Which one and why is a good start.

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patrickh44231

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need some help figuring out some stuff. thinking of upgrading to one of these for an sli hookup and needed some guidence and questions answered please.
(going on a crosshair motherboard with a amd athlong 64x2 6400+ black edition 8gddr2-800)
like the difference in memory size and memory interface?
core clock, memory clock, stream processors, and ram dac?
gddr3 over gddr 2?

just a general over view of a video card. i mean i've always seen rating and been told these are good. but i want to know why? what makes them descent and the differences in them please.

p.s. looking to overclock them as well. sugestions are welcome and i'm open to opinions :)

~ ASUS EN8800GT/HTDP/1G/A GeForce 8800GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
file://localhost/G:/wanted%20cpu/amd%20march%2007/Newegg.com%20-%20ASUS%20EN8800GT_HTDP_1G_A%20GeForce%208800GT%201GB%20256-bit%20GDDR3%20PCI%20Express%202.0%20x16%20HDCP%20Ready%20SLI%20Supported%20Video%20Card%20-%20Retail.htm

OR

~ EVGA 640-P2-N829-A3 GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
file://localhost/G:/wanted%20cpu/amd%20march%2007/Newegg.com%20-%20EVGA%20640-P2-N829-A3%20GeForce%208800GTS%20SSC%20640MB%20320-bit%20GDDR3%20PCI%20Express%20x16%20HDCP%20Ready%20SLI%20Supported%20Video%20Card%20-%20Retail.htm

~ OR

Leadtek PX9600GT GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
file://localhost/G:/wanted%20cpu/amd%20march%2007/Newegg.com%20-%20Leadtek%20PX9600GT%20GeForce%209600GT%20512MB%20256-bit%20GDDR3%20PCI%20Express%202.0%20x16%20HDCP%20Ready%20SLI%20Supported%20Video%20Card%20-%20Retail.htm
 
They are all good, but you will not see a lot of improvement for the extra memory over 250 MB... We would select them in the order listed. We have not had problems with any of them.
 
my 2 cents ...

I personally like eVGA

1) Because of the performance ratings to cost. eVGA puts out a great product for the money.

2) Warranty and Support. They have a 24hr support team that you can call. and you can send the card to them with no hassle.

3) You can upgrade your card if you don't like the one you bought. Or upgrade it because you want the latest and greatest.

If your looking for a good over clocking card, MSI is the way to go. you can use their over-clocking tool ... The cards are slightly better on the performance side (the over-clocking helps) but of course you’re going to pay a little more.
Check this site out
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi__nx8600gt_twinturbo/
 
Thats the memory bus interface, which determines the capacity of memory that can be actively utilized at any given time.
This spec is considered to be "the higher, the better" because it would be quite useless to have plentiful amounts of memory but only a small memory bus interface to access it.
 
would i find more performance gaming out of the evga over the asus i posted above? they'll be sli'd and maybe an upgrade to dual monitor eventually
 
The eVGA is a pretty good card for the money... ASUS is the same but costs a lot more in most stores.
 
I agree eVGA has a lot to offer and in some cases beats ASUS in performance. As I said in an earlier post
kerz said:
my 2 cents ...

I personally like eVGA

1) Because of the performance ratings to cost. eVGA puts out a great product for the money.

2) Warranty and Support. They have a 24hr support team that you can call. and you can send the card to them with no hassle.

3) You can upgrade your card if you don't like the one you bought. Or upgrade it because you want the latest and greatest.

If your looking for a good over clocking card, MSI is the way to go. you can use their over-clocking tool ... The cards are slightly better on the performance side (the over-clocking helps) but of course you’re going to pay a little more.
Check this site out
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi__nx8600gt_twinturbo/

patrickh44231
When you’re comparing cards you need to compare them in the same category. A 1GB card is not always going to outperform a 256 or a 320
ASUS and eVGA are very similar in specs, BUT eVGA has a way better pricing. So if you see specs on an ASUS going up against another card, you can guess that the eVGA card will be within about 5% better or lower than ASUS

Check this link out ... http://techgage.com/article/palit_geforce_8800gt_super1gb/3
It shows the specs on some ASUS cards against a 1GB card
 
There are a number of published reviews in which the reviewers discovered that the performance of a 1 GB card were no better than the performance of a 256 MB card.
But 256 MB is definitely a good cutoff.
Rarely have I found a 512 Mb or 1 GB card to be worth all that extra money. When testing fellow techs, they could not tell which card had how much memory.
The smart thing is to do a Google search by model number to find the reviews and study them.
 
OK so here is my last entree on this subject cause we can go around in circles forever ...

Video Card Basics on what to look for.

raybay pointed out that the 256 MB is a good cutoff range, this I will agree on as long as you don't have anything larger than a 20' LCD monitor. If you have a 22' screen or larger than a 512 is recommended but not necessary.
A 512MB card is going to push more screen resolution and hold more game information than the 256MB (a 512 or 1GB will make the game load faster etc) If your running 2 monitors at the same time and are using animation or drafting programs then a 512 or 1GB card is what you need.

A 512MB or 1GB card does not mean that its going to be faster \ out perform a 256MB card. Also the bit rate can be a factor here, the higher the bit rate the better. If you have a low bit rate on a 512 card, don't bother with it, it’s a cheap card.

The GPU is the power house of the card, the faster the GPU the faster the card. Take this into consideration; would you rather have 768MHz computer with 512MB RAM or a 1.6GHz Computer with 256RAM? Same difference when your looking at a card.
One of the most important things to look for is the amount of Pipe lines the card has.
In the case of newer cards like the 8800 and 9600 series you want to look at the Stream Processors. The more the better allowing the card to run more processes at once.

1) Look at the GPU speed
2) Look at the RAM bit rate and Max digital screen resolution
3) look at the Pipe Lines or Stream Processors (more the better)

KZ out
 
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