How to rate a graphic card?

[XcvcX]

How would you rate a graphic card? There are so many but what do you look at exactly to judge a graphic card. What would you be looking for if you wanted a high end gaming card versus an everyday card you would get in a pre-bult pc from wal-mart.

 

[Alfons]

Do you mean what we look for when we buy a new gfx card ?

In my case I always go by reviews when I'm looking for a new card. Price/performance ratio is something that I do keep in mind, but it's not the deciding factor for my purchase. Although I wouldn't spend 100 bucks extra on something that performs a tiny bit better (i.e. certain oc'd cards).

That said, I always go for the latest series/architecture. ATI has disappointed me too many times in the past, that's why I'm a trusty NVIDIA supporter now. Even though ATI is still king in hitting that sweet price/performance ratio with their cards, I'll still pay a bit extra to get the NVIDIA equivalent. It's just something that gives me peace of mind.

Specific features that are important to me are:

- Latest series/architecture
- Non-reference PCB design (i.e. MSI Twin Frozr 3 cards, improved thermal design and vrm's, for improved overclocking abilities)
- Non-reference cooler (i.e. Asus DCII and MSI Twin Frozr cards)
- Amount of VRAM (I'm running 3 24" monitors in surround @ 5960x1080, so more VRAM serves me well)
- Mild factory overclock
- Looks (I like to mod stuff, and make my stuff look good. So I'd like to have all my hardware look nice together)

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

If possible I go for MSI cards, but Asus/EVGA/Gigabyte are pretty decent too.

ATI cards are like a busses, they're big, red and have bad drivers. (/troll)

 

[MentaL]

Usually benchmarks are a good start.

 

[XcvcX]

Usually benchmarks are a good start.

Know of any sites that would give a list of benchmarks for cards?


Found this

You must be registered to see links

 

[cycoextreme]

You must be registered to see links

i like this one, specially to compare 2 different cards or even one card to two running in SLI or CrossX

 

[EliteGM]

I like looking up reviews on techpowerup

 

[Alfons]

I thought you were asking us about our personal opinions on when buying a card, my bad tt1:

Anandtech has a nice database of gpu's that you can make a selection from and compare to eachother. Pretty much every card is in there, also with some SLI/CF setups. You can select different games and resolutions too.

You must be registered to see links

Other then that the following sites will usually cover everything you'd like to know:

-Guru3D
-Techpowerup
-Anandtech
-Hardwareheaven

 

[XcvcX]

So I have a spare 5770 now. I could get another one for $100, should I get the second and crossfire the cards?

 

[EliteGM]

If your motherboard and psu allows for it

You must be registered to see links

 

[LightWarrior]

how's the 6950 better than a 6970?? -_-

 

[EliteGM]

IIRC the 2gb 6950s can be softmodded into 6970s

 

[Samus.]

So I have a spare 5770 now. I could get another one for $100, should I get the second and crossfire the cards?

Nah, better to get a better 1 single GPU.
I've stepped over from GTX260 (Sparkle) to EVGA GTX460 2GB and the GTX260 is a bit better then the 5770:

You must be registered to see links

 

[LightWarrior]

IIRC the 2gb 6950s can be softmodded into 6970s

I know that, and actually, It's bad for you to softmod it to a 6970, it can be buggy, and some can't be modded, some even have worse performance than the actual 6970....so...how's a 6950 better than a 6970??

 

[NoPeace]

I know that, and actually, It's bad for you to softmod it to a 6970, it can be buggy, and some can't be modded, some even have worse performance than the actual 6970....so...how's a 6950 better than a 6970??

Just to add to this. 6970 and 6950 are the same card, the difference is that the 6950 is a defective 6970. They disable features and decrease the speed because it cannot meet the 6970 standards.

This practice has been happening for years and people always think they can just make the cheaper card run like a faster one. Some times this can work (x850xt modded into x850XTX) but in most cases this never works and causes the card to become buggy and unstable.

NoPeace - out