need to know

[ghostr]

hey all,

I have gone thru many site....but I have not yet understood HOW to determind which is better than the other....

few question I have in ma mind:

1. I am looking at EVGA 9600GT knock-out and PNY GeForce GTX 295 S Video Card....now which the better bwt them?

2. how do the you know which series is the latest in Nvidiaor Radeon[seems like their GC are cheaper and give a good competition to Nvidia]

3. What the difference bwt DDR3 and GDDR3....Also I saw a card Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic with GDD5[512MB ram and 750MHz]...den i saw Zotac Geforce GTs250[GDD3 1024 MB and 738MHz]....dose this make "Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic " better than the others?:shocked:....but then again the price is less compared to the later one?

Please advise/help me understand....I want to buy a good but reasonable[price] GC which I could use for at least 2 years.

Thank you in advance

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: ghostr
hey all,

I have gone thru many site....but I have not yet understood HOW to determind which is better than the other....

few question I have in ma mind:

1. I am looking at EVGA 9600GT knock-out and PNY GeForce GTX 295 S Video Card....now which the better bwt them?

2. how do the you know which series is the latest in Nvidiaor Radeon[seems like their GC are cheaper and give a good competition to Nvidia]

3. What the difference bwt DDR3 and GDDR3....Also I saw a card Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic with GDD5[512MB ram and 750MHz]...den i saw Zotac Geforce GTs250[GDD3 1024 MB and 738MHz]....dose this make "Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic " better than the others?:shocked:....but then again the price is less compared to the later one?

Please advise/help me understand....I want to buy a good but reasonable[price] GC which I could use for at least 2 years.

Thank you in advance

Geforce Lineage (very rough)
Geforce 2
3
4
5000 series
6000 series (the venerable 6800)
7000 series (such as the 7800GTX in my sig)
8000 series
9000 series
GTX&GTS 200 series

Radeon Lineage (also rough)
Radeon 7000
8000
9000
x100
x1000
2000
3000
4000

In both cases an x8xx card is generally faster than an x6xx card of the same chipset maker (ATi or nVidia), so in most every case, a 8800 is faster than an 8600. I believe what often happens is that an x8xx card is usually about the same as a y6xx card. So, an 8800 is about the same as a 9600. In the case of the GTX295 and the 9600, you are talking about a current gen top of the line card versus a previous generation upper middle card. It is no contest, the GTX295 will be faster in almost every possible way.

Check out TomsHardware, they have comparison charts for all the current and previous gen cards, you can compare a 4870 to a GTS260 and see what falls where with what games.

 

[philosofool]

Every month Tomshardware.com does a review of graphics cards by price. They tell what card is best for $60, $100, and so on. They are almost always right and will tell you the choices.

[Edit: linked the CPU guide (worthless) instead of GPU guide...]
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...raphics-card,2387.html is the article for August.