newbie question

1) SE, Pro, XT (don't know about gold) These are variations on cards .. could be pipelines, could be speed of processor, could be speed of memory (if memory quantity is equal) could be width of memory bus.. You almost never get a free lunch.. If the price is significantly different there is almost always a reason.

2) No more memory does not necessarily mean faster. Faster memory means faster (all other things being equal). More memory is good if it well matched with the speed of the VPU. Something has to fill up the memory and something has to use it.

3) Sometimes the extras in the box differ. Also could be the type of memory or the extra features of the card eg. VIVO (and previously cited differences)

...........
I'm sure there are some that I missed. Occasionally you can find a real bargain but it's buyer beware and really do your homework. For example, Sapphire screwed some customers that were not careful because they had 64bit and 128bit memory, they also screwed people with different types of memory DDR3 vs DDR2 so that the card did not come near the reference cards. Be careful..

BTW.. I despise Sapphire for what they did. Wouldn't mind if they spelled out the difference but small print and unclear information is like trying to cheat you.

The loving are the daring!

"1) SE, Pro, XT (don't know about gold) These are variations on cards .. could be pipelines, could be speed of processor, could be speed of memory (if memory quantity is equal) could be width of memory bus.. You almost never get a free lunch.. If the price is significantly different there is almost always a reason."

OK. But the question is that why they are different in memory speed, type of memory..., are they still in the same number. Why the number just mean PURELY the performance

Nvidia and Ati develop a GPU or VPU, and then, the brands like Saphyre, XFX etc etc build up the cards. Good brands like Asus like to build cards with high quality standarts, so the card gets more expensive. They brands are the one's who decide wich clock speeds they wanna give to the cards, and wich memory type. So you can have like 10 diferent Ati 9600 Series from a crappy SE edition with 64bit memory to a XT full of features (<100€ to 170€).

P4-2800->FSB800, Asus P4P800, 512DDR-400, Creative GeForce DDR (the first one lol)

Videocard performance primer: the most important features on a videocard

1. GPU (the architecture, # of pipelines, etc) - MOST IMPORTANT
2. Memory Interface (64, 128, or 256-bit)
3. Clockspeeds
4. AMOUNT of RAM (Least important, assuming you have the minimum spec for the game*)


To clarify... all the factors above are relevant to videocard performance, but this is the general heiarchy.

GPU architecture is the most important. How many pipelines the card has and how it uses them, which advanced affects the processor can handle.

Second most important is the memory interface. This relates to how FAST the memory is accessed, which in most cases is much more important than now MUCH memory there is. A 64-bit memory bus is only half as fast as a 128-bit memory bus, and a 256-bit memory bus is twice as fast as that.
Be wary of cards like that have the "SE" or "LE" designation... in most cases, it means their memory bus is half of what the non-SE versions are, and this has a large impact on performance

Third most important is clockspeeds. Higher clockspeeds on both the GPU and RAM mean higher performance. But remember, 400 Mhz memory on a 64-bit bus is the same speed as 200 Mhz memory on a 128-bit bus.

Least important is the AMOUNT of RAM. Developers create games for the lowest common denominator, and that means they are still making 64-meg texture sets for games. But the newest games are starting to make use of 128-megs of RAM, so 128-megs is the minimum. A few games will show a slight performance increase with 256-megs of RAM, but these number less than 5 I can think of.

256-Megs of RAM is, in most cases, a marketing tool for uneducated people to make a buying decision on. But trust me, you'd rather have a 64-meg Geforce4 Ti4200 than a 256-meg Radeon 9600SE.


WITH THIS IN MIND, to answer your questions:

1. SE cards usually have disabled pipelines (very bad) or much slower clockspeeds (bad, but not as bad if you're willing to overclock). PROs are usually midrange cards, good performmers but not the best... in the case of the X800 PROs, they have less pipelines than the X800XTs, but they have high clockspeeds and are still pretty good. XT's denote the top of the line, most pipelines, highest clockspeeds, and biggest memory interface.

2. No, not really. See explanation above.

3. Companies do whatever they want. Some charge more based on their brand, or they include a bigger bundle, or maybe the card has a VIVO feature.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

1) Those aren't the same cards. For example, the 9800SE has half the pipelines shut off, so it's half the chip. The 9600SE has half the memory bus shut off, so it has half the memory performance.
2) Sometimes, but it depends on the game. Also, for several cards, getting more onboard memory means getting slower memory, the manufacturers do this to maintain reasonable prices.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

just need a GRaphics card to run my 775 board. IS it good.
ASUS Nvidia Geforce 5750 PCX 256 Mt PCI-E
ONe guy is offering me for 85 euros. A new one in shop but not ASUS is 134 euros. SHould I take this offer. It seems to be new.

BTW, you do not seem to answer question that who set up the number. If no one but company can set the number at their deliberation, well, that is scary.
IN case that the company buy GPU core from ATI and Nvidia and depends on market, offer half disable or full, so it means, ATI or Nvidia must do this type of action on their own full potential processor. Why if look at the manufacturing cost point of view.

I do not see Intel selling P4 3G SE that has 2/3 cache as the 3G XT with full cache do I.

Thank for all your answer anyway.

<A HREF="http://uk.asus.com/products/vga/en5750/overview.htm" target="_new">http://uk.asus.com/products/vga/en5750/overview.htm&lt;/A>

Intel does sell its defective P4 chips with bad cache .They are called Celerons.

Same thing as the old AMDAthlon/Dorun line.

I aint signing nothing!!!

LIK, does this look familliar to you? its my Creative Geforce (1)   :
<A HREF="http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/deathclock/IMG00049.JPG" target="_new">http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/deathclock/IMG00049.JPG&l...;/A>

<A HREF="http://www.forsaken-game.com/" target="_new">Half-Life2:Forsaken</A>