***Modern Video Cards FAQ***

[ronnn]

This is just nvidia fanboy stuff in the higher end. Why sticky this, unless we have an ATI fanboy thread stickied? Outside of the reccomendations - probably pretty accurate.

 

[Delorian]

could've been a tad more in depth, but overall good job:beer:

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've already seen some the Questions answered here, asked again Few will read this, and some of the conclusions are quite controversial.

 

[Avalon]

Not exactly well organized in some parts, but generally the information is good. What are the physical differences between a 9200 and a 9600 besides clockspeed? I had thought for a minute the 9200 only had two pipelines, but I doublechecked and saw that it does have 4 like its bigger brother.

 

[stardust]

:thumbsup:

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: ronnn
This is just nvidia fanboy stuff in the higher end. Why sticky this, unless we have an ATI fanboy thread stickied? Outside of the reccomendations - probably pretty accurate.

Hmm why do you say that... How can a i be a fanboy if i gave reasoning behind both opinions, and i also presented both sides. I gave my best judgement.

Sorry i have been away for so long however i worked like 4 14 hour days, hell thats a lot for a kid about to go back into school with (and i haven't finished my AP homework or practiced my pitching for baseball )

I have read over everything you guys said and i will definately incorporate a lot of it. Also i will provide sub headlines in bold that mark new areas in the thread. If i was able i would include a linkable table of contents where you clicked on the link and it just moved down the page to the beginning of that section.

I got a message from the mod saying that it was a great post, and that he would advise after a while as the thread grows to repost with update info and start from a new thread. He also said he gave it a one month sticky but i dont know where the sticky walked off too so ill have to check on that. Any ideas question, or comments are very welcome.

Thanks,
-Kevin

 

[lordtyranus]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

The Mid High end was supposed to the 6800GT vs the X800Pro however the GT outclassed the pro by a lot at higher resolutions and features so i will edit this part when ATI releases their X800Gt.

<BR><BR>untrue, and comes off like a fanoi statement.

Make the guide into a webpage. Text is crap.

Actually, the entire guide is garbage. I suggest both educating yourself on the very video cards you are talking about, learn to write properly, and take a crash course in presentation.

This looks like something a 12 year old would do, which you probably are.

 

[warmasice]

wow

 

[Matthias99]

I didn't think the 6800U and X800XT could run as 8x2 parts -- I thought they only ran at 16x1 (or 32x0 for NVIDIA when doing Z-only operations). I could be wrong, though. Not like there's a huge difference between 8x2 and 16x1, anyway...

Also, you REALLY need to make that list of cards more readable, and give more information in there

Card Name.........................Core....Mem.......Bus.....Pipelines.........RAM..........SM.......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GeForce FX 5950 U...............475......950.....256-bit........8*.............256...........2.0.......
GeForce FX 5900 U...............450......850.....256-bit........8*.............256...........2.0.......
GeForce FX 5900...................400......850.....256-bit........8*.............128...........2.0.......
GeForce FX 5900 XT.............300......700.....256-bit........8*.............128...........2.0........

GeForce FX 5800 U...............500.....1000....128-bit........8*.............256...........2.0........
GeForce FX 5800...................400......800.....128-bit........8*.............128...........2.0........

GeForce FX 5700 U...............475......900.....128-bit........4............128/256.......2.0........
GeForce FX 5700...................425......550.....128-bit........4............128/256.......2.0........
GeForce FX 5600 U Rev 2....400......800.....128-bit........4...............128..........2.0........
GeForce FX 5600 U...............350......700.....128-bit........4...............128..........2.0........
GeForce FX 5600...................325......550.....128-bit........4................128..........2.0.......

GeForce FX 5200 U...............325......650.....128-bit........4............128/256........2.0**....
GeForce FX 5200...................250......400.....128-bit........4............128/256........2.0**....
GeForce FX 5200...................250......400.......64-bit***...4............128/256........2.0**....

GeForce4 Ti 4600-8x............300.......650....128-bit.........4............128..............1.4....... (AKA GeForce4 Ti 4800)
GeForce4 Ti 4600.................300......650.....128-bit.........4............128...............1.4.......
GeForce4 Ti 4400.................275......550.....128-bit.........4............128...............1.4.......
GeForce4 Ti 4200-8x............250......514......128-bit........4...........64/128............1.4......
GeForce4 Ti 4200 128..........250......444.....128-bit.........4............128...............1.4......
GeForce4 Ti 4200 64............250......514......128-bit.........4............64.................1.4......
GeForce4 MX 460..................300........?........128-bit.........4****....32/64..........DX8*****
GeForce4 MX 440-8x.............275......512......128-bit.........4****....32/64..........DX8***** (AKA GeForce4 4000)
GeForce4 MX 440..................270......400......128-bit.........4****....32/64...........DX8*****

Radeon 9800 XT..................412.......730......256-bit..........8.........256..............2.0......
Radeon 9800 Pro256..........380.......700......256-bit..........8.........256..............2.0......
Radeon 9800 Pro.................380.......680......256-bit..........8.........128..............2.0.......
Radeon 9800........................325.......580......256-bit..........8.........128..............2.0.......
Radeon 9800 Pro 128-bit...380?......680?....128-bit.........8.........128..............2.0.......******
Radeon 9800 SE..................380.......675......256-bit..........4.........128..............2.0.......*******
Radeon 9800 SE..................380.......675......128-bit..........4.........128..............2.0.......

Radeon 9700 Pro................325.......620......256-bit..........8.........128..............2.0.......
Radeon 9700.......................275.......540......256-bit..........8.........128..............2.0.......

Radeon 9600 XT..................500.......600......128-bit..........4.........128..............2.0........
Radeon 9600 Pro................400.......600......128-bit..........4.........128..............2.0........
Radeon 9600.......................325.......400......128-bit..........4......128/256...........2.0........
Radeon 9600 SE..................325.......365.......64-bit...........4......128/256...........2.0........********

Radeon 9500 Pro................275.......540......128-bit..........4........128................2.0........
Radeon 9500 128................275.......540......128-bit..........4........128................2.0.......

Radeon 9200.......................?............?.........128-bit.........4........64/128...........1.4........
Radeon 9000.......................?............?.........128-bit.........4.........64/128..........1.4........

Radeon 9100.......................?...........?..........128-bit........4.........64/128...........1.4....... (AKA Radeon 8500LE)

*: as noted above, these cards (those based on the NV35 and NV38 architectures) operate in a "4x2" mode when multitexturing. When single-texturing, or doing pixel shader operations, they behave as if they only have 4 pipelines.

**: while, technically, the GeForceFX5200 chipset supports DirectX9/Shader Model 2.0, these cards are far too slow to make effective use of it.

***: This card is EXTREMELY slow and should be avoided at all costs. It is barely faster than a GeForce2 MX400.

****: I believe the GeForce4MX cards can only run in 2x2 and 2x1 modes, and cannot run as 4x1 like the Geforce4Ti cards can.

*****: Note that, although they are marketed as "GeForce4" GPUs, the GeForce4 "MX" line is really a repackaged and slightly faster variant of the GeForce2. While it marginally supports DirectX8.1, it cannot do ANY pixel or vertex shader operations.

******: Sapphire was marketing these cards for a while, but I believe they have since stopped. They run much slower than a real 9800Pro.

*******: These cards use the same chipset as the 9800/9800Pro, with half of the pipelines disabled. *Some* of them can be "softmodded" into a RADEON 9800. At stock, they perform much like a RADEON 9600Pro. A few companies also sold 9800SEs with only a 128-bit memory interface; these CANNOT be softmodded and perform very poorly.

********: This card also performs EXTREMELY poorly.

 

[imported_alp]

you could have eliminated about half of those by just saying 'avoid ALL 64 bit cards', but what you are saying is true, nonetheless

 

[Gamingphreek]

THankyou for all your replies. I originally spaced that section out however when i post it it shrinks again i dunno why. However Mathias i will look into the 8x2 spec im pretty sure they can run both but i will double check.

For everyone i am working on a massive edit which should improve readability a lot. Thanks for all the help and replies... hopefully ill get the new edit up by the end of the week. (Might base my chart off of yours mathias with a couple changes but i will cite that you gave me that (thanks to mathias .....) yeah you get the pic)

-Kevin

 

[lordtyranus]

mods, why is this stickied?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: lordtyranus
mods, why is this stickied?

stop trolling or you can take a vacation.

-Kevin

 

[lordtyranus]

stop trolling or you can take a vacation.

Eh, wtf?

I asked a simple question about what I feel is a poor-mediocre thread. If that statement is worth getting banned, that's just sad. What a little baby. If you are serious in writing a guide, be prepared for criticism.

In anycase, perhaps an actual moderator can answer my question. There are so many more worthwhile stickies, like that 6800 overclock thread I saw somewhere.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Look im sorry you feel that my thread is a POS. But so far you are the only one who has said that. Just to let you know it did take me a long time to do this. However, your statement doesn't mean everything. You are just trying to start problems. Obviously if you had any common senseyou would know that this thread was stickied because it has proven to be very useful.

If you would have read you would also know that im working on a second revision. So unless you have something beneficial to add to this get the hell out.

-Kevin

 

[lordtyranus]

I have stuff beneficial to add, posted it before.

Make this into a webpage. Teach yourself htm. if you don't know how
Learn spelling and grammar.
Format the guide so it isn't all text. You have a lot of excessive stuff in there, which is extremely unattractive on the eyes.
Your entire guide is mostly biased towards Nvidia. Not surprising.

I scanned through the thread and like half the posts tell you how to improve your guide.

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: Avalon
Not exactly well organized in some parts, but generally the information is good. What are the physical differences between a 9200 and a 9600 besides clockspeed? I had thought for a minute the 9200 only had two pipelines, but I doublechecked and saw that it does have 4 like its bigger brother.

Think about the differance between a celeron and a p4. Both run at 2.8 ghz (random number) so they must both be the best right? Um... no. Although i don't know a lot about how video cards are made i do know that some are worse than others even when the numbers look the same. This guide is great, but can be misleading because most people just look at the numbers.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: lordtyranus
I have stuff beneficial to add, posted it before.

Make this into a webpage. Teach yourself htm. if you don't know how
Learn spelling and grammar.
Format the guide so it isn't all text. You have a lot of excessive stuff in there, which is extremely unattractive on the eyes.
Your entire guide is mostly biased towards Nvidia. Not surprising.

I scanned through the thread and like half the posts tell you how to improve your guide.

Hmm i dont know how the entire guide is mostly biased to Nvidia when 90% of it is facts and 10% is opinions or recommendations. I do know spelling and grammar and you need to stfu because im not perfect and i make mistakes.

Now read my post i am in the process of making a second revision!!! That means you aren't going to see any differences right now!!!!!

-Kevin

 

[Schadenfroh]

my new guide to video cards is up, FYI

linkage

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
my new guide to video cards is up, FYI

linkage

Jee thanks schadenfroh.... my thread really needed that

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
my new guide to video cards is up, FYI

linkage

Jee thanks schadenfroh.... my thread really needed that

did not intend to offend you man, just thought it might help some people. yours covers some stuff that mine does not and vise versa. I had it in the works (working on it on and off before this thread was posted), so im not copying you, parts are based on your post tho, besides, you and some others are in the credits

 

[Gamingphreek]

Oh ok... no worries then

-Kevin

 

[oldman420]

Pretty good

 

[Gamingphreek]

Ok i am working on the second revision however, i am being bombarded with AP English and AP Latin Homework so please forgive the fact that i haven't gotten around to it all yet.

-Kevin

 

[cohenfive]

as a relative newbie on more technical issues i appreciate the effort, it definitely helped me in my search for a replacement card for my 9600 that isn't working (on dvi anyway).

one question though....what's the best card for $200??

KIDDING!!!!!