If you go here, https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_SNP_comparison_chart, you can see wide variations between different chipsets, including those within the same company. Checking 23andMe v2 chip vs. v5 chip, the amount of SNPs in common is 98,965. That’s a far cry from 500K – 900K+ SNPs shared with some other chipsets. The fewer SNPs shared in common, the greater the likelihood of missing a true match or getting a match that isn’t as close as it should be if you were using the same chipset.
The same situation applies if using GEDmatch or other comparison tools/websites. Some of the raw data you can upload to GEDmatch has a lot more or fewer SNPs than the above ISOGG chart.
- While it sounds great to do comparisons between the various companies, the results are frequently not good apples to apples comparisons. Since very few DNA companies offer full DNA testing at a reasonable price yet, most offer around 500,000 to 800,000 SNP comparisons, a far cry from the 3+ billion SNPs in our DNA. One day in the not too distant future, some estimate within 3 – 5 years, we will see full DNA testing for a pittance of its current pricing. It may be as cheap as $99 to get a full DNA test. If that sounds silly or ridiculously cheap, compare to how fast the current autosomal DNA testing dropped in price. Here are some cases of the history of DNA pricing
- https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Sequencing-Human-Genome-cost
- https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/DNA-Sequencing-Costs-Data
