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Low-end VGA modding competition - anyone up for organizing it?


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Posted

Just a quick and simple question: the Old School is Best School competition is running pretty well, so I'm wondering if we can do the same but for low-end graphics cards. Basically a "cheapazchips" competition series, with a new card/challenge every month.

 

Is there someone who's willing to spare a bit of time to work out the details (like card, benches, etc)?

 

Just drop a message below :)

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Posted
Happy to help! We've done a few of these over at OCN and they were a blast.

 

Cool :celebration:

 

So it comes down to this. Just like with the Old School is Best School competition, we need to come up with:

 

- a name

- the competition rounds (name, start/end date, vga choice)

- stages (benchmark, points, ...)

 

To get the discussion going, maybe we can think of some cards that might be interesting? Should we go for a specific product, or leave it open to all brands and tie it down to the GPU)

Posted

all brands, tie it to a GPU core.

That way you have people testing 512mb, 1gb cards etc within a model, and you can see what is best.

pick a modern and a legacy bench, I've done 01 and catzilla 576p with GT610 cards

Posted

Sent this over to Massman on Skype earlier:

I'm thinking four stages.

Competition divided by extreme and ambient

But make it so Extreme guys can't submit for ambient

5G CPU limitation for extreme, 4.5G CPU for ambient

Stage 1 - 3D03

Stage 2 - Vantage

Stage 3 - FS

Stage 4 - GPU Pi 1B

Skylake will be a must but the speed limitations should make it so it's not a CPU binning game

I also think it would be good to have volt mods worked out ahead of time and published at the start of the competition

Also, E/G/A power limited to Extreme

I think we should also test a few cards ahead of time to verify that they don't have cold slow or anything like that

Make sure they'll be fun to freeze

or work with manufacturers to make sure we have cold slow BIOS

Potential cards:

Nvidia - GT 210, GT 610, GT 720

AMD - HD 5450, HD 6450, R5 230

All are readily available for under $50 from Newegg in the US. Might be a good idea to verify availability in other countries as well.

I think GT 720 or R5 230 is the way to go.

Probably the GT 720

 

Looking back at it though... Vantage wouldn't work because it would actually require a 5960X to be competitive. Same thing for Fire Strike... Maybe Heaven and AM3 instead?

Posted (edited)

'210 and '610 won't be affected by CPU in Vantage. Make it GPU score only if there's some paranoia? :)

 

FS.... 210 and 610 won't be affected by CPU either :) EDIT: correction. Derp.

 

GT720 GDDR3: in Vantage, moving from 40K CPU to 80K adds less than 300 points.

 

FS: not sure. Sod all, is the short answer :P

Edited by K404
Posted

I would love to share Miss Jane Nash's assets with the world. Especially frame by frame :banana:

 

I think you're right... GPU score only is the way to go for Vantage.

 

But AM3 might actually run lol. Should there be a fifth, all out, no restrictions stage? Gotta have people let loose on something!

Posted

IMO, the benchs should be

 

3dmark 01

3dmark 03

3dmark 05

Heaven basic

Possibly Vantage if just the graphics score (but any 3dmark would work although fs doesn't run well on old/cheap cards)

 

That way even AMD could be competitive and the cpu doesn't matter also gpupi doesn't work on cheap gpus as they lack double precision support

Posted
IMO, the benchs should be

 

3dmark 01

3dmark 03

3dmark 05

Heaven basic

Possibly Vantage if just the graphics score (but any 3dmark would work although fs doesn't run well on old/cheap cards)

 

That way even AMD could be competitive and the cpu doesn't matter also gpupi doesn't work on cheap gpus as they lack double precision support

 

3DMark 01 is a CPU bench at this point... It relies very little on GPU. Also, I doubt AMD would be competitive in any of those benchmarks. '05 is very CPU-dependent as well.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)
So...this is going to live?

 

I can help to @Trouff if you need.

 

So how about this?

 

As for stages and hardware after a thought

 

HD 5450 because it's widely available and scales with cold although if you want something that doesn't scale with cold the gt610(gt520) will fill that spot

 

Maybe a cold and ambient comp

 

Stage 1: 3dmark 01 (will be cpu limited on the amd side but not Intel)

Stage 2: 3dmark 03

Stage 3: Unigne Heaven basic

Stage 4: 3dmark Vantage (GPU score)

 

Like that it removes pretty much any cpu bottlenecks and allows no need restrict the cpu clocks

 

Also for the name Cheapazchips GPU comp works

 

Checking availably of the gpu used is very important

 

Also I plan on helping people out in getting the card modded as that should allow a lot more to compete

Edited by newlife

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