How do you gauge the efficiency/speed of a Graphics Card?

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greyfire

greyfire

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Oct 18, 2014
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Hi, Im building my first computer and have bought every piece for it except my graphics/video card. I see a lot of cards that look exactly the same to me a but are completely different prices and versions. For example

MSI R7 250: $79.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r72502gd3oc

Versus

MSI R7 260X: $152.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r7260x2gd5ocv1

Versus

MSI R9 270X: $154.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9270xgaming2g

They all look the same to me. They all have 2gb of ram and all of their Core Clock speeds are around 1.05Ghz. But they're all completely different versions and prices! What's the difference?? Which should i get? Heres the link to my parts list if thats helpful:
My Parts List
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C4MWK8
 
Solution
Rapajez
Ok, first off, given your current build, I'd probably shoot for a 3GB R9 280 (or a R9 285, if it's the same price by the time you read this). Anything better is going to be bottle-necked by your CPU (which you should upgrade to a FX-6300 or higher, if you haven't bought it already.) Here's a full list of cards for your money: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Your confusion above is mixing up models and generations. With those GTX cards, the first number of the 3 is the generation. Each generation brings new features, more power, efficiency, and optimizations, that make it faster than the previous one. So a GTX 760 is going to be faster than a GTX 660.

The next 2 numbers gauge the performance...
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PC noob and noobier

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hey googles your best fren here. read up some reviews, check out the frame rates these cards give you. Power as well.

If it were me, I would go for the 270 if these are the 3 you are looking at. Latest among the lot, to last you a little longer. If it were $1K and $2K difference in price, would be different story. But suggest you save up a little more for the later card.
 
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cowboydude99

cowboydude99

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Aug 21, 2013
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Hi,
The R9s are going to be better than the R7s.

The R9 270x is the fastest one listed. Go for it!

FYI- the difference comes down to shaders. More memory doesn't mean faster. So you can tell which are faster easily by looking at the R# and then the 3 digit #.

R9 290x is the fastest of the AMD series.
R9 290 is the next fastest
R9 280X is the next fastest and so on down the list.
 
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greyfire

greyfire

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Oct 18, 2014
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Thanks for the answer, I tried using the website you gave me but it's somethings confusing me.
I compared 3 cards to the AMD Radeon R9 270, But what was weird is the GTX 750 had less frames per second than the 590. so i thought maybe a lower number is better? But then I tried the GTX 480 which had a lower frame rate than both of them! yeah so... im lost now. And do you suggest getting 2 or 4 gigabytes?

Links to Comparisons below \/\/\/

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1080?vs=1130


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1080?vs=1185


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1080?vs=1135
 
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Rapajez

Rapajez

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Jul 17, 2014
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Ok, first off, given your current build, I'd probably shoot for a 3GB R9 280 (or a R9 285, if it's the same price by the time you read this). Anything better is going to be bottle-necked by your CPU (which you should upgrade to a FX-6300 or higher, if you haven't bought it already.) Here's a full list of cards for your money: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Your confusion above is mixing up models and generations. With those GTX cards, the first number of the 3 is the generation. Each generation brings new features, more power, efficiency, and optimizations, that make it faster than the previous one. So a GTX 760 is going to be faster than a GTX 660.

The next 2 numbers gauge the performance or power of the GPU, against other cards in the same generation. A 980 is faster than 970.

That's why it's getting confusing when you're comparing all these cards. An older, but faster card, can be faster than a newer, cheap card. E.g, a GTX 680 is going to be faster than a 750. In that instance, you may be missing out on a lot of the latest features though, or not have the PSU strong enough for a GTX 680. For instance, the 750 supports "4K", even though it probably couldn't handle a modern game at that resolution.

In short, the newer the generation, and the faster the performance, the better the card.



 
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