Your Graphic Card Source.

ArmitageIII · 04-20-2006, 03:34 PM

Updated *June 19th 2006* Prices need to be updated.
This thread is mainly for those that post wondering how good a graphic card will perform. While the review sites Linked are different, most prices will be adapted from newegg, considering there reliability and there unbeatable prices.

For Now, Im only Including the x1000's Series and 7000's series. More in the Future.

*Note* - This is for normal GPU's. Not image rendering cards (such as FireGL, Quadro)
*Note* - Prices vary, change and fluxuate in which i cannot update this every hour, but there a good reference to which GPU is cheaper.
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News

nVidia

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheInquirer

WE learned that Nvidia plans to ship its shorter versions of the Quad SLI capable cards for retail. It will brand those cards as Geforce 7950 GTX 2 and the cards should be available by the end of the month.

Article Here

Quote:

Originally Posted by DailyTech

nForce 590 will be the highest performance NVIDIA chipset for AMD AM2 and Intel Socket 775. The chipset will be specifically tweaked for SLI and Quad SLI and feature a new technology called "Link Boost."

Article Here

ATI

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheInquirer

WE GOT HOLD of one of the first Radeon X1900 GT cards available on the market and had a fiddle.

Article Here

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What is a GPU?

Quote:

A Graphics Processing Unit or GPU (also occasionally called Visual Processing Unit or VPU) is a dedicated graphics rendering device for a personal computer or game console. Modern GPUs are very efficient at manipulating and displaying computer graphics, and their highly-parallel structure makes them more effective than typical CPUs for a range of complex algorithms.

A GPU implements a number of graphics primitive operations in a way that makes running them much faster than drawing directly to the screen with the host CPU. The most common operations for early 2D computer graphics include the BitBLT operation, usually in special hardware called a "blitter", and operations for drawing rectangles, triangles, circles and arcs. Modern GPUs also have support for 3D computer graphics, and typically include digital video-related functions as well.

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Credit Given
-Wikipedia

ArmitageIII · 04-20-2006, 03:55 PM

ATI

Theres latest drivers can be found here

Windows OS

Quote:

Windows XP -
WindowsXP
Windows 2000
Windows2000
Windows 98 and Lower
Windows98
Media Center
Windows Media center
64bit
Windows64bit Edition

MacOS

Quote:

Mac

Linux

Quote:

Linux

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CrossFire - ATI's Answer to SLI

How Does it work?

Quote:

With CrossFire, ATI provides four options- two of which are the same as nVidia’s above mentioned solutions and are appropriately labeled Scissors and Alternate Frame Rendering Modes. Anyone whose used SLi will know that it doesn’t work with all the games- in fact, it doesn’t work with a lot of games. According to ATI, both the Scissors and AFR modes will work on ALL Direct 3D and OpenGL games.

More information can be found Here

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Radeon x1900XTX(PCI-Express)
Reviews

Quote:

TechSpot Gigabyte
GDhardware Visiontek

Prices
~500$

Quote:

PowerColor 499$
Sapphire 499$
Gigabyte509$
MSI509$

Radeon 1900xt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

Cypriot Powercolor
ATI

Prices

~440$

Quote:

PowerColor 434$
Sapphire 439$
MSI 455$

Radeon x1900gt(PCI-Express) {ATI's Answer to the Affordable 7900gt}

Reviews

Quote:

The Inquirer, Comparitive to 7900gt

Prices
~300$

Quote:

To be Announced.

Radeon x1800xt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

3dAvenue ATI
Tbreak ATI

Prices
~300$

Quote:

PowerColor 300$
Sapphire 285$

Radeon x1800GTO(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

Bjorn
Guru3d

Prices
~230$

Quote:

Sapphire 230$
Powercolor 235$

Radeon x1600xt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

Bytesector Sapphire
Guru3d HiS

Prices
~150$

Quote:

Sapphire 150$
Power Color

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ArmitageIII · 04-20-2006, 04:01 PM

----------
nVidia

There Latest Drivers can be Found here

Quote:

Drivers for All Systems.

Beta Drivers

Quote:

Beta

Linux

Quote:

Linux Drivers

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SLI- Scalable Link Interface

Quote:

Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a method for linking two (or more) video cards together to produce a single output. It is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics. With SLI, it is possible to roughly double the amount of graphic complexity that can be handled by a computer just by adding a second identical video card. If two video cards are purchased initially, this can give the user significantly more graphics computing power than the same setup with only one card. Alternatively, having one SLI-capable card in a computer can allow a user to upgrade in the future when additional computing power is needed/wanted. However, there are cases where this path could be more costly than merely purchasing a brand-new graphics card.

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Future Release-

G80

Quote:

The GeForce 8 Series, or G80, will be the eighth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce graphics cards. It is rumoured but not confirmed that these will be the first dual-GPU graphics cards (similar to dual-core CPUs). Little is currently known about this series other than the expected release should be in late June to July of 2006. The memory interface is said to be GDDR4 memory, along with support for Microsoft DirectX 10, and Shader Model 4.0.

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nVidia 7950GX2(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

AnandTech
GDhardware Leadtek

Prices
~600$

Quote:

eVGA 580$
XFX 609$
MSI 550$
BFG 600$

nVidia 7900GTX(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

GDHardware XFX
PCstats MSI

Prices
~540$

Quote:

XFX 510$
eVGA 530$
Gigabyte 550$
BFG 550$

nVidia 7900gt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

3DHardware eVGA
eVGA

Prices
~320$

Quote:

XFX 300$
eVGA 319$
BFG 330$

nVidia 7800gtx(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

Guru3d
Rage3d

Prices
~450$

Quote:

eVGA 450$
BFG 520$

nVidia 7800gt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

HardwareSecrets
ExtremeTech

Prices
~300$

Quote:

XFX 289$

nVidia 7600gt(PCI-Express)

Reviews

Quote:

Bjorn3d
legitReviews XXXedition

Prices
~180$

Quote:

XFX 179$
eVGA 179$
Leadtek 179$
MSI 179$

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ArmitageIII · 04-20-2006, 04:07 PM

Definitions, Explanations, And Understanding.
Always confused about what all those numbers, words and abrieviations mean when your looking to buy that perfect graphics card for your new gaming rig? Well heres an explanation to most modern day terms.

First lets start with the basics

GPU Clock Speed -

Quote:

The clock speed is the frequency with which the GPU or VPU operates at. This can be anywhere in a large range and can be compared to the operating frequency of a CPU. The faster, the better.

Ram Frequency -

Quote:

The memory clock is also measured in Mhz (megahertz), but will sometimes have a theoretical mutlipler associated with it. If your video card is operating with SDRAM then the effective speed is the same at the clock speed. If you have DDR-SDRAM then the effective frequency is twice that of the clock speed. Most new cards now use GDDR3(Graphics Dual Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM, Generation 3), which works on the same principle as DDR.

Memory Size(a.k.a. Frame buffer) -

Quote:

This represents how much RAM the graphics card has. 64/128/256/512 mb. Which allows more information to be kept in the ram, and with a higher frequency, the more ram a GPU can access.

Vertex Pipeline(commonly known as pixel pipeline) -

Quote:

The function of the vertex pipeline in any GPU is to take geometry data (usually supplied as vector points), work with it if needed with either fixed function processes (earlier DirectX), or a vertex shader program (later DirectX), and create all of the 3D data points in a scene to a 2D plane for display on a computer monitor.

Vertex Shaders -

Quote:

Vertex shaders are applied for each vertex and run on a programmable vertex processor. Vertex shaders define a method to compute vector space transformations and other linearizable computations.

RAMDAC (Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter) -

Quote:

is a combination of three fast DACs(digital-to-analog converter) with a small SRAM used in graphics display adapters to store the color palette and to generate the analog signals (usually a voltage amplitude) to drive a colour monitor. The logical colour number from the display memory is fed into the address inputs of the SRAM to select a palette entry to appear on the output of the SRAM. This entry is composed of three separate values corresponding to the three components (red, green, and blue) of the desired physical colour. Each component value is fed to a separate DAC, whose analog output goes to the monitor, and ultimately to one of its three electron guns (or equivalent in non-CRT displays).

Memory Interface -

Quote:

is normally a value of 128-bit, or 256-bit with the latter being on the higher end, higher performance cards.

ArmitageIII · 04-20-2006, 04:26 PM

~Reserved Space~

Skel · 04-20-2006, 07:29 PM

damm thanks

**NortHWizarD** · 04-20-2006, 08:22 PM

great collection of info

~NortH~

ArmitageIII · 04-26-2006, 10:00 PM

Thanks everyone.

If anyone wants to contribute. All help is greatful=]

Thanks. If you find any news etc, Id be glad to put it up here.

Mousey · 04-27-2006, 09:31 PM

Thanks for the info, great thread, i will refer to this when i finally get my comptuer in another 6 months (had mine 3 years so far...)

Rob! · 06-03-2006, 04:02 PM

That's so incredibly helpful. Thanks!

ArmitageIII · 06-03-2006, 04:51 PM

Im going to work on adding some more stuff soon - been really busy. Im gonna add a small physic card section hopefully. Also id like anyone to post any news if they have any, theres not much out right now considering the CPU release hype

TrickyStylez · 06-03-2006, 04:54 PM

Well I like it. I've been quoting your stuff whenever someone asks me a question

ArmitageIII · 06-19-2006, 02:23 AM

Added 7950

I may add a Physics card section soon, to answer some questions people are askin.

Should I want it?
Do i need it?
How does it work?
Whats its purpose?
Etc. Etc.

Ill try to update the news soon, Havn't had time to focus on the thread - Sorry for the slow process.

**WhiteBoy88** · 06-19-2006, 04:25 AM

Omega Drivers

ArmitageIII · 06-19-2006, 04:21 PM

There nvidia drivers seem quite out of date. Mabye im missing somthing

Burton560 · 06-19-2006, 06:53 PM

Tom's Hardware just came out saying the physics cards are pointless....exleast for right now anyways.

**WhiteBoy88** · 06-19-2006, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmitageIII

There nvidia drivers seem quite out of date. Mabye im missing somthing

He's had to put his Nvidia project on hold...

ArmitageIII · 12-15-2006, 09:24 PM

Sorry guys. It's been FOREVER since I've been on here. Im going to try and update this during xmas, If anyone wants to help me, let me know=]