The 3dMarkxx benchmark results are significantly influenced by CPU performance and give misleading results. In game FPS is not improved by the CPU and dual core chips buy you nothing.
VGA
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/04/10/interactive_vga_charts_2006_kickoff/index.html
CPU
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/04/05/spring_2006_interactive_cpu_charts_update/index.html
My interpretation of the results:
No reason to upgrade CPU's for gaming.
FPS variation from $80 single core to $950 dual core is 6%.
The results from the ATI cards are much better against the Nvidia than they were last fall. It looks like the programmable shader enhancements that ATI announced in January have been rolled into the latest drivers. The X800+ and x1800+ series cards are doing better in OpenGL now. They don't have test results from the 7900 series cards. :-(
I thought I saw an improvement in BF2 on my X800XL after I loaded the latest Radeon drivers, it looks like I was right. The 6800GT is now benching out at lower FPS than my card in all games. The 6800GT benched higher than the X800XL when I bought last fall. Note my 3dMark05 and 06 scores did not change after the latest ATI driver upgrade.
Ignore any test results you see from Futuremark in review articles. They do not represent in game performance. The 3dMarkxx benchmark results are significantly influenced by CPU performance and give misleading results. In game FPS is not improved by the CPU and dual core chips buy you nothing.
VGA
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/04/10/interactive_vga_charts_2006_kickoff/index.html
CPU
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/04/05/spring_2006_interactive_cpu_charts_update/index.html
