Here is a list of video cards and their overall rankings using a system I came up with myself. tomshardware.com did a whole bunch of benchmark tests on 42 video cards. In order to combine all the individual benchmark scores into one overall score, I took each individual benchmark FPS score, divided it by the highest FPS score obtained (ie by the fastest videocard in that test) and added them. For example, in the nascar thunder 2004 benchmark, the geforce fx 5800 scored 61.9 fps, and the highest obtained score was 63.8 (obtained by the Radeon 9800 XT). So the adjusted score (or % score) of the 5800 for this benchmark was 61.9/63.8 = 0.97 (or 97%). Then the 5800's adjusted scores in each benchmark were added to obtain an overall score. Here are the results. Keep in mind these are tests with anti-aliasing (FSAA) and anisotropic filtering disabled. With them enabled, the scores are completely different. Also note that some cards are directX 9 cards while others (like the geforce4 cards) are directX 8 only. U means Ultra. Here are the scores.
Radeon 9800 XT score = 9.77
GeForce FX 5950 U score = 9.6
Radeon 9800 Pro score = 9.48
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 score = 9.48
GeForce FX 5900 U score = 9.41
GeForce FX 5800 U score = 9.23
Radeon 9700 Pro score = 8.94
Radeon 9800 score = 8.9
GeForce FX 5900 score = 8.85
GeForce FX 5900 XT score = 8.68
GeForce FX 5800 score = 8.3
Radeon 9700 score = 8.28
GeForce FX 5700 U score = 7.83
Radeon 9600 XT score = 7.54
Radeon 9500 Pro score = 7.4
Radeon 9800 SE score = 7.28
Radeon 9600 Pro score = 7.09
GeForce4 Ti 4600-8x score = 7.08
GeForce4 Ti 4600 score = 7.06
GeForce FX 5700 score = 6.83
GeForce4 Ti 4400 score = 6.65
GeForce FX 5600 U (FC) score = 6.4
GeForce4 Ti 4200-8x score = 6.28
GeForce4 Ti 4200 64 score = 6.1
Radeon 9500 128 score = 6.0
GeForce4 Ti 4200 128 score = 5.99
GeForce FX 5600 U score = 5.83
Radeon 9500 64 score = 5.71
Radeon 9600 score = 5.53
GeForce FX 5600 score = 5.39
Radeon 8500 64 score = 5.33
Radeon 8500 128 score = 5.2
GeForce FX 5200 U score = 4.89
Radeon 9000 Pro score = 4.35
Radeon 9200 64 score = 4.33
Radeon 9600 SE score = 3.92
GeForce FX 5200 score = 3.85
GeForce4 MX 460 score = 3.79
GeForce4 MX 440-8x score = 3.73
GeForce4 MX 440 score = 3.27
Anything above an 8 is an excellent card, and anything below a 5 should be avoided. (also the geforce4 TI's, which seem to have done well, are old cards and do not do well at all in anti-aliasing or aniso and are therefore not recommended)
Here is an example that illustrates how to interpret the scores. For every 9.77 frames per second obtained by the Radeon 9800 XT, the GeForce FX 5600 U would obtain 5.83 FPS. This means that if the radeon 9800 XT would get you 58.62 FPS (9.77 x 6) in a certain game then the GeForce FX 5600 U would get you approximately 34.98 FPS (5.83 x 6) in that same game. (6 was chosen because 58.6 is a reasonable FPS score in some games. In some games, the multiplier will be closer to 9 or 10). I hope this helps
