Graphic Card Updates

Don't know if Updates is the right word but can someone tell me what is different in each Graphic Card update. Like from graphic card ATI Radeon 3200 to 4200.

My 3200 has 1.2 GB of Video Ram (most games only need 512MB), Hardware T&L, Pixel Shader 4.0 and Vertex Shader 4.0 and still it can't run some games even though nothing has changed from updates to ATI Radeon 5470. It uses the same video ram, T&L, Pixel and Vertex.

 

Could you please restate your question, I'm not sure if I understand what you are asking! I would like to help, but I am not sure how to go about answering that.

 

Why is a new graphics faster than an old graphics card when they support the same standards. Basically what he has described are the various software linkages that a particular graphics card could support. He needs to under memory bandwidth, the various MHz involved, number of shadders etc that determined the actual performance of the card.

 

Johnlee0, the GPU has a core clock and essentially cores like a CPU has. They also have their own separate RAM which also has clocks and a data transfer rate.


For instance:
Notebookcheck: ATI Radeon HD 3200
Radeon HD 3200 40@500MHz

Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
Mobility Radeon HD 5470 80@750MHz

The Radeon HD 3200 also shares RAM access with the CPU which is slower than dedicated video RAM.

 

Did you upgrade to a new machine? If so, there are a few things different between the two. The 5470 has a higher core clock, dedicated ram, twice the shaders, is 40nm and supports DirectX 11.

The 5470 is more powerfull than a 3200, but it is still a low end gpu.

 

Ok I'm looking to play these games all in the highest settings. Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, Devil May Cry 4 and RE5. Can the 5470 be able to do that? I found a post comparing the 5470 to the Nvidia GT 360M saying it could play Crysis
Yahoo! Answers - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 VS NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M?

 

My desktop can barely play those games at the highest settings, no way that laptop will even come close, it will be mostly low-medium settings.

 

it can

it does not mean it will be good at it

theoricaly you could run crysis on an intel integrated chipset but doing so would result in a slideshow or in very low graphic settings

to play tose games you would need som higher ends cards like som 460m or HD5850

 

No sir, you cannot. It will "run." By that I mean the application will be running. But you will need a better card. Aim for the 5730 at least.

 

Ok how about Nvidia GeForce 310M or NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. Can any one of these play all 5 games at the highest settings?

 

Nope. Not even close. Actually, I think you'd need at least some kind of xfire or sli setup (with high end cards, of course, something like dual 5870's) to run to those at highest settings (I'm talking about 1920x1080p, everything set to high with max AA). Of course, the ones that set the bar here are Crysis and Warhead. The other three are much easier to max out.

 

I will refer you to my previous post, nothing before a 480m or a Mobility 5870 will be able to play all the games you listed at the highest settings.

 

Posting in bold is pretty annoying.

 

The post compares the GT 320m vs the 5470. The answer is in the post:

Short answer, no, neither will.

The 310M and 330M are mid-range cards. They will struggle with those games. You will need something like a Radeon 4850/4870, 5850/5870 or GTS 260/360 or GTX 280/285 or 480. Be prepared to pay a lot because those types of computers don't come cheap.

 

I can say the HD5870M will not play Crysis at the very highest settings. It will play on all settings high with zero AA, 34 FPS average though.
- Highest setting and 8x AA will crush the HD5870M.

And sadly to tell you, but the few benchmarks released so far, GTX 480M cannot either.

 

dude why do you want to max out games anyways? Thers no point really unless you have the hardware and you just want the eye candy. Playing on just high settings and 2xAA is fine, even the 5870m can handle that much. The cards you have suggested are mid range cards and will NOT play ur games on max. The best you could do is medium with no AA if your coupled with a decent cpu e.g i5 or i7. If you want to spend 4k on an alienware or sager machines that will probably nearly max your games then that it the way to go.

 

I play at 1920x1200 and dont bother past 2xAA, just cant tell. I can max Crysis with 2xAA with a mad overclock and it dips below 30fps just enough for it to be tolerable. The high end single card solutions will be able to play most games on highest settings, but Crysis, Metro 2033, etc require desktop-like power to run on higher settings.

Your looking at a desktop or a high-end laptop, capable of SLI of Xfire, which are very expensive.

 

Sorry about bumping up this topic I need to compare one last graphics card the
GeForce GTS350M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M.

 

If you really need to max out the games all the way, buy a desktop or buy a laptop with dual high end graphics card, which will be expensive.