Comparing Videocards

Ok, so when comparing videocards on newegg or something, i always come down to 2 or 3 cards. Now im not sure what is better than what. One card will have a fast core + memory speed but will lack in actual memory or it'll have good memory and have slow speeds. What should i look at or should i just look at the card as a whole instead of the finer points? (i realize what is better than what like GDDR3 is better than GDDR2 and the fast the speed the better i just don't know what spec to choose over the other) Thanks a million.

ps. im upgrading my graphics card for some of the up coming games and i have a few picked out so i just need help for future reference.
 
Do you mean comparing the same model cards, or comparing different model cards?

If you're comparing the same model cards, usually it doesnt make a difference, and the size of VRAM usually doesnt have a huge impact.

I use this site to compare cards: http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php
 
different model cards. ive been seeing a lot of GeForce 8 series that are pretty damn fast but have some pretty dated vram and a lot of 7 series have good ram but are slower.
 
different model cards. ive been seeing a lot of GeForce 8 series that are pretty damn fast but have some pretty dated vram and a lot of 7 series have good ram but are slower.

Oh I see what you mean. Like comparing the 7900GT to the 8500GT or something?

When comparing any card in that series (ie the 7 or 8 series), the higher the better. But thats not the case when comparing say, the 7 series to the 8 series.

If you're looking for a good card, the 8800GTS is probably the best way to go, which is then followed by the 7950GT. I would use the comparison chart I gave you to compare cards, it shows you the specs and tells you which one is better. Then you can use this site to view benchmarks on different cards: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
 
No problem, I remember a year or so ago I used to think that any of the 7 series was better then the 6 series, and the more RAM the better, but thats not always the case.
 
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