[GrimGriz]

You know, I've made the bad choice in video cards before. There was a time I thought that all you needed to know was the bigger number by the MB the better. As in, 256MB was better than 128 MB. It was about that time that my cheapskate friend asked me for advice and wound up with...a 5200 -256 MB card. That was pretty much when I discovered the second digit was the secret code for suckiness or goodness. It's amazing the research you'll do after you made a mistake/don't get the results you thought you would.

Anyway, as my video card (6800 GS) is seemingly starting to have issues, I'm starting to poke around and look for another one. It has left me with the question: What does all this GS, GT, GTS, GTX crap mean?

If anyone has already figured this out and is willing to save me some research, I would greatly appreciate it.

[netburnr]

Generally the different is the clock speed of both the GPU and the memory speeds. There can also be more Texture Mapping Units, or Shading Mappers, or Rasterization Operating Units.

Basically the higher they go up in price, the faster they perform by some voodoo or another.

I've been very happy with my 7900GS (The GeForce 7900GS is Nvidia's New Mid-Range | Tom's Hardware).

compared to your card (http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/14/the_geforce_7900gs_is_nvidias_ new_mid-range/page2.html):

Mine is a 450mhz GPU, with 1320mhz memory, while yours is a 350mhz GPU and 1000mhz memory. Both cards are 256bit however, which makes them great for "Vista level" graphics. However the higher speeds on my card will give me a better FPS in the higher graphics game.

What is wrong with your card?

[GrimGriz]

I think it overheats on occasion. There were a couple of times halflife2: episode 1 errored out on me. Also, the other night the power went out (while I was asleep puter hadn't been on at the time) and it didn't send a signal to the monitor for the first 2 boots (finally it did )

[Milkman]

I don't know how much your wanting to spend.. but do consider the DX10 factor... while not so important at the moment if your looking to keep your card for a while it will be important. Of course budget is important also... If your willing to spend 200ish i would go with a AnandTech: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters

And Memory DOES make a difference in some situations. With DX10 cards currently the more ram the better.

[Jump]

Buy something EVGA because their return and trade up policies are fantastic.

8800 is a must for future love

As much memory as you can afford.

GT or GTX is the powerhouse and GTS is the lower end but still pretty good stuff.

Stick to traditional memory sizes based on 256. The new 320/640 ones are the ones with all the trouble. That's why you are starting to see more 512 and 768 on the market.

[WileE]

Yay...I can help with this one.

nVidia cards are rather cryptic in their nomenclature, at least pre-DX10. The first digit is the series, the second is the core, and the last two are zeros (there is an exception). I did some research with a former co-worker, and this is what we found:

The core is the same from one series to the next, though it is restricted by either software or hardware means. By that I mean that the 7800GT is the same GPU as a 6800GT, but it is underclocked. I believe it also had 4 pipelines restricted which could be unlocked via software. With the 8000 series cards, this no longer holds true, as the core is totally different. While an 8800 is better than an 8600, it is no longer as predictable as it was.

As far as the suffix goes, they are, in order, from least to most: TC/LE, GS, GT, GTS, GTX. There are more differences now than there used to be with the suffixes. While a 6800GS is underclocked from a 6800GT, I believe it has a 128-bit rather than a 256-bit memory interface. This causes a huge hit in performance.

As far as video memory is concerned, more is better with a couple caveats. The improvement in frame performance increases through the increases in memory size through 512MB(768MB for the 8800GTX). At 1GB, the performance is the same as 512MB unless you are running a HUGE display (2056x1440 or larger). This is because the main thing the memory is used for is for the next frame. It takes just under 512MB to buffer a frame at a nominal resolution, so you don't get more performance until you get to the huge resolutions. 256MB is the minimum you should consider, and even that has a caveat, and that is the memory interface.

Most midrange cards were 256-bit interface, though that is regressing to 128-bit with the 8400 and 8600 cards. A card with 256MB of memory at 256-bit will out perform a card with 512MB at 128-bit, as it can read and write the memory faster, even though it is smaller. Interface is definitely a shopping criteria IMO.

To be honest, newegg is actually a great site for comparing video cards. They break them down with memory size, interface, and type, core and memory clocks, and pixel pipelines.

Interesting factoid: The reason the 8800GTS/GTX cards have memory interfaces of 320-bit and 384-bit is a direct correlation to the memory size, and the frame buffer. IIRC, the GTS can buffer 2 frames, and the GTX 4. I can't remember where I was reading about that, but I found it interesting.

[Jump]

There is a new card above the GTX now.

[Jump]

Here is the newest list.

GeForce 8 Series

[WileE]

The Ultra doesn't count. Talk about a waist of silicon, all it is is an overclocked GTX in with a fancy cooler.

[Jump]

And yet it is faster.

The new GT is the best bang for the buck IMO.

[Diver012]

Originally Posted by Jump

And yet it is faster.

The new GT is the best bang for the buck IMO.

Agreed

[GrimGriz]

So did that SLI thing blow over, or should I get 2 of them?