What attribute is more beneficial when selecting a graphics card?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

MrJam

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
4
0
10,510
when selecting a graphics card its noticeable that a new model card does not always seem to have a significant upgrade if any at all depending on your initial card

when looking for the best priced component for gaming without blowing the bank budget out of control it always seems to come down to a decision between the following
- Core Clock: (eg 800MHz)
- Memory: (eg 1024MB GDDR5)
- Memory: (eg Clock: 4000MHz)
- Processing Cores: (eg 480)

Also another issue i have run into that is further complicating matters for me is even after considering the above as GPU can will occasionally vary between series it does not always appear to be for the better as far as i can see unless im looking at things the wrong way
For Example;

The card "ATi Radeon HD 4870"
and
"AMD Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5"

when comparing both of these cards you would expected the 6600 series to be far better than the 4800 series and it does have slightly higher attributes on some points but the 6670 is run on a "Turks" GPU whereas the 4870 is run on "RV770" GPU which looks to be the better GPU as it provides far more fragment pipelines and texture units

How important are each of the above factors when selecting a new graphics card?

Id be grateful for any assistance on this
thanks
Jam
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

Honorable
May 24, 2013
1,599
0
12,160
More processing cores generally means faster rendering. Example: A Titan has a ton of CUDA cores, but very low core clock; however, it still renders like a complete beast. Core clock is important as well, as that can determine raw performance and FPS. The amount of memory in your GPU is less important; if you're running more than one monitor, it's always good to have more RAM, but otherwise that shouldn't be a huge worry. Memory speed helps with a lot of processing-type things, like textures.
Overall, if you're only running one monitor, I would say that the most important thing is number of cores, or core clock. The other two are less important, especially the VRAM if you don't need it. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Novuake

Novuake

Champion
Aug 27, 2011
14,308
0
56,960
Use the pure specifications only within each generation. The best way to compare them is by reading reviews.
More RAM is significant the higher the resolution.
Larger memory interface usually translates into better AA performance.
Processing cores differ to much between AMD and Nvidia and between generations.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/660?vs=647

There is a useful tool to use to give you an idea, it may not always be accurate due to driver optimization, but it give you a relative idea.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

Honorable
May 24, 2013
1,599
0
12,160


Yup. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,295
4,145
174,240
Price.

At any given price point, graphics cards will give you about the same performance. It varies a bit, but by and large, it takes a benchmark to tell the difference.

Ignore the specs. I might prefer the direct exhaust type coolers that keep the interior of your case cool.
Past that, pick AMD or Nvidia according to your likes.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

MrJam

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
4
0
10,510
even using that tool however is still points the the 4800 series card being far better on all fronts with the exception of power and heat control, graphically 4800 card seems to be much better
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Novuake

Novuake

Champion
Aug 27, 2011
14,308
0
56,960


But that is correct. The HD4870 is faster than the HD6670. It used to be one of the top tier gaming cards. The HD6670 is a current get entry level card.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom