The most interesting facts from "Best Video Card EVER"

[oxy4bf2]

So last week I posted the "Best Video Card EVER" thread and got a TON of responses, thanks guys! A lot of you said you went from GPUs I've never heard of (meaning pre-2004 cards) to things like 8800GTXs, 4850s, and even a 5870?!?!? That must have been night and day!

Navigating through all the responses, I found one post in particular to be very interesting because it quantifies that "night and day" gameplay experience one has when making a huge jump in graphics computing power. Posted by jaredpace, these charts show increases in FPS as ratios. The biggest leap in current times has been moving from a HD3870 (which, btw, did anyone actually buy that?) to an HD4870, with a ratio of 1.92, or almost twice as much gain in FPS! The jump from the 7800GTX to 8800GTX that I raved about came in 2nd with a ratio of 1.86 (86% FPS gain over 7800GTX).

I think what made the 8800GTX jump a little more memorable for me, compared with the 4870 (I now have a 4890, anyone selling a decently-priced 5870?), was how handily the 8800GTX thrashed all games because Crysis wasn't out at launch as it was for the 4870.

(On a side note, I think Crysis is great for showing friends how frickin awesome your PC is at rendering games, then after 5 minutes, either you switch because you are bored or your friend(s) request to play MW2 on the xbox. However, now that the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta is out for PC, MW2 seems obsolete)

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Relative speed jumps tend to be between 1.5 - 2.0 times the performance between full generations, 2.0 is about the most you'll see typically.

Obviously the newer generations while they they might only have the same kind of relative increases compared to their previous generation, are obviously giving the biggest raw jump in power. For example going from a 4870 to a 5870 for might net you twice the speed, and going from from a 7800gtx to a 8800gtx was probably about the same realtive increase, but the total amount of additional raw power gained in the move 4870 to 5870 is much higher.

So on a normal scale rather than a relative one, your most significant video card upgrade is probably going to be your latest.

 

[oxy4bf2]

I totally agree PrincessFrosty, this is pretty self-evident because GPUs get more and more powerful.

Let me add that I tested the HD4870 to HD5870 FPS gain ratio using benchmarks from Farcry 2 at 1920x1080 (8X AA/0X AF) on Tomshardware.com and the 1.66x ratio is dead-on.