*nOOb hard at work*

[Josh_45]

So... today I've been learning about video cards and from what I've found..

1. Scaleable Link Interface and Crossfire do the same basic thing, that is connect two Nvidia or ATI cards, respectfully.

2. The Nvidia 9600 series is the current highest.

3. The Ati HD 3870 series is the current highest.

4. For SLI, you need two identical nvidia cards.

5. For crossfire, you need one crossfire-enabled card, and one ati card matching the series... i.e... Crossfire 3870 and a regular 3870.

6. A single Nvidia card is better than a single Ati card, but Crossfire blows away SLI>>

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=14474&PageId=0

7. 512mb of video memory is plenty, 1 gig is overkill.

8. What does the core clock and, what do gddr2,3,4 mean, really?

9. Direct X 10 is the current best. And Open GL 2.0 is what exactly?

10. HDCP has to do with filtering content maybe? That's what I got out of wiki anyway...

So... please feel free to tear apart all my "facts". I appreciate and value all of your input.

 

[JohnJSal]

1. Scaleable Link Interface and Crossfire do the same basic thing, that is connect two Nvidia or ATI cards, respectfully.

One thing to note is that you can only use SLI with nVidia chipsets. Intel does not support it. So if you have an Intel board, you can only do Crossfire. (But when using a single card, you can use either nVidia or ATI)

2. The Nvidia 9600 series is the current highest.

Numerically speaking, the 9 series is the highest. However, the 9600 seems to be more of an entry level model, if I'm not mistaken. I think the 8800 series still outperforms it.

4. For SLI, you need two identical nvidia cards.

This is true of the 8800GTS 512MB. Not sure about any others.

 

[daisymtc]

2. The Nvidia 9600 series is the current highest.

8800GT Ultra is the current highest

3. The Ati HD 3870 series is the current highest.

Partly true. Best card is HD3870 x 2

6. A single Nvidia card is better than a single Ati card

Depends. Are you consider HD3870x2 are single card?
Also, when you compare the lower range, performance of 2600XT similar 8600GT GDDR3, 2600XT start with $75, 8600GT GDDR3 is start with $90

 

[Kornowski]

8800GT Ultra is the current highest

I believe it's just called an 8800 Ultra

 

[hermeslyre]

5. For crossfire, you need one crossfire-enabled card, and one ati card matching the series... i.e... Crossfire 3870 and a regular 3870.

7. 512mb of video memory is plenty, 1 gig is overkill.

8. What does the core clock and, what do gddr2,3,4 mean, really?

9. Direct X 10 is the current best. And Open GL 2.0 is what exactly?

10. HDCP has to do with filtering content maybe? That's what I got out of wiki anyway...

5. I'm no exert on crossfire, but I believe it current form (Crossfire X or something like that) for is a mix and match technology, but to a degree.

7. Basically. If someone is running on say 1920 x 1200 or higher a gig might help to keep thing running unfettered. The bottleneck 512mb would pose on such a resolution would be nominal, but as newer games are released this can change fast.

8. Core clock. This represents the speed the GPU itself is running at. Think CPU speed, I.E 2.2ghz. GDDR is VRAM, stands for Graphic Double Data Rate. The number following GDDR denotes level of speed. As seen, it's based on DDR tech, in other words its reference speed and effective speed are different. Reference speed is actual speed, effective speed is bullshit created to look good on spec. GDDR is generally faster than it's desktop DDR ilk, designed for graphical tasks, it excels in them.

9. OpenGL is a open source API designed for computer graphics work, whether that be crating games, CAD work, etc. It's cross platform, meaning it works under a variety of Operating system. It's simply a different way of creating games, think of it like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_OpenGL_and_Direct3D

10. Yeah. HDCP sucks. To view a HD dvd, you would need a HDCP capable monitor and GPU, if you don't have these things it will either play in SDTV or it won't work at all. It's a way to restrict access to content the industry feels you should pay to even be able to view. *doesn't impede downloading HD stuff, if you get my drift, only matters if you want to watch a DVD/disc.

git-r-done noob