Video Card Basics

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ohboring1

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Aug 16, 2004
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I would like to know what all the parts do and why two identical video cards ( so far as I can tell) Can range in price by $200.00.

Basically.. I'd like to be able to read a newegg.com product specification chart and know what all of it means.

Does anyone know of a guide or website that can help me out?
 
I dunno what your trying to asked but ill try to answer it. ex BFG 7800GTX OC and eVGA 7800GTX KO. The eVGA is higher priced because of the ACS3 cooler on the eVGA and also its OC'ed. The BFG is lowered price because it doesnt have a 3rd party cooler on. And alot of times the higher price is with the bundle that comes with the card and is it OC'ed or not.
 
This is a concept that confused me for a while:

If your wondering about the number, thats the core model. nVidia and ATI are the two leading core manufacturers.
The suffix on the number is a late model identifier, and they can mean a big difference in performance or compatablility and they are all different.
Card manufacturers buy cores from the retailers and they can all mean different performance.
Theres also memory to look at, there are all different types as well and they are designed to be completely indipendant of the system memory.
 
Core difference, memory size difference, memory quality, overclockability, company warantees (like XFX has double life-time), a bunch of company extras (like extra games that come with it n stuff), heat sinks... a lot of what everyone else said
 
Swordfish45 said:
This is a concept that confused me for a while:

If your wondering about the number, thats the core model. nVidia and ATI are the two leading core manufacturers.
The suffix on the number is a late model identifier, and they can mean a big difference in performance or compatablility and they are all different.
Card manufacturers buy cores from the retailers and they can all mean different performance.
Theres also memory to look at, there are all different types as well and they are designed to be completely indipendant of the system memory.
Click to expand...

Too add onto this:

32, 64, 128, 256, 512 MB of memory.
64, 128, 256-bit memory bus
Clock Speeds
Memory Speeds
GDDR, GDDR2, GDDR3
4, 8, 12, 16, 20 ^ Pixel Pipelines


THOSE are the main things as well as:
Brand
PCB color(not really)
Price
Outputs
Interface (PCI, PCI-E, AGP)
 
Here's the basics you need:

Toss out that newegg.com specification and look at benchmarks of that video card in action in actual gameplay situations.

Details about the hardware mean dick all unless you're involved with graphics R&D, either on the hardware or software side. By that point though, you'll either know the info from other sources already, and/or know far more relevant and specific information than a marketing spec sheet could ever dream of telling you.
 
Cypher19 said:
Here's the basics you need:

Toss out that newegg.com specification and look at benchmarks of that video card in action in actual gameplay situations.

Details about the hardware mean dick all unless you're involved with graphics R&D, either on the hardware or software side. By that point though, you'll either know the info from other sources already, and/or know far more relevant and specific information than a marketing spec sheet could ever dream of telling you.
Click to expand...
I agree completely. But heasked for two IDENTICAL cards. I RARELY see a BFG 6600GT vs an XFX 6600GT type of bench.
 
Warranty, software bundle, hardware bundle (remember how the 7800 GT/GTX that came with the "free" motherboard was overpriced?), pupularity, cooling solution
 
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