Graphic Cards Graphics Cards: The things we should know

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I am sure there are many people (myself included) who don have enuf knowledge about gfx cards. What shud one look forward to before getting a gfx card? Just to start the discussion, lets take gfx memory. Wat is the difference between a FX 6600 with 256MB and FX 6600GT with 128MB? Why should one go for a 6600GT if a choice is to be made between these two?

We have seen many games mentioning minimum amount of gfx memory needed say, 64MB or 128MB recommended. In a years time, the minimum requirement will be 256MB. Won't the 6600GT users lose out then? Or will it still be able to play the game better than that 6600 256MB card?? I'd like to know what the knowledgeable TE users think about this.

Also, please list out all the things that we should look out for. Lets make it a happening thread and an informative one for the gamers. :)
 
First and foremost the GF6 doesn't "f(u)x" so its a plain solid GeForce 6600. :eek:hyeah:
And the framebuffer size that you mention is not something that can calculated like 2+2=4.
Each succesive hardware generation enhances compression technology significantly therefore the need for framebuffer increases is not that immediate.Even 128MB suffices for 1024x768,4xAA,8XAF in most cases.
I remember reading somewhere that if a future part improves on current compression standards by say 4 times,a 256MB part based on that chip will outperform a 1GB chip based on current tech. with ease.
As for the 6600 256mb and the 6600GT,the 6600 256mb *may* have some advantage(more likely offset by its lower speeds) at 1600x1200 with aa and af.But you can't run many modern games at that res even on the 6800U so the point is moot.
 
QuickFire said:
I am sure there are many people (myself included) who don have enuf knowledge about gfx cards. What shud one look forward to before getting a gfx card? Just to start the discussion, lets take gfx memory. Wat is the difference between a FX 6600 with 256MB and FX 6600GT with 128MB? Why should one go for a 6600GT if a choice is to be made between these two?
Click to expand...
the 6600 is far too slower to be compared with the 6600GT. SO having that extra ram wont be useful anyways ! Even the 6600GT wont benfit from the extra ram i think. On the other hand cards like x800 and 6800GT will benfit anf already have 256Mb ram.

We have seen many games mentioning minimum amount of gfx memory needed say, 64MB or 128MB recommended. In a years time, the minimum requirement will be 256MB. Won't the 6600GT users lose out then? Or will it still be able to play the game better than that 6600 256MB card?? I'd like to know what the knowledgeable TE users think about this.
Click to expand...

What i said above !

Also, please list out all the things that we should look out for. Lets make it a happening thread and an informative one for the gamers. :)
Click to expand...
Brand, core clock speeds, mem clock speeds, prices/perf ratio, no of pipelines and price :p Additonally stuff like extra features like vivo, better cooler, faster component like ram (have a pay a small premium), game bundle !
 
The 6600GT will benefit to the extent of upto 10-20% in some cases with more ram.Infact some 256mb versions of the 6600GT are up for sale on some sites(Google for it).BTW even the 7800GTX has only 256mb memory not 512mb.
 
undertaker said:
First and foremost the GF6 doesn't "f(u)x" so its a plain solid GeForce 6600. :eek:hyeah:
Click to expand...

oh..k i'm srry. but i guess the 6800 cards uses FX with it. ;)

anyways, back to topic...
So, suppose Doom4 (don get excited; its not announced yet) recommends atleast 256MB video memory. A gamer have 6600GT with 128MB and another have 6600 with 256MB. We know performance wise 6600GT is much better but here, 6600 meets the min. requirements while 6600GT doesn't. Wat I wanted to know is...will the 6600GT with 128MB still play that game better than 6600 with 256MB? or the 6600 will win coz of its larger memory there? :huh:

And wat does this video memory indicate? can system memory be used as substitute for it? wat are 64-bit or 128-bit used with gfx cards?? Does it mean the gfx processor is operating at 128-bit??
 
Blade_Runner said:
Brand, core clock speeds, mem clock speeds, prices/perf ratio, no of pipelines and price Additonally stuff like extra features like vivo, better cooler, faster component like ram (have a pay a small premium), game bundle !
Click to expand...
will you elaborate on each of those if thats not much of a pain. :p
Let this be the ultimate knowledge base for gfx card buying decisions :)
i've already sticked the thread.
 
oh..k i'm srry. but i guess the 6800 cards uses FX with it.
Click to expand...
No,its just plain 6800.
Only advantage of bigger frame buffers btw are to be found in buggy games like Far Cry where texture thrashing will be less.(Despite all the patches the darn thing is still buggy,I sill get critical exception errors with it,a visit to ubi forums and I realized that I was not alone.Apparently a solution was to revert to patch 1.31,yeah right,gaming is now rocket science!Unistalled it ,anyway was getting bored of it,after a while even HDR can't sustain interest in the game)
DOOM3 has been the best in terms of bugs-none!And this despite that its probably the most demanding title of them all. :cool2:
Though DOOM3 advises 512Mb cards for use with ultra textures,it never complains as long as you have 1GB of RAM.Early builds of the source engine also had texture thrashing problem.
 
@ QuickFire

1.> FX doesnt mean better
2.> Its either a plain / GT / Ultra
Plain is normal
GT is more better
Ultra is going to burn a hole in ur pocket
[Most GT's can be approx clocked to match Ultra's perfomance with a nice cooler]
Eg. NVida has NV Silencer cooler & ATi has Ati Silerncer different for different series of cards.

3.> Each Graphics card has GPU and On GPURam.
GPU Speed or Core Speed:- is the speed at which the GPU runs eg. 300,350,400,500 etc
Mem Capacity:- 64/128/256/512MB this might be either DDR or GDDR3
Mem Clock speed:- Ranges from 500-1200Mhz
Most of the Ati cards i have seen they mention the speed as 500 450 etc
we actually have to multiply it by 2 For eg. 2x450 = 900Mhz , 2x500 = 1000Mhz
Since its DDR Ram we multiply it by 2.

Seen GPU Rams of 2 Types DDR & GDDR3.
Also GDDR3 is better than normal DDR ram.
And runs at very high speed than normal DDR.

4.> Turbo Cache [TC] Tech used in NVidas 6200 PCI-E x16 Cards
Turbo Cache means some amount of Ram is present on the card and rest is shared
from the system

This concept was used to lower the cost of graphics cards as they saved money
on ram chips.

6200 TC variants
For Eg.
64MB has 16MB on GPU rest shared.
128MB has 32MB on GPU rest shared.
256MB has 128MB on GPU rest shared.

5.> Pipelines
There are 2 Types of pipelines Pixel and Vertex thats all i know [Hehe]
The more the number of pipelines the better is the quality , speed and more is the cost of the GPU.

GPU Chart

NVIDIA Cards

Chip | Memory | DX | Generation | Chipclock | Memoryclock | Buswidth | P-Pipes |
GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI NV45 256MB DX 9.0c 400 1100 256 bit 16
GeForce 6800 GT SLI NV45 256MB DX 9.0c 350 1000 256 bit 16
GeForce 6600 GT SLI NV43 128MB DX 9.0c 500 1000 128 bit 8
GeForce 6800 Ultra NV45 256MB DX 9.0c 400 1100 256 bit 16
GeForce 6800 GT NV45 256MB DX 9.0c 350 1000 256 bit 16
GeForce 6800 NV45 256MB DX 9.0c 325 600 256 bit 12
GeForce 6600 GT NV43 128MB DX 9.0c 500 1000 128 bit 8
GeForce 6600 NV43 128MB DX 9.0c 300 550 128 bit 8
GeForce 6200 NV43 128MB DX 9.0c 300 550 128 bit 4
GeForce 6200 TC64 NV44 64MB+ DX 9.0c 350 550 64 bit 4
GeForce 6200 TC32 NV44 32MB+ DX 9.0c 350 700 64 bit 4
GeForce 6200 TC16 NV44 16MB+ DX 9.0c 350 700 32 bit 4
GeForce PCX 5900 NV35 128MB DX 9 375 700 256 bit 8
GeForce PCX 5750 NV36 128MB DX 9 425 550 128 bit 4

ATI Cards

Chip | Memory | DX | Generation | Chipclock | Memoryclock | Buswidth | P-Pipes |
Radeon X850 XT PE R480 256MB DX 9.0b 540 1180 256 bit 16
Radeon X850 XT R480 256MB DX 9.0b 520 1080 256 bit 16
Radeon X850 Pro R480 256MB DX 9.0b 507 1040 256 bit 12
Radeon X800 XT PE R423 256MB DX 9.0b 520 1120 256 bit 16
Radeon X800 XT R423 256MB DX 9.0b 500 1000 256 bit 16
Radeon X800 Pro R423 256MB DX 9.0b 475 900 256 bit 12
Radeon X800 XL R430 512MB DX 9.0b 400 1000 256 bit 16
Radeon X800 XL R430 256MB DX 9.0b 400 1000 256 bit 16
Radeon X800 R430 256MB DX 9.0b 390 700 256 bit 12
Radeon X700 Pro RV410 256MB DX 9.0b 425 860 128 bit 8
Radeon X700 Pro RV410 128MB DX 9.0b 425 860 128 bit 8
Radeon X700 RV410 128MB DX 9.0b 400 700 128 bit 8
Radeon X600 XT RV380 128MB DX 9.0b 500 740 128 bit 4
Radeon X600 Pro 256 RV380 256MB DX 9.0b 400 600 128 bit 4
Radeon X600 Pro 128 RV380 128MB DX 9.0b 400 600 128 bit 4
Radeon X300 RV370 128MB DX 9.0b 325 400 128 bit 4
Radeon X300 SE RV370 128MB DX 9.0b 325 400 64 bit 4
Radeon X300 HM RV370 32MB+ DX 9.0b 325 600 64 bit 4

Intel Graphics
GMA 900 i915G - DX 9 333 Motherboard - 4

Don't know the source from where i got this list of GPU's

phew!!!!!!

Guys correct me if i am wrong anywhere

Hope this helped
 
QuickFire said:
will you elaborate on each of those if thats not much of a pain. :p
Let this be the ultimate knowledge base for gfx card buying decisions :)
i've already sticked the thread.
Click to expand...
Core clock speeds: The amt of cycles a gfx card can do every sec.
Memory clock speeds: Ditto as above but for memory :p
Memory width ranges from 64 bit to 256 bit currently. The lower the memory width the lower the number of bits per clock cycle a card will be able 2 send. If the data bus is narrow the card will have a low bandwidth which wont be suffice enough to handle the requirements of todays games and performance will ultimately suffer.

For price perf ratio, its quite simple, compare two cards at the same price point and see which one offers better performance and features ;)
 
GFX cards are available in a wide variety of flavours, which are highly confusing... e.g. here are various cards by ATI



Hence, its necessary to decide on a budget 1st, and search for the best card within that budget.
 
undertaker said:
No,its just plain 6800.
Click to expand...
Well, its not me..I've noticed many sites including BigByte India (BBC) advertising cards like GEFORCE FX 6800 ULTRA! [ Check out http://www.bigbyteindia.com/main.html ] Earlier nVidia used to name the gfx cards like GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 etc. etc. After they launched the GeForceFX series, they seemed to have gave up such naming system or else the 6 and 7 series cards should ideally be called GeForce6 and GeForce7 respectively. Since they're not, I thought the 6 and 7 series still belong under FX which is not true either. So, there surely is some confusion over this.

btw, thanx to all of you for putting forward ur views. :)
 
QuickFire said:
Well, its not me..I've noticed many sites including BigByte India (BBC) advertising cards like GEFORCE FX 6800 ULTRA! [ Check out http://www.bigbyteindia.com/main.html ] Earlier nVidia used to name the gfx cards like GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 etc. etc. After they launched the GeForceFX series, they seemed to have gave up such naming system or else the 6 and 7 series cards should ideally be called GeForce6 and GeForce7 respectively. Since they're not, I thought the 6 and 7 series still belong under FX which is not true either. So, there surely is some confusion over this.

btw, thanx to all of you for putting forward ur views. :)
Click to expand...

There is no FX in the Geforce6 series...the link u have given is for an XFX card and may be that is the reason they have mentioned FX...which is actually wrong.....

I think the most important factors to consider are----Core clock,Memory Clock and Pipelines(Blade and Quad master have already mentioned them :p )

A lot can be talked about them..but i think benchmarks are the best indicators since the jargon will only confuse the reader.... :p
 
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