Consumer GPU (NV& ATI) Naming Convention

Decided to post this, so that people will know how to distinguish GPU performance without having to post so many threads about "is this better than that?" Bear in mind that this is consumer-type GPUs, which are Radeon and GeForce, no FirePro or Quadros here.

ATI Radeon *Mobility* is added for notebook GPUs*

ATI has had 2 'groups' of cards, represented by the prefix. The older group is the 'X' group, like X800, X1600 and so on. The newer group is the 'HD', which besides showing the new type, also shows that ALL GPUs which have the HD prefix are HD (high definition) capable.

First number is generation or series. For example, an X1900 is older than a HD 5970. There may be significant increase in performance between two generations, so it might be a good idea to Google it. An example would be the HD 4xxx series is almost 100% more powerful than the HD 3xxx series, for the same power number, like HD 4650 is almost 2x as powerful as the HD 3650.

Second number is POWER. So a HD4 330 is easily beaten by a HD 4 870. Bear in mind that a HD 3 650 does NOT necessarily equal a NV GeForce 9 600 GT, because they are from different companies. Performance is relative. Thing to note: 1~3 is entry level, 5 is budget, 6 is mainstream, 7 is high mainstream, 8 and 9 are high performance. Thus a HD 4870 is powerful, while a HD 5145 is weak.

Third number / Suffix
For the 'X' group of cards, they had suffixes of Pro, XT and XTX . There are more suffixes of course, but they are generally not known. A card without a suffix is medium, lower than Pro, XT or XTX, but higher than other less known suffixes, such as GT (Gran Turismo), LE and SE. Pro is slightly more powerful, XT is even more powerful. XT PE (XT Platinum Edition) used to be the suffix for the MOST powerful, but has been replaced with XTX. (example X1900 XTX, used in the Xbox console)
Whole list of suffixes can be found here
From low to high performance: SE < LE < GT/Rx < no suffix < GTO < Pro < XL < XT < XT PE/XTX

For the 'HD' cards, they are divided in two. the HD 2xxx cards still use the Pro and XT suffix, and the use is the same as the X type cards. (e.g. HD 2600 XT) From HD 3xxx onwards, these suffixes have been replaced by the third number.

Pro is '5', like HD 38 50, while XT is '7' like HD 46 70

Fourth number is only for the HD 5xxx series. They denote a slight increase in power, according to how big the number is.

For those comparing desktop GPUs to their mobile cousins, from the HD type onwards, all mobile GPUs use the same chip as their desktop counterparts. But due to clock speeds being higher in the desktop cards, there is quite some difference in performance. Generally for comparison, you either add 2 to the POWER (2nd) number for the mobile side or subtract 2 from the desktop side.

Nvidia GeForce *M is for notebooks, meaning Mobile*

Similar to ATI, the GeForce has 2 groups, one with 4 numbers, one with three. Example: 9600M GT vs GT 240M. There are 2 prefix/suffix schemes that Nvidia used, but thankfully they represent the same levels of performance.

This is the order of performance, from low to high:
[LE < GS < GSO ] weak [< GT ] mainstream [< GTS < GTX] performance (seems that the more impressive it sounds, the better it is ) For the 'older' 4 numbered cards, the tag is a suffix, like 9500 GT. For 'newer' 3 numbered cards, the tag is a prefix, e.g. GT 220. Using this, one can tell that a 9600 GSO is weaker than a 9600 GT. But also note that since GTS and GTX are performance-type, there are no 8400 GTX (no such thing as a weak but powerful card lol) for example. But there can be a 9800M GS (weaker variant of 9800 type)

First number, for both 3 numbered and 4 numbered cards, means generation or series. However, there have been rebrands (renaming) of cards (plus a little tweaking sometimes), so a 9800 GTX+ = GTS 250, although the first number does seem to show a different generation/series. On a whole, the 2xx series is based on the 9xxx series, which is turn is based on the 8xxx series.

Second number shows POWER. An 8800 (GS, GT, GTS, GTX >< ) is more powerful than lets say, a 8600 GT.

Third number only applies to the 3 numbered cards. Nvidia somehow loves to use 5, and the addition of the 5 in the third number means better performance. So a GTX 285 is better than a GTX 280. Easy enough.

Fourth number is for 4 numbered cards only (duh). And it denotes nothing

Unlike ATI, notebook variants DO NOT equal their desktop cousins, despite having the same 2nd/Power number. 9600M GT < 9600 GT (NOT 9600M GT = 9600 GT). Since notebook GPUs are weaker than desktop GPUs, the way I compare is by adding 2~3 from the mobile side, or subtracting 2~3 to the desktop side. Like this:

9700M GT (mobile) = 9500 GT (desktop)

Just for references, two best comparison charts.
www.notebookcheck
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-graphics-card,2544-7.html (I personally prefer this one)

 

One note: The Radeon mobility cards are nowhere near their desktop cousins in performance. A Mobility 5870 is closest to a 5770 on the desktop, but slower due to clocking differences (they're based on the same chips). A desktop 5870 will wipe the floor with a mobile 5870.

Using your example, a Mobility 4670 has these specs:

Pipelines 320 - unified
Core Speed * 675 MHz
Shader Speed * 675 MHz
Memory Speed * 800 MHz
Memory Bus Width 128 Bit

A desktop 4670 has these specs:

Shader Processors: 320
Core Clock: 750 MHz
Shader Clock: 750 MHz
Memory Clock: 1000 MHz (2000 DDR)
Memory Bus Type: 64x2 (128 bit)

25% extra memory performance as well as another 12% core speed or so really changes things.

 

looks like I didn't read the reviews carefully enough then! Corrected.

 

There's a lot of misinformation out there. But the truth of it is that ATI's versioning really does follow kind of like Nvidia's... a desktop 4670 ~ mobile 4830 or so. Roughly.

 

Where's the misinformation? Just say the word and I'll correct it and also put that desktop-laptop comparison up.

UPDATE: oops i spotted some (ATI suffixes, Nvidia desktop-laptop comparison, 2 typos) . Corrected.

 

There are a few exceptions such as the 9800M GTS being weaker than the 9800M GT, but generally you are correct with the trends.

 

Good job, now let´s hope all those people asking for the which is better can look at the thread. By the way, shouldn´t the NBR team update their GPU list section?