HEXUS.bang4buck, and overclocking
In a rough-and-ready assessment of the cards' bang per buck, we've aggregated the 1,920x1,200 frame-rates for five games, normalised them* and taken account of the cards' prices.
But there are more provisos than we'd care to shake a stick at. We could have chosen five different games, the cards' prices could have been derived from other sources and pricing tends to fluctuate daily.
Consequently, the table and graph below highlight a metric that should only be used as a yardstick for evaluating comparative performance with price factored in. Other architectural benefits are not covered, obviously.
| Graphics cards | Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 iChiLL 896MB | Inno3D
GeForce GTX 260 896MB |
eVGA GeForce GTS 250 Superclocked 1,024MB | XFX Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1,024MB | HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1,024MB | Sapphire
Radeon HD 4870 512MB |
XFX Radeon HD 4850 XXX 512MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual aggregate marks at 1,920x1,200 | 349.71 | 326.75 | 263.46 | 327.66 | 328.44 | 310.72 | 256.02 |
| Aggregate marks, normalised*, at 1,920x1,200 | 315.43 | 301.27 | 245.19 | 299.17 |
299.34 | 280.56 |
229.93 |
| Current pricing, including VAT | £210 (estimated) | £175 (estimated) | £144.60 | £178.24 |
£205.29 |
£143.72 | £124.99 |
| HEXUS.bang4buck score at 1,920x1,200 | 1.502 | 1.722 | 1.696 | 1.678 | 1.458 | 1.952 | 1.84 |
* the normalisation refers to taking playable frame rate into account. Should a card benchmark at over 60 frames per second in any one game, the extra fps count as half. Similarly, should a card benchmark lower, say at 40fps, we deduct half the difference from its average frame rate and the desired 60fps, giving it a HEXUS.bang4buck score of 30 marks. The minimum allowable frame rate is 20fps but that scores zero.
The HEXUS.bang4buck score only takes the performance and price into account.Analysis
Take a look at the aggregrate marks at 1,920x1,200, normalised, and the Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 holds a reasonable advantage over the two Radeon cards, clocked differently, but benchmarking at almost exactly the same levels. Add cost into the mix and the XFX's attractive pricing makes it the best of the trio. However, take a look at the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB's performance and pricing and it becomes a clear winner - complicated, huh?
The aftermarket coolers don't show a direct benefit here, of course, and it's something you need to bear in mind when making a shortlist.
Overclocking
Pushing the three pre-overclocked cards farther, here's how they fared in our overclocking test.
| Graphics cards | Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 iChiLL 896MB | XFX Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1,024MB | HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1,024MB |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU clock |
620 | 775 | 770 |
| GPU overclock | 720 | 798 | 828 |
| Percentage overclock | 16.13 | 2.97 |
7.53 |
| Memory clock | 2,100 | 3,800 |
4,000 |
| Memory overclock |
2,560 |
4,480 | 4,300 |
| Percentage overclock | 21.9 | 17.9 |
7.5 |
| ET: QW 1,920x1,200 | 81.7 | 71.20 | 71.7 |
| Overclock score | 94.97 | 73.73 | 76.25 |
| Percentage increase | 16.24 | 3.55 | 6.35 |
The Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 iChiLL overclock, on both GPU and memory, is excellent, yielding a performance increase of around 16 per cent in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars at 1,920x1,200. The benchmark is driven by core speed more than memory frequency, and that's why the XFX card doesn't do as well. HIS' effort is in the middle, but neither ATI-based card can hold a candle to the Inno3D.