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basic terminology for a newb

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - basic terminology for a newb

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AspiringNovice   06-14-2007 at 11:04:33 PM

Ok, I'm upgrading my graphics card and I want to get a high-end model. I have a NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GFX now (which struggles) and as I look for new cards, I can't seem to find out 1) what specific terms really mean in terms of gaming performance (I'll list them), and 2) what is the order of importance of these specs for a gaming rig? Here are the stats:

Core clock: Memory Speed:
Memory Clock: Memory Bandwidth:
Memory Interface: Texture Fill Rate:
Stream Processors: Pixel Fill Rate:
Pixel Pipelines:
RAMDAC:

Any help on rating or explaining any of these would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks for the help.

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Anoobis   06-14-2007 at 11:28:35 PM
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Core clock: Speed of the card's onboard processor
Memory Speed: Speed of the card's onboard memory
Memory Clock: See Memory Speed above
Memory Bandwidth: I'm too lazy, Linky
Memory Interface: See Memory Bandwidth above
Texture Fill Rate: How fast a card can do texture mapping
Stream Processors: I'm just too lazy for this one. I'll let Cleeve handle it.
Pixel Fill Rate: The amount of pixels a GPU can draw to your monitor per second
Pixel Pipelines: Again, with the laziness. Linkage.
RAMDAC: It's been a long day. Link.

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caamsa   06-15-2007 at 05:01:49 AM
- 0 +

Tell us a little about your computer system......

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Zorg   06-15-2007 at 05:22:41 AM
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Quote :

This is your friend.

You have to love Wiki, not always 100% accurate but certainly a good foundation.

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commanderspockep   06-15-2007 at 05:34:01 AM
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I would start reading different articles about the subject. If you want an easy cheat sheet which gives you a good start for beginners, Tom's comes out with an monthly article.

Best Video Cards for Money June 2007

Reply to commanderspockep
AspiringNovice   06-15-2007 at 05:45:10 PM
- 0 +

thanks for the replies-minus the sarcasm-obviously Ive heard of wiki. i was more interested in which is most important........................ :wink:

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Zorg   06-16-2007 at 07:58:58 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

thanks for the replies-minus the sarcasm-obviously Ive heard of wiki. i was more interested in which is most important........................ :wink:

I wasn't going to post this but I decided to anyway. There are no shortcuts. If you read the information on what the timings are then you will have a foundation on which to base your understanding about what people post in response to your question. You probably won't need to even ask. It really isn't that much reading, although it can get a little convoluted. Good luck.

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