Relearning GPUs

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forkedt

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
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I havent dealt with Desktops as a primary in about 6 years (switch to a laptop) so I'm coming back to them for the first time recently and for the most part everythings been easy to refresh. I'm looking to put a good GPU into my system however and the current naming/numbering system has me lost :confused:.

Can anyone point me to a good source for information on the naming systems and what they represent in terms of output? I'm currently looking at something like a Radeon HD 5670 which meets most of my needs from what I can tell - hdmi output, decent benchmarks and around the $100 price point.

Thanks for the help!
 
Tom's Hardware will help out a lot, here's the graphics card buying guide for June 2010:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646.html

As for understanding the card naming conventions, I haven't seen a good guide in a while, and to be honest, I don't know the difference myself. I'd recommend deciding on a firm price range, finding a bunch of cards in that range, and comparing benchmarks on those cards. If the prices and benchmark results are similar, go with the card in the more recent series.
 
short answer:

Ati has the Radeon 4xxx series and 5xxx series with the 5 being newer dx11 cards.

Nvidia has the new 465/470/480 "fermi" cards, the previous generation 240/250/260/275/280/295, and the even older 9400/9500/9600/9800.
 
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