3641687

How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 21st, 2007 12:58 PM

Is there some sort of "master list" on the Internet of a list of video cards put in order for how powerful they are? I have never figured out how to tell the difference between video cards. I just want to know if my VisionTek RADEON X1300 512MB is good enough for some FH2...

3641781

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 21st, 2007 01:35 PM

Man and I thought that you were one of us, nerds, and smart... (JK man)
maybe look up on google exactly like this all-video-cards list or complete-video-card list. Have fun with the hyphens because what they do is make sure that your search result has all those letters in that exact order instead of spread out within the reslt but you probably know that since you're somewhat nerdy.:P

-The site that I've always used as my best reference is www.tomshardware.com (look to the right side for their cpu,vid card,hard drive, etc... charts. Some of the best in the industry since the companies will change their product if they get a bad revue on toms so you can see their power and unbiased nature.)

other good site just for the shits and giggles of it all(I'm at my mom's house so it doesn't have all my good links so don't be hatin if I sound like an ignoranus. :P hehehe):
-anandtech.com(org?)
-(cpu maguazine's website)

3641800

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 21st, 2007 01:45 PM

I second that. I use Toms and Anandtech exclusively. Food, when you see something you like, get the manufacture's part number and plug them into a deal finder. I use dealsea.com, then click on the price search tab. Put the part number into the search field and voila... Be amazed at the wild range of prices for products. A $400 video card could be $200 on one site and $700 on another. I saved myself all told probably $1500 buying an HDTV for myself and the one my father picked out for himself. Got a 37" 1080p LCD for $805

3641814

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 21st, 2007 02:01 PM

Thank you both!

3642470

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 12:16 AM

Just visit a big interenet hardware store with nice interface. They'll most likely have all popular, available video cards put together in serie sets.

3642560

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 09:47 AM

A X1300 is probably not going to cut it with FH2 nor BF2 ( it will run but on low ) if you want any good looking visuals. Best bet would be a X1600 or up if your heading with ATI or 7600 and up if your going with Nvidia.

Stay away from store clercks, I have seen it happen to much that they offer crappy low budget cards for high prices that won't even get FH'42 to run in full glory.

3642715

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 11:14 AM

Words to live by.

The X1300 I got was selling for $150 at CompUSA a year ago. It's still that price, but on Newegg it's about 50-60 bucks less.

The guys in the Tech forum said I should try to get one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150189

Parents will let me get RAM though, but say they won't buy me a video card cause I'm "too addicted/obsessed" with video games

I've only played 575 hours of FH so far

3643006

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 01:20 PM

H0w d0 j00 kn0wz th4t?

3643161

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 01:54 PM

Other factors before you rush into buying a new card are DX10/when you will upgrade to Vista, of course, (major one!) and what you will be using this card for until you upgrade. I see that you don't spend a lot of money on your rig so since this card will be destined for a low end rig and only a low end rig, I don't see why you would spend that much money on a card. Honestly an X1600 or 6800GS should be where you're looking when it comes to cards. You can spend more but if you wont be swaping it into your DX10 PC, I really don't see the point in having a 7950GT in coupled with a crappy CPU with which it will die.

I personally have a 6800GS and won't even think of doing something so dumn, for my situation, as buy another DX9 card since I can run BF2 beautifully with everything at the highest it can go. Also if you need a little more juice out of it for another more demanding game such as say Oblivion you can overclock a 6800GS from 425Mhz to ~500Mhz easy but after that you're asking for artifacts, and the ram can go up to 1100Mhz very easily and can be push to about ~1200Mhz.

All I'm saying Food is, like the guy in the ING adds(if you have those), "save your money".
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143045 (a quick search yielded this...but look around a lot for other cards)

3643249

Re: How to tell the difference between video cards?

April 22nd, 2007 02:10 PM

I'd personally stick away from AGP cards, I made the mistake of deciding to go for a 7800GS XT AGP version with a new AGP mobo last time I updated ( last year may ) and I'm already feeling the pain. I am also planning a upgrade and I am now looking at purchasing a new cpu, ram and videocard, which will set me back more then a simple videocard upgrade which I could have gotten if I went with a PCI-E motherboard.

Just get a PCI-E motherboard with a cheap 6800 if you don't have much money to spare, but definitely stay away with AGP, it's come close to it's end and if you are going to upgrade you might as well change motherboards and be ready for the future as well.