I think i'm gonna go for the 9800GT(X), or would i better off with a 260/280??
I honestly have no clue what to get. I want to stay updated for a while though, and it will mostly be for playing games and such.
Uhh i think around 200 Euros is the maximum. Lower is better ofcourse
But i was looking at overclockers.co.uk and didn't really find any information about the minimum watts needed for this card: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... PCI-Express)%20-%20Retail
But i do see that the radeon is only @ 675 MHz, while some 9800GTX'
Run at 775 MHz. Doesn't this mean they're better/faster?
erm, yes you can. the specs is what you compair. i'm sure we went through this b4. use google and youtube for reviews (user reviews are better). this should help you make a better choice.
reading the specs will give you an idea on which is better. reviews will confirm or dismiss your ideas.
What I mean is that if you compare MHz on it's own, it means little - i.e. my 9600XT (the ATi AGP one) ran at 500 MHz. My 7950GT ran at 580 MHz and yet was easily 5x faster...
Knock it off dadge, comparing MHz or MB of RAM between different video cards will not give you conclusive results. It all depends on how the video card USES those resources, not HOW MUCH resources it has to work with. If you remember, the Radeon 3870X2 was an absolute powerhouse on paper, yet in had mediocre performance. How do you explain that? It had higher clock speeds than the GeForce 8800 but it couldn't outperform it??? Specs aren't everything, there is A HELL OF A LOT of other stuff under the hood of GPUs which cannot be included in the specs because it cannot be measured and the only real way to compare 2 video cards is to run the same exact test on both of them and analyze the results. Specs are just there to persuade potential buyers, who have no idea what those numbers actually mean, into buying the product.
for the most part i agree with SRC, i have a question though.
you said that specs are there to advertise stuff (generaly).
what do you think about those few who know what specs to look for and what would make a difference? For example, consider that we have two cards with same core and similar frequencies. One is 512MB gddr2 the other is 256MB gddr3. Can you not say which one is faster?
If they have the same GPU then you can compare the RAM and speeds directly. For example, the Radeon 4870 1024 MB edition is better than the 512 MB edition purely because it has more RAM. If two cards don't have the same GPU then you can't compare them directly, you can only compare them through benchmarks.
You've obviously never used ATI Catalyst drivers, they are very good and are always being improved, at least that's my opinion. I would blame the Radeon 3870X2's failures on the design of the card as the bridge connecting the two GPUs was very slow, and in general the 3870 chip was a rushed design and not very efficient. But there's no way to know this by looking at the specs. About your remark about RAM, I would do the opposite of what you just said, I would get faster memory rather than more memory, such as 512 MB GDDR5 is far better than 2048 MB GDDR3. Also, 256 MB GDDR3 is much faster than 512 MB GDDR2, and you can see this in various (outdated) benchmarks.
i had an ATI and the catalyst drivers were shyte. i have 512mb of gddr3 @ 256bit so it's all good for me. but enough of this flirting. there's too many variables with memory to just decide what is best only going by amount. hence looking at the spec list
so you would have a 512mb card @ 128bit over a 256mb @ 256bit? sure, ok. and i'll go get me some oral from the spice girls. get over yourself george..........jesus, what a pickle kisser.
FYI, the playstation1 was 128bit. so yeah, lets get a super sweet card and then restrict it's bitrate to that of a 10 year old consol........talk about cock slamming.
erm, i have idea what you are talking about.
George says bit rate is not important when buying a new graphics card and you tell me to stop digging a hole? erm OK.
i bought a 8800GT 512mb ddr3 @ 256bit and I'm getting the impression he thinks it's a shit card. to me he's sounding a bit like a tool.
there's 3 things i look at when buying a card.
1: price. if we all had the money, we'd all buy the top of the range every time.
2: reviews. this helps guage what the card performs like. user reviews are better than "magazine" reviews.
3: specs. without these you could end up buying a cheap trashy card that has had good "magazine" reviews.
this method has yet to fail me.
my card history is: ATI radeon (64mb) <<<<pile of shyte with shyte catalyst drivers.
nvidia FX5200 (128mb) <<<<<was a very sturdy card that played anything i wanted to (at the time)
gigabyte nvidia 6600GT (128mb) (silent pipe edition)<<<<<<one of my fav cards. it ran everything and more.
BFG nvidia 7600GT (256mb) <<<<<<i was given this card and would still use it today.
asus nvidia 8800GT (512mb)<<<<<< sweet card and gives me the impression that i am only using this card at about 70% of its abilities.
so, as you can see. my way has yet to fail me. so how the hell am i digging a hole?
check the thread title, it says "help buying a new card " not "help buying a new memory". you have to take everything into consideration when buying a new card.
and then to add this:
to a thread asking for help is as helpful as offering to use your nut sack as a beer mat.
dadge, it is "bus width" not "bit rate". Those two are not really related.
bit rate is measured in amount of data per unit of time. Kbps, Mbps, etc.
the memory bus width for data is not "bit rate".
besides, knowing the bus width is only half the story. how many data transfers are done per clock? 1? 2? 4? a quadpumped 128bit-wide beats a singlepumped 256bit one if you consider same clocking.
as for cock slamming, is that when you take your favourite rooster and bang it against a door or something?
4x128=512bit
1x256=256bit.
i'm sure i hinted that a bigger bit rate was better but yet you feel you have to confirm/correct me.
and as i said, there's way to many variables to take into consideration to only select a card based on one statistic. on memory alone we have ammount/speed/ddr type/ and the list goes on. then we have to think about the gpu itself. my point being that the spec sheet on any given card helps more than some people think. and cock slamming is when you take multiple shots of cock (male chicken if you want)
You had one of the first Radeons? Well no wonder you think they're crap, of course they weren't as good when they first came out, but if you're so smart you should know that the current generation ATI cards are as good, if not better, than Nvidia's cards. The drivers are also way better than they were when they first came out 8 years ago, probably also better than Nvidia's drivers. I hear all kinds of talk about this Nvidia driver is better than that Nvidia driver. I never hear that with ATI drivers, it's always just "use the latest driver", and it works for everyone.
i was wondering when someone was going to break out that old chestnut. just because you say i don't know what I'm talking about means that you're right and I'm wrong. nice one kid, while you're at it would you care to give your opinion on the cure for cancer? never know, you might just be right.....
I've been using PC's for about 8-9 years now, I've built loads (more than 1 and less than 1000). i think i know what I'm talking about. but tbh, i don't really care what you think. I've not had any complaints. but as i don't know what I'm talking about I'll just sit here and watch "the masters" confuse some "amateurs".
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Nvidia cards have always been good(in comparison to their ATI counter parts). one of the best ways of keeping your customers is to give them the best that you can.
i couldn't care if they are better now. they were shit when i used then and Nvidia have yet to disappoint me.
when i had the ATI i was given the opportunity to compare it to a similar spec Nvidia. the Nvidia blow it out of the water. so what, the ATI card is now "better" than nvidia's. it was their shitness in the past that put people off them.
I'm sorry, I'm starting to smell bullshit. only a retard doesn't keep their drivers up-to-date. if you're going to make me look like a dick, then at least put some effort into it.
<<<< nice choice of words there. I'll just add that to my super sarcastic list of comebacks.
still not buying bud. keep trying. just because he's have problems doesn't mean the rest of us are too. such a narrow mind you have (sorry for sounding yoda-ish). it seems like you are not looking at the bigger picture.
i have a team mate that has the very same card and is running the latest drivers. (the card used to be mine which used to be franky500's) he is having no issues at all. so how would you explain that?
read beyond the first post (bigger picture again)
now, lets ask a different question, who has issues with the AA and AF on LFS. you'll then see that it is not a driver issue but a LFS issue.
i still don't see this ice berg you keep talking about.