Talk to me about Graphics Cards

Factual Questions
1

A couple recent threads on Civilization 4 and troubles with graphics cards got me thinking:

I don’t understand what I’m looking at when I look at the descriptions on Graphics cards. I have a GeForce 2 mx/mx400. I’ve had it for several years. I assume that is it out of date, and a virtual Model T compared to what’s out there now. But how do I tell that? I mean, saying Pentium II or Pentium III gives me a definite idea that there is a performance upgrade, regardless of whether I’d understand what’s been upgraded. The way things are with video cards, as I understand it, you can’t really tell.

Is there a number I can look at and say " Oooh, that means this card is twice as fast, or displays images 3 times better than my present card."

If you could direct me to a website that would explain such things, that would be helpful too.

2

I’ve been wondering the same thing lately. A wikipedia search for ‘graphic card’ led me to entries that explained what the differences between cards are (i.e, what the difference between an GeForceFX 5700 and a GeForceFX 5600 is).

3

You have to read reviews and look at the specs for the cards. It’s like any hobby, you live it. Ask for a recommendation on a computer forum if you don’t want to spend a lot of time comparing. Thae newest generation chips are the best. Give this site a try.
http://www2.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/videocards/index.php

4

Ars Technica’s Definitive Video Card Performance Thread

Gives a subjective ranking to graphics cards, and a lot of discussion following (with periodic updates on the list). Given its length, you may want to work backwards from the end rather than read the whole thing. It is intended primarily for those who want the best possible performance for game playing ( the #1 reason for getting a good video card ). So just because you have a card rated ‘awful’ doesn’t mean you can’t be perfectly happy with it. Its relative ranking is still useful.
http://www.tomshardware.com has the closest thing to what you’re looking for with their VGA charts.

They take a whole slew of video cards and run a series of benchmarks on them. Each benchmark has a comparison chart for the cards.

There’s another website that has similar sorts of charts, but I can’t recall its name right now. Sort of like a second opinion on Tom’s.
http://www.anandtech.com is another fairly decent tech review site, with more of a focus on deeper analysis of particular pieces of hardware.

5

Unfortunately there isn’t any easy number, but thankfully, there are really only two companies. Both companies have sort of a “progression” of cards.

Nvidia – 5600, 5700, 6200, 6600, 6800, 7600, etc.
At least they’ve kept things fairly constant, unlike:

ATI – 7500, 9000, 9200, 9700, 9800, x700, x800, x850. Now they’ve got the x1300 which in benchmark and real-world tests turns out to be less powerful than the older x700.

Of course these pendejos love to add little qualifiers – suffixes – all over the place.

For example XT, XL, Pro, GT, etc.

But these, too, fit into a reasonably neat progression of Budget, Standard, & Hardcore.

There’s also the issue of memory. At this point, 128MB is standard. Anything less sucks and 256 is quickly becoming necessary/standard.

The same thing has all but completely happened to processors as well. You can no longer just judge a processor based on the Ghz, but rather have to look at things like L1 & L2 cache and architecture. Again, we’re somewhat saved by only 2 manufacturers to keep up with. [R.I.P. Cyrix]

6
      • Well, the easiest way is simply to judge by price. You look up what it would cost to replace your current card, and then figure that a fairly-decent gaming videocard can be had for about $200. If a particular game is important you would want to search for any compatability problems between that videocard and game of course. Obviously before you order anything you would look for reviews online–because some “older” cards have proven to be faster (and priced less) than newer cards, but that hasn’t happened too often.

-For non-gamers, just about any 64-meg $50 videocard will do just fine. You only need an expensive+fast videocard to play games.
…

  • As far as the naming goes, higher series numbers means a later-generation card. A MX-440 (the closest thing I could find to your card) appears to be priced at around $65, for a 64-meg RAM version. A $200 videocard would be a GeForce 6600-series or a Radeon X800, either with 256 megs of RAM. You’d see a big improvement in action games, and the newer cards might support a higher screen resolution than what yours does but otherwise they will look the same.
    ~
7

You should decide if you want to capture video with the card. VIVO video input video output. You’ll spend a little more for capture ability, but you won’t need a add on peripheral

8

OMG, you’re on a Geforce 2 MX? :eek: That’s like before the stone age!

Alright, let’s see if we can bring you up to date, somewhat.

First of all, you should know there’s currently a technology shift going on in the VGA market. The old AGP slot (where you insert your card) is on its deathbed. It’s being replaced by a different slot, PCIe, short for PCI Express. You have a motherboard with an AGP slot - make a mental note of this.

Your best choice in the budget market right now is a Geforce 6600GT ($150) or a 6600, the former is about twice as fast. If you don’t want to spend that much money you may opt for a Geforce 6200 ($60) or maybe even something from the Geforce 5 series, but as for running newer games, even strategy games, these cards are now considered way too old.

Btw, your fastest cards in the Geforce 6000 series is the 6800GT and the even faster 6800 Ultra, but their price/performance ratio is way off. However, they are the fastest cards ever to be released for the AGP slot. The newest series, the Geforce 7800, are all released as PCIe, which you don’t have.

A couple of important things:

  • With each new generation demand for power supply has increased. My guess is that you bought your card/computer about 5 years ago, making it unlikely that your computers power supply will be able to support any of the newer cards. In that case you could look for a Geforce 4 ti4400, ti4800SE or ti4600, you might need to buy one second hand.
  • Also, you’re CPU is probably too old.

If you could post your computer spec (motherboard socket type, ram amount, cpu, power supply watt) I can be able to help you further.

In the meantime:
The Fastest Graphics Cards of Summer 2004
The Fastest Graphics Cards of Summer 2005
Contemporary Graphics Card Naming Guide

9

Something you may not realize - that I realized only recently - is that you want to first choose a specific chipset, then pick the actual manufacturer. So, for example, if you decide that you want the NVidia 6600GT, you then choose what actual manufacturer’s version of it you want to buy - there may be as much as a $100 price difference between the cheapest manufacturer and a more expensive one - it’s kind of like if you could buy an Accord or a Camry made by anyone from Kia or Ford up to Mercedes or BMW.

10

Thanks for the good info, all. I have to check things out before I figure out my next step.