Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cubanlord]

What are the most important things? amount of memory? type of memory? core speed?

[Wrench]

Numbers usually of the model.

IE Nvidia 6600 is fast but 6800 is faster but 7800 is even faster same goes for ATI X500 is slow x700 faster x850 even better then x1800 is the fastest. There are some cards that have suffixes such as XL/XT or GT/GTX and so on. GTX/Ultra (Nvidia are the fastest) with ATI XT seems to be the fastest brands.

Minimum memory for today's games seems to be about 256mb, GDDR2 and GDDR3 (this one is the fastest) If you want to get Vid card with 512 mb of memory it will cost you of upwards of 600+

Then there are games which run faster on ATI chips and there are some games that run faster on Nvidia chips. Both chip companies have issues with their hardware so it really comes down to what game you like to play the most ( and what API it uses OpenGL or DirectX). Then there is add on option like TVin or TV Out, HDTV support, Hardware DVD decoding etc.. Usually prices escalate with little options.

The final decision comes down to preference some people swear by nvidia some by ATI I just buy the best bang for your buck.

[elric]

I think they should standardize PC cards because it is just stupid. I consider myself computer literate and I have an x800, but I can't accurately tell you how good it is, or how good it is compared to other cards in laymens terms. The specs are absolutely irrelevant - just meet the minimums your game requires.

Pretty much all companies release a hi, mid, and lo end card. They replace the periodically creating other hi, mid and lo end cards. Right now there are so many its ridiculous.

Pretty much the bare minimum needed to play 2005 games is an ati9800 pro. These have been around for 5 years, yet are still effective and cheap.

Anything other advice is useless unless you understand benchmarks, overclocking, or, bottlenecks, gigaflops and pixel shading.

Pretty much if you pay 500+ you are getting a hi-end card good for 3 years. A mid card is 200+ and good for maybe 2 years. A lo-end card will probably not run anything decently, but will make your desktop and windows performance better, and play older games.

Also the higher the cost of card the higher the cost of motherboard, power supply, electricity bill, heat, fans, coolant, etc.

My advice is get something that is 200+ if you want a decent gaming experience. A 500+ card will cost you at least another 200+ in upgradess, so be warned. Also why would you get a hi end card with a crap monitor +500. There is a price to have the best.

[muggie2dammit]

[Giant]

It all depeneds on if you want to play games, thats all. If you are a serious gamer you need a a fast card to get higher frame rates.

Otherwise if all you want to do is watch DVD's then an onboard VGA will suffice.

Giant