Choosing A Graphic Card

[masugidsk8r 0]

I'm interested in upgrading my graphic card (only months old) because it's too slow when I play BF2. Currently I have a 256mb 64-bit GeForce 7100 GS. I want to get a 512mb GeForce card but there's a 256mb card with a higher bit-count. I don't know the difference between RAM and Bit. i want to be able to set all the graphic settings to high and still be able to play the game smoothly. Which should I get, the one with higher bit or ram?And please tell me what each spec does to the video card.

[rayzoredge 2]

I'm interested in upgrading my graphic card (only months old) because it's too slow when I play BF2. Currently I have a 256mb 64-bit GeForce 7100 GS. I want to get a 512mb GeForce card but there's a 256mb card with a higher bit-count.
I don't know the difference between RAM and Bit. i want to be able to set all the graphic settings to high and still be able to play the game smoothly. Which should I get, the one with higher bit or ram?

And please tell me what each spec does to the video card.

I'm rather new to this whole field too, but I can safely tell you that a 256-bit card will outperform a 128-bit card. I'm not sure how, but after looking up RAMDAC, it looks like it improves the variety of refresh rates you can have, which, the higher you go, the more frequent the video card will refresh what you see on the screen. (Of course, your monitor has to be able to support the frequency.) Most monitors nowadays display 65-75 Hz. I believe this would be 65-75 screen refreshes a second... correct me if I'm horribly off track. I'm also guessing that the higher the number of bits (which would come in powers of 2, like most things do in the computer hardware field), the more sophisticated (and more powerful, possibly) the GPU.

More pipelines are better than fewer. Pipelines are the part of the GPU that actually process the video data to display it into what you see. I'll go into more detail if you wish... since there are several stages of processing. You should try to snag a card with as many pipelines activated as possible... and as much as your budget will allow.

More RAM is not necessarily better... it will provide more memory for the GPU to work with, but if the GPU doesn't take advantage of the memory? 'Nuff said.

I can elaborate more on specifics if you want me to later, but that would mean that I would have to look up some stuff myself to refresh my memory on the subject.

[hr=noshade] [/hr]
Basically, when shopping for a video card, look for these specifications:

1.) Pipelines. The more there are, the more the GPU can do at one given time when it comes to processing data. (ex. soft shadows, more objects onscreen, lighting effects, on-the-fly FSAA and AA filtering)

2.) Bit count. This refers to the memory bus on the video card... the higher this is, the more efficient processes can be completed. (?) (ex. frame rate)

3.) RAM. The more there is, the more the GPU can work with. (ex. keeping frequently-used, higher-resolution textures in-memory)

4.) Shader models (which I forgot to mention in my previous post). The better the model, the... better. It will support more levels of DirectX and OpenGL, and to future-proof yourself, look for a video card that supports DirectX 10.

Notice from truefusion:

Merged. Use edit button, it does work.

[dre 0]

Tell me the exact models of the video cards and I'll give you an exact answer.

[tdktank59 0]

It all depends on how much you are looking at spending...The lowest graphics card i will recomend is a 8600 GT ( or equivelent i think is a 7800) however if you can afford it ill recomend a 8800 GTS 320 mb (theres a 640 mb version)

Edited September 10, 2007 by tdktank59 (see edit history)

[Kubi 0]

8600? Are you kidding? A 7300 will run vista like a charm. There is no way you need an 8600 to play Battlefield smoothly.

[tdktank59 0]

i never said battle field... but look at the prices... you might as well go with a 8 series when it has dx 10...and i know you dont need a 8600 to play battle field and tell you the truth battle field dosnt take anything... to run and im more refering the the new games such as Bio Shock and some other ones just coming out...Heck my geforece 4 TI 4600 Ran Titan Quest but it was laggy and such...im just saying the lowest i recomend to gammers is a 8600 thats what i recomend... if they do intrenet browsing and checking email that sort of stuff ill sujest onboard video or a 8400 or w/e thje lowest 8 series is...Come on KuBi i did my homework when i bought my computer i know whats out there...

[Saint_Michael 3]

I'm interested in upgrading my graphic card (only months old) because it's too slow when I play BF2. Currently I have a 256mb 64-bit GeForce 7100 GS. I want to get a 512mb GeForce card but there's a 256mb card with a higher bit-count.

 

I don't know the difference between RAM and Bit. i want to be able to set all the graphic settings to high and still be able to play the game smoothly. Which should I get, the one with higher bit or ram?

 

And please tell me what each spec does to the video card.

 

The difference between RAM and bit on a video is that RAM on the card tells how much it uses while running without the need to use system RAM, while a bit is the size of the video card bus itself or rather how how much info the card cycles through every second or 16 bytes a second. In this case 128 bits per seconds. As for your cards without providing any links to them I am only using these as an example; 256Mb(256bit) video card, and a 512MB(128 bit) video card.

 

With that information I would saw go with the 512MB card with the 128 Bits and in that way you use less system RAM then the 256MB card might.

 

Actually I can take you one further Kubi a 7600GT can work vista just as well, and of course tdktank59 is as correct about using the 8600 series for gaming applications.

Edited September 10, 2007 by Saint_Michael (see edit history)

[Kubi 0]

Actually I can take you one further Kubi a 7600GT can work vista just as well, and of course tdktank59 is as correct about using the 8600 series for gaming applications.

Yes I know it can. If you saw my post you'll see I'm referring to the 7300 being able to handle Vista fine. I'm saying that as low as it is it has no problem running vista. And even my 5500 can handle gaming pretty well, I mean you don't need an 8 series card to be able to play games without lag. Spend 400 bucks less and get a 7 series which gets the job done just fine.

[tdktank59 0]

well when you look at it the price diffrence is not much between a 7 series and a 8 is not much... most people who are going to throw a new graphics card are looking at 100 bucks or so you might as well go to an 8 series since it supports dx 10 and is litteraly the same price as its counter model in the 7 series...so really unless you getting the top of the line like i got becasue the preformance was greater of course... you might as well get the bottom of the line 8 series for the same price you would have got the 7 series card back when they were the top of the market...Pretty much what im saying is its not a riduculus price for the new 8 series cards... go look http://www.newegg.com/

[Saint_Michael 3]

Tdktank is right the graphics card that I be ordering in a couple of days so I can get aero kicked in is $139 and it is a XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card. The specs for it and what it all has packaged in is insane, ok maybe not but still pretty good for that price

 

@kubi aaah I misread that post, plus I think there were some 6000 series who claim to pull it off as well but I would have o recheck that as I was blazing through hte hardware pretty quick looking for my own video card.

[masugidsk8r 0]

I've also read about the technology, "TurboCache". What does that mean? And if I upgrade my System RAM from a 512mb to a 1gig, would that make my video card go up to 512mb RAM (my current video card supports up to 512 with the TC technology).

[dre 0]

I've also read about the technology, "TurboCache". What does that mean?

It means that crappy video cards will be able to steal a lot of RAM from your computer instead of using their own. Since PC RAM is much slower than video card RAM, this technology sucks.

And if I upgrade my System RAM from a 512mb to a 1gig, would that make my video card go up to 512mb RAM (my current video card supports up to 512 with the TC technology).

Look, I've said this before so many times, and I'll say it again. A metaphor for what you just said is like putting a super charger on a Geo Metro (0.9 liter V3 engine). It's not going to help! You need a video card with all-around speed for it to be able to begin to use so much RAM. Video RAM will not increase system performance in any way, shape, or form, unless you are running recent games. Unless your video card costs at least $400, there is absolutely no reason for you to have 512 mb of video RAM! Why, you ask? Because by the time the video card is able to use that much RAM, its performance would have gotten so slow, that it would make no difference. It's a useless waste of money! Edited September 10, 2007 by dre (see edit history)