What to look for?

N

Nateku

Member
Generally, you want an HDD to have many gigabytes of storage, a processor to have many gigahertz of power, and RAM to have gigabytes of memory. (As much as I understand it)

However, I have no idea what technical specs to look for when deciding whether or not a video card is amazing or not. Is it the VRAM? The core clock? The number of stream processors? If anyone could tell me what to look for, I'd be very much obliged. ^_^
 
I look for:

Interface: Example PCI Express x16
Core Clock
Memory Clock
Memory Size
Memory Interface: Example 512-bit
 
Bodaggit23 said:
I look for:

Interface: Example PCI Express x16
Core Clock
Memory Clock
Memory Size
Memory Interface: Example 512-bit
Click to expand...

of course, those are really specific stuff. if you dont want to bother with those, u just need to know the "rank" of the card compared to the best card and how it performs in the task that you want, say gaming.
 
Nateku said:
as I understand it)

However, I have no idea what technical specs to look for when deciding whether or not a video card is amazing or not. Is it the VRAM? The core clock? The number of stream processors? If anyone could tell me what to look for, I'd be very much obliged. ^_^
Click to expand...

Well thats is kinda of open ended. Video cards can range from a 30 buck, this card sucks. To a 550 buck GTX 295 thats a top end card. It really depends on what your going to be doing with the video card.

Give us a price range your looking at.
 
i used this table to decide what radeon cards to buy:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131

they are somewhat arranged by awesomeness. but the things i look for are:
transfer rate, then memory interface, then stream processors, or pixels per clock for ATI. you can always try to overclock them if you get a good brand.

for example, i put up a 3870 for $$, and some noob referred me to a 4670 he found on newegg for $. yeah, it's a newer card for cheap, but the 3870 has faster transfer rate and wider memory interface. that showed him up. there is a link to the nvidia chips on that page too.
 
Quite honestly, video cards are hard to judge based solely on specs. You have to read reviews and look at benchmark comparisons. The only caveat I'd add is that after you determine the best cards in your price range, figure out whether you should go for 1gb of VRAM instead of 512mb (depending on the games you play and your monitor's max/ideal resolution).

There are pretty clear cut ranks as far as what's better than what, so as long as you're willing to spend $80+, it should be pretty obvious (once you decide which brand you like...both offer good value now). Anything under $80-100, and you run the risk of getting an overpriced, severely outdated card.
 
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