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Any questions related to Video cards just discuss it here
The things that shape the graphics card performance:
Core Clock Speed : much the same as you measure the speed of a CPU or other processing unit. It's measured in MHz which represents the amount of clock cycles the processor can do per second. Ofcourse, the more MHz the better, but still, this is not final and not definitive about how fast the card is.
Memory Clock Speed : The same as the Core speed, but ofcourse this regards the memories on the card. This is as important as the Core speed because the memories contains the textures that will be applied to the pixels.
Memory Bandwidth : This is a very critical issue. Higher memory bandwidth will allow the GPU to retrieve data from the memories faster, which will result in a faster processing. The effeciency is affected by the memory speed and latencies , and the bit bandwidth. So transfer rates (MB/sec) is increased when those factors are tweaked!
Pixel Pipelines : This is a great factor that affects the final rendering speed of the graphics card.Theoritacally, a card with 2 pipelines should have the double processing power of a card with 1 pipeline. (when talking about 2 same-technology-cards that have the same clock speeds).
Textures Per Pipeline : This comes into consideration when more than one texture is needed on the same pixel. Ofcourse, the more textures per pipeline that the card supports is the better! But, when only one texture is required for one pixel, the number of textures per pipeline has no effect.
Pipeline : A data path used to deliver data from point to point. A pipeline has bandwidth (bit bandwidth), the bigger the bandwidth, the faster it is. one 32bit pipeline is equal to 4 8bit pipelines. (Theoritacally)
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The Effect of RAM Size. (VC memory not system memory)
Well, video cards manufacturers aren't adding more memory for nothing. The real effect of the memory size comes when u r at very high-end details levels** where more detailed textures require more space to be stored in (or in large scales where there are huge numbers of different models). But large memory size won't benefit "as much" if the card doesn't have enough processing power and high memory bandwidth. A good example would be the 9600XT(or FX5700)-256MB and the 9800Pro(or FX5900)-128MB , the 128MB versions of the better cards will beat the 256MB versions of the "older cards" for sure, because of it's 256bit memory interface and it's better processing power(which i explained above). But 256MB are becoming a standard now, so if u r going to a 256MB card, my suggestion would be to get a high performance card and not and "old" one.
A common mistake that needs to be cleared : people think that large and heavy games like strategy games with 100's of units require more video card memory. It's not true, it requires more GPU/CPU processing power,and more system RAM(not as much as CPU and GPU needed in this case). All the units have the same textures(in newer games it's changing..), and that's what is saved in the video card memory!
** The example given is when the textures are highly detailed, and also where AA and AF take some part. AA and AF produce high quality and high resolution images and can benefit from the extra memory. But still, they don't require a lot of extra memory. 128MB are usually enough, 256MB are even better.
(this i believe will answer some of the "256MB or 128MB" questions)
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RAMDAC speed - Heard of it? how does it affect?
RAMDAC : Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter
"Typically a chip on a video adapter card. Its purpose is to convert digital images into signals that can be displayed by an analog monitor. A RAMDAC typically has a section of SRAM to store the color info and three DACs to convert the red, green, and blue signals."
"RAMDAC speed is a frequency at which the RAMDAC processes the pixels and sends the video signals to the monitor. The "speed" depends on current video mode. When the RAMDAC speed is given as a parameter of a graphics card, this is the maximum speed which the RAMDAC may achieve. This parameter is not a measure of the card's performance - it simlpy reflects the maximum monitor refresh rate which may be achieved by the card. Actually the RAMDAC works near to its speed limit only in very high resolution modes."
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There are some features (that may differ from card to card) such as the Anti-Aliasing(AA) and Anisotropic Filtering(AF) that will slow down the final results (FPS - Frames Per Second) for better quality. If you don't know what they are, i added some explenations :
Anti-Aliasing : "A technique used to make diagonal or curved edges appear smoother by setting pixels near the edge to intermediate colors according to where the edge crosses the underlying color."
Anisotropic filtering : "(1) When a surface has a property of characteristic that is not the same in all directions (for example, woodgrain, tire marks on a runway), anisotropic filtering can be used to blend those features in one direction only (the lengthwise direction, the direction of the grain) so as not to diminish the separation detail. (2) To achieve sharp textures, a card can use anisotropic filtering, a process that involves an elliptical kernel whose shape and orientation depends on the projection of the destination pixel onto the texture map."
(from extreme overclock)
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I came across this site while doing a search, its probably not new to alot of you but its got to be one of the most complete sites I've seen with benchmark programs and tools.
http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/b_e.html
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Oh Talking about Benchmarks! try this little software:
http://mekk.homeip.net/3dmarkcalc/3D...culator1.2.zip . This might help you cheat
As is the case in school exams, the bottom line of all testing is the score. The formula for the score in 3DMark06 is as follows:
The sections are broken down by their core components. The first line shows the Shader Model 2.0 game tests, Return to Proxycon and Firefly Forest. This score is defined as one half of the total game score. The value from these tests is one half of 120 times the sum of the FPS scores from tests one and two.
The second line defines the Shader Model 3.0 tests with HDR, since the other half of the game score is defined as one half of 100 times the sum of the third and fourth game tests (Canyon Flight SM3.0 and Deep Freeze). The third row represents 2,500 times the square root of CPU test 1 plus CPU test 2.
Here you can see that the overall score is weighted heavily to the game test scores. However, if the graphics card cannot do the SM 3.0 tests, then there is an alternative scoring, which computes the game score as 75% of the value of the SM 2.0 score.
This alternative scoring method did not sit right with us for a couple of reasons. First, if the system that the tests are run on has a fast processor but a SM 2.0 card, the CPU score weighs in more heavily than if it had a SM 3.0 card. Second, this is the only exception rule in the scoring. We have used this benchmark to test the ability of a card to handle anisotropic filtering and antialiasing. Since Nvidia cards cannot support floating point blending with multisampling antialiasing, why isn't there a score mechanism for this type of testing? We decided to ask Futuremark about this.
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Lets talk about VGA CARDS
Originally Posted by EarlZ
Include the GTX295 at the very top
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