24 or 48 pixel pipelines....? I'm a little confused

Pck21

Pck21

New Member
Ok I was looking at vid cards this morning and I noticed that the cards with 48 pipelines had the same core clock and hertz as the cards with 24 pipelines. It's seems to be the same speed to me so why are they so much more expensive? And which is better to go by...pipelines or clock speed?
 
The 48 pixel pipeline card offers more detail in both games and other graphics applications. A brief description is

"Pixel pipeline
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A pixel pipeline is a videocard part that transfers pixel information. The more pixel pipelines, the faster the video card can process pixels.

Current top-end videocards, such as the Radeon X1900 XTX and the GeForce 7900 GTX, offer 16 (effectively 48, 3 pixel processors per pipe) and 24 pixel pipelines respectively.

Current videocards and their number of pipelines:" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_pipeline
 
I'd say more pipelines is better because you can OC the video card easily(if you're comparing two identical cards), but you should always look at the core clock, memory clock and pixel pipelines before buying a video card(there's a lot more you should also look at).
 
a card with higher clockspeed and less pixel pipelines won't do as well in high quality situations... but in lower quality situations (say ut2004) it'll probably get a higher fps rating just because it may only use say 10 of the pixel pipelines and therefore the extra clockspeed helps it get the info to where it needs to be at a quicker rate. generally more pixel pipelines is better because it'll last you longer on newer games though.
this is why SLI and crossfire are used. you double your pixel pipelines and overall processing power... though sli and crossfire use the memory of the card with the lowest amount of memory.. say you use a 6600gt 128mb and a 6600gt 256mb... you only get a total of 128mb of video memory then. and say you use a 7900gt with 256mb and one with 512mb, you only get 256mb of video memory then. this is why its suggested you use identical cards for SLI.
 
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When setting up an SLI or Crossfire matrix with two cards you would generally want to go with two identical models there for the best overall performance to be seen. I get some good system locks with the ATI X1300 Pro model card with only 4 pixel lines with regret for not going with the older X700 model with 12. But the next intended case will be planned out for premium there in order to build more then a gaming system. It will have to be a little more durable including the video card(s) used.
 
Oh ok. Cause I was just getting confused with which would be better. So I have an X1600 pro right now. Can I get another one and "sli" them together? My mobo and ps can support it. Would this be possible?
 
Nope, your mobo supports SLI but not Crossfire. ATI's form of SLI is called Crossfire. You'll need a new mobo if you want to run 2 ATI cards in Crossfire.
 
Ahh damn that hurts. So if I were to get a new mobo that supports crossfire, will the pixel lines combine to have 24? AND does BF2 support sli?
 
The difference between 24 and 48 pixel pipelines has to do with offering a faster and better quality 3D rendering and not what decides if BF2 or any other game will support SLI. Two 48 type cards in sync would see 96 pixel popelines improving overall quality there. You should be able to take even older games and still have no problems running them. The game's own settings for video would have to cinfigured a little differently perhaps.
 
Ok what about the X1900 from ATI. It has 12 pixel pipelines but 36 pixel shaders?? What's that mean?
 
Pixel shaders is a little more involved where the following can give you a much more detailed explaination. http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/pixel_shaders.html
"Pixel Shaders
You need to have read the introductory page on Shaders and the page on Vertex Shaders before reading this page. A lot of the concepts in shader coding are shared between vertex and pixel shaders so on this page I just discuss the differences along with examples. This page is split into the following sections:

Introduction
Pixel Shader Input
Pixel Shader Output
Applying the Pixel Shader
Pixel Shader Example Code
Pixel Shader Example 1 - Ambient Light
Pixel Shader Example 2 - Diffuse Light
Summary
Introduction"
 
Pck21 said:
Ok what about the X1900 from ATI. It has 12 pixel pipelines but 36 pixel shaders?? What's that mean?
Click to expand...
What one are you looking at? The X1900XT/X has 48 Pixel Shaders I believe.
 
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