Confused By All The Graphics Cards Out There

So here's the thing - there're a boat-load of graphics cards out in the market with different numbering schemes and prefixes. For an average consumer and a techno-noob such as myself you really can't be sure if the card you've got in your laptop would be good enough to satisfy your gaming needs, among other things.

So what I'm saying is, instead of having countless debates on a particular card's performance or X vs. Y in benchmarks and clock speeds, which many people (me included) wouldn't even bother to know in the first place, how about we rather put more emphasis on just what kind of games would be playable or most compatible with a chosen card. Because at the end it's the card's ability to render a game that matters most, not the kind of fequency it runs at, or how much VRAM it has, 'cos to me they mean squat if I can't play Call of Duty 4 or Starcraft II well on it.

I know my argument may seem noob-ish, so I'd like to know what you guys think?

 

Thats why you look at benchmarks. that is a direct indication of how well you can play for example CoD4.
The ram and clock the card runs at is also an indication of how well it can play the game, but is more useful comparing cards in the same class and what not. A x1600m with a clock speed of 250mhz is a huge difference than one running at 400mhz.

Learning to read benchmarks and what not is pretty important for anyone wanting to do gaming and interested in gaming hardware. It's extremely easy to understand benchmarks. Granted, you won't always see your card benchmarked with the game you are most interested in, but it's likely you will see something comparable. I.E. instead of CoD4, you may get a crysis benchmark.

 

Current benchmarks like 3DMark are relatively accurate as far as a power of a card. It's much easier to say that Card A scores 4k 3DMarks than to bench it with a multitude of games. Clocks are useful when people start talking about overclocking. With everything else kept the same, a higher clocked card will obviously outperform a lower clocked counterpart.

With that said however, almost every card IS benched with a multitude of games. It's up to you to read the forums and find out what you need.

Start with the stickies. GPU Guide.

 

You give a valid argument, but there is no real solution for that. Unfortunately, the graphic card's GPU clock, memory size etc all have different impacts on the ability to run a game. That is why you need benchmarks. In fact, even keeping the same graphics card and changing the rest (CPU, RAM) will change the gaming ability.

So the only real solution is knowing what the card's parameters mean. The "fix" solution is benchmarking.

 

or.... get a game console instead

 

Most simple advice I can give:

For both Nvidia and ATI always try to get the newest generation of chip that is offered. I.E. Nvidia 9000 series before 8000 series.

Next if you are going for maximum performance, try to get the highest available second digit number, usually an 8.
Example: Nvidia 8800 or ATI 3870.

If you are interested in midrange (plays all games, but generally at medium-highish settings), go for cards with a 6 in the second digit.
Example: Nvidia 8600 or ATI 3600.

Last, for ATI, you have a choice between a third digit that is a 7 or a 5. 7 is more powerful than five.
Example: ATI 3670 vs 3650.

Last, for Nvidia, there is no third digit, instead you get to deal with the confusing suffix combinations. They work in this order: G < GS < GT < GTS < GTX < Ultra. Now these suffixes don't apply all that well to the Nvidia 8800 series desktop chips because of a weird overlap but they apply just fine to the mobile chips.
Example: 8600m GT > 8600m GS

I am so damn tired, been up for 36 hours so I hope at least some of this makes sense.

 

just buy atleast 8800 GT to be future proof.

and if u got money:
then 8800GTX.

thats all.

hope my short comment helped u better.

 

That's a very stupid recommendation. That's like saying everyone should buy a Ferrari since it's got all the bases covered.

There's a reason the companies make more than just the high-powered cards. For COD4 and SC2, an 8600 or even 8400 will do.

 

thats what he is looking for.


if someone asks u a simple question u give a simple answer.

 

Laptop or desktop?

There is a nice wiki article on this... but here we go...

With nVidia (the green one)

you have xy00

x is the generation number. You want 8 or higher to play dx10 (should it be needed)
y is the series number. bigger is better. Anything under 4 is unsuitable for any gaming, and most gamers want at least a 6. I got a 2 (6200) for my first gaming upgrade, so I could play oblivion... and while it was much lower quality than most saw... I have never seen anything better... then I went to ATI x850... oblivion got really pretty.

Don't buy anything that says TC... it means turbocache and it is evil.

TC > gs > gt > gts > gtx

ATI

xy00

x will be the generation number. you want a 2 (preferably 3) generation card to play dx10
y will be the series number. go for at least a 6 here.

gt < xt < xtx < pe as far as the numbers at the end go

Peace, rep, and love to all.

 

no need to start a fight here. all you need to read is this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

 

get a console.
if u really want gaming for a laptop

1. stay away from intel cards
2. embrace nvidia
3. if u cant afford medium to high end cards, ati x1270 is the least you can go.

based on my experience, nvidia 8600gt on my vostro takes care of everything

 

This thread is going off the deep end, so it is now closed.

As noted, the stickies are a great place to start. If you want to know how well your notebook can run a certain game, see this thread:
*The Official "Can My Notebook Run It?" Thread* -Ask about your notebook here