Graphics CardThis month’s (February 2008) PC Gamer featured an interesting article about how the minimum specs on the back of PC games are a pretty ineffective way of measuring whether or not your system is capable of running a game.

Even industry insiders acknowledge that the recommended specs are pretty inaccurate, and with the vast differences in individual PC configurations its almost impossible to decide what a ‘minimum spec’ might be.

I won’t ruin the whole article, you can pick up the March 2008 issue in the shops, but there was a particular piece of the article I thought was very useful. What they’ve done is to compile a list of the ‘hottest hardware’ and try to define a pecking order for graphics cards and processors.

They acknowledge that in some cases its very difficult to say that card X is better than card Y, but they’ve ranked them on performance features and value for money. You might not agree with the standings, and I’m not going to criticise, but it does make a good list to see how your system compares with what’s available to buy right now.

I, for one, get a bit lost in the neverending releases of graphics cards and processors, all with model numbers that don’t necessarily mean an awful lot. Sometimes graphics cards with similar model numbers can be very different in terms of performance, and when you’re shelling out anything up to £400 you want to be sure you’re buying the right one. The same with processors, where two similarly named chips can have different architecture that makes one considerably slower than the other.

So, from best to last, in order, here are PC Gamer’s rankings for graphics cards.

  1. GeForce 8800 Ultra
  2. GeForce 8800 GTX
  3. GeForce 8800 GTS 512
  4. GeForce 8800 GT
  5. Radeon HD 3870
  6. GeForce 7950 GX2
  7. GeForce 8800 GTS 320/640
  8. Radeon HD3850
  9. Radeon X1950 XTX
  10. Radeon X1950 XT
  11. Radeon HD2900 XT
  12. GeForce 7950 GT
  13. Radeon X1900 XTX
  14. GeForce 7900 GTX
  15. Radeon X1900 XT
  16. Radeon X1900
  17. Radeon X1800 XT
  18. Radeon X1800 XL
  19. GeForce 7900 GTO
  20. Radeon X1800 GTO
  21. GeForce 7900 GT
  22. Radeon HD2900 Pro
  23. GeForce 8600 GTS
  24. GeForce 7900 GS
  25. GeForce 7800 GTX
  26. GeForce 7800 GT
  27. GeForce 7800 GS
  28. Radeon X850 XT
  29. Radeon HD2600 XT
  30. GeForce 8600 GT
  31. Radeon X850 Pro
  32. Radeon X800 XT
  33. Radeon X800 XL
  34. Radeon X800 GT
  35. Radeon HD2600 Pro
  36. GeForce 7600 GT
  37. GeForce 6800 Ultra
  38. Radeon 9800 XT
  39. Radeon 9800 Pro
  40. Radeon 9800
  41. Radeon X1650 XT
  42. Radeon X1600 XT
  43. Radeon 9700 Pro
  44. Radeon 9700
  45. GeForce 6800 GT
  46. GeForce 6800 GS
  47. GeForce 6800 GTO
  48. Radeon X800 Pro
  49. GeForce 6800
  50. GeForce 6800 XT
  51. GeForce 6800 LE
  52. GeForce 7600 GS
  53. Radeon 9600 XT
  54. GeForce 6600 GT
  55. Radeon X1600 Pro
  56. GeForce 6600
  57. Radeon X600 Pro
  58. Radeon 9600 Pro
  59. GeForce 6600 LE
  60. GeForce 8500 GT
  61. Radeon 9600 LE
  62. Radeon HD2400 XT
  63. GeForce 8400 GS
  64. Radeon HD2400 Pro
  65. GeForce 7300 GT
  66. Radeon X1300
  67. Radeon HD2350
  68. Radeon 9550
  69. GeForce 7300 GS
  70. GeForce 7200 GS
  71. GeForce 7100 GS
  72. GeForce 6200
  73. GeForce 6150 LE
  74. GeForce 6100

Credit to this list goes to the February 2008 issue of PC Gamer. You can also check out their processor rankings.