So, it’s time for the ol’ computer to get a video card upgrade. Problem is, I have very little idea as to what I’m doing.
I know that I have a PCI-e bus type, and that I’m currently using a Radeon x700 with an ATI chipset. I further know that I am not interested in another ATI card – I’d much prefer to go with a nVidia chipset.
This page is what’s confusing me the most. The GeForce 7900 shows as having a 14x improvement over integrated graphics, as opposed to the 13x for the 8600. Does this mean that the 7900, even though it’s a series earlier, has superior performance to the later 8600?
When a card says it’s using DDR3, as with this card, does this mean I need to be using DDR3 RAM in my computer to realize its full potential? I currently have two channels of DDR2 RAM, would this negatively impact the performance of this card?
And finally, say I did purchase the last card there that I linked – what sort of difference in graphics performance could I expect to see in terms of picture quality, framerate, etc etc, over my current x700? For the record, my computer only truly gets put through its graphical paces when I play my various games – Civ IV, Medieval Total War 2, World of Warcraft, Oblivion, and the like.