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Graphics Card Comparison

Click here for Graphics Card Comparison 2 includes Geforce 6 Series and Radeon X Series
Click here for Graphics Card Comparison 3 includes Geforce 7 Series and Radeon X1000 series

Graphics Cards are one of the most upgraded features in a PC, especially if you are a PC gamer. Picking the next card for your machine could be a problem if you need specific features from it. This page was written to show you the differences and benefits of the latest graphics cards in comparison with the others on the market.

You can compare the clock speeds, memory speeds and types as well as polygon and pixel counts. Then on to Memory bandwidth and the technology features that make each card special in its own way. Not forgetting of course you can compare the prices of all these cards as well, which is the most important thing for most of us.

GFX Card Archit-ecture Clock Speed Memory Speed Memory Size Memory Bandwidth RAM-DAC Fill Rate Pixels/s Price
Geforce 2 MX 256-bit 175Mhz 166Mhz 32Mb 2.7Gb/s 350Mhz 350 Million/s Compare
Geforce 4 MX 420 256-bit 250Mhz 166Mhz (SDR) 64Mb 2.7Gb/s 350Mhz 500 Million Compare
Geforce 4 MX 440 256-bit 270Mhz 400Mhz (DDR) 64Mb 6.4Gb/s 350Mhz 540 Million
Geforce 4 MX 460 256-bit 300Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 64Mb 8.8Gb/s 350Mhz 600 Million
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 256-bit 250Mhz 500Mhz (DDR) 64Mb
/128Mb
8.0Gb/s Dual 350Mhz 1 Billion
Geforce 4 Ti 4400 256-bit 270Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 8.7Gb/s Dual 350Mhz 1.1 Billion
Geforce 4 Ti 4600 256-bit 300Mhz 600Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 10.4Gb/s Dual 350Mhz 1.2 Billion
Geforce 4 Ti 4800 256-bit 300Mhz 650Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 10.4Gb/s Dual 350Mhz 1.2 Billion
Geforce 4 Ti 4800SE 256-bit 275Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 8.8Gb/s Dual 350Mhz 1.1 Billion
Geforce FX 5200 256-bit 250Mhz 400Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 6.4Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1 Billion Compare
Geforce FX 5200 Ultra 256-bit 350Mhz 650Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 10.4Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.4 Billion
Geforce FX 5600 256-bit 325Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 8.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.3 Billion Compare
Geforce FX 5600 Ultra 256-bit 350Mhz 800Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 12.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.4 Billion
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra 256-bit 475Mhz 900Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 14.5Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.9 Billion Compare
Geforce FX 5800 256-bit 400Mhz 800Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 12.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.6 Billion Compare
Geforce FX 5800 Ultra 256-bit 500Mhz 1Ghz (DDR) 128Mb 16Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 4.0 Billion
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 256-bit 450Mhz 850Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 27.2Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.8 Billion Compare
Geforce FX 5950 256-bit 475Mhz 950Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 30.4Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.9 Billion Compare
Matrox Parhelia 512-bit 220Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 17.6Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 880 Million Compare
Radeon 7500 256-bit 290Mhz 460Mhz (DDR) 64Mb 7.4Gb/s 350Mhz 580 Million Compare
Radeon 8500 256-bit 275Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 64Mb 8.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.1 Billion Compare
Radeon 9000 Pro 256-bit 275Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 64Mb 8.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.1 Billion Compare
Radeon 9500 Pro 256-bit 275Mhz 550Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 8.6Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 2.2 Billion Compare
Radeon 9600 Pro 256-bit 400Mhz 600Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 9.6Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 1.6 Billion Compare
Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 325Mhz 620Mhz (DDR) 128Mb 19.4Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 2.6 Billion Compare
Radeon 9800 Pro 256-bit 375Mhz 675Mhz (DDR) 128Mb / 256Mb 21.8Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 3.04 Billion Compare
Radeon 9800 XT 256-bit 412Mhz 730Mhz (DDR) 256Mb 23.4Gb/s Dual 400Mhz 3.296 Billion

Remember if your looking for newer graphics cards head over to graphics card comparison 2 and graphics card comparison 3

Its worth noting that the figures above are based on the raw power of the cards listed. However power is nothing without direction and control. because a graphics card has more Megahertz than another is a good sign that the card is faster but its not always the case. Technology behind these chipsets provides a more in depth look at which card we should purchase.

Examples of this are with pixel pipelines. Cards with more pixel pipelines. When a pixel is processed it passes through the (or one of) the pixel pipeline. Newer cards have a greater amount of pixel pipelines and so can render more pixels per cycle than ones with fewer pixel pipelines.

For example we have card A and card B, Card A has 2 pixel pipelines and a Core clock of 500Mhz, card B has 4 pixel pipelines and has a core clock of 300Mhz., If you look and many specs on manufacturers sites etc they will state that there card has 500Mhz core clock. You look at that then at card B with a 300Mhz clock and presume that card A is faster. In Terms of pixels/s that is incorrect. Take a look at the calculation

Card A 500Mhz (500Million cycles/s) * 2 Pixel Pipelines = 1 Billion pixels rendered per second

Card B 300Mhz (300Million cycles/s) * 4 Pixel Pipelines = 1.2 Billion pixels rendered per second.

There is far more than this going on with graphics cards but the example above is designed to show you that sheer power is not enough to become the best graphics card.

The table below will show you some of the technology features of the graphics cards to give you a more in depth look at there differences.

GFX Card Pixel Pipelines Texture units / pipeline Textures per clock Memory Bus Width New Technologies brought into the card
Geforce 2 MX 2 2 4 128-Bit T&L (second generation)
Geforce 4 MX 420 2 4 8 128-Bit Lightspeed Memory -
Architecture II.
NView Display.
Accuview II
Geforce 4 MX 440 2 4 8 128-Bit
Geforce 4 MX 460 2 4 8 128-Bit
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 4 2 8 128-Bit NfiniteFX II engine.
Lightspeed Memory -
Architecture II.
NView Display.
Accuview II
Dual Vertex Shaders
Geforce 4 Ti 4400 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce 4 Ti 4600 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce 4 Ti 4800 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce 4 Ti 4800SE 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5200 4 2 8 128-Bit CineFX
DDR-II (5800 only)
8x AGP
NView Display
Intellisample Technology
Geforce FX 5200 Ultra 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5600 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5600 Ultra 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5800 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5800 Ultra 4 2 8 128-Bit
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 4 2 8 256-Bit CineFX 2.0
DDR-II
8x AGP

NView Display
Intellisample
Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 4 2 8 256-Bit
Geforce 6800 Ultra 16 1 16 256-bit CineFX 3.0
GDDR-3 memory
Intellisample 3.0
High-Precision Dynamic-Range (HPDR) Technology
UltraShadow II
Matrox Parhelia 4 4 16 256-Bit 16x FSAA
TV Encoder
Triple monitor support
Radeon 7500 2 3 16 128-Bit FSAA
Hyper Z
Charisma Engine
Radeon 8500 4 2 8 128-Bit Truform
Smoothvision
Hyper Z II
Charisma Engine II
Pixel Tapestry II
Radeon 9000 Pro 4 1 4 128-Bit
Radeon 9500 Pro 8 1 8 128-Bit Hyper Z III
Smoothvision 2.0
SmartShader 2.0
Truform 2.0
Video Shader
Radeon 9600 Pro 4 1 4 128-Bit Smoothvision 2.1
SmartShader 2.1
Video Shader
Hyper Z III
Radeon 9700 Pro 8 1 8 256-Bit Hyper Z III
Smoothvision 2.0
SmartShader 2.0
Truform 2.0
Video Shader
Radeon 9800 Pro 8 1 8 256-Bit Smart Shader 2.1
Hyper Z III+
Smoothvision 2.1
Radeon 9800 XT

As you can see graphics cards vary wildly in terms of what they have to offer. However all the new technologies are normally around the same when it comes to performance from cards from the same time. The best Nvidia card is neither to far ahead or behind the top ATI offering. Preference plays a big part in deciding which card you require.

Improvements are being made all the time, and as you can see from the lists not always in the form of speed. This is how the graphics card marker differs from the CPU market. CPU haven't managed to shrug off the idea that faster is always better. This is why we have AMD using PR numbers instead of clock speed. The graphics card industry realises there are other ways to make improvements other than raw power.

Should any of these specifications be incorrect please do no hesitate to contact me at webmaster@pantherproducts.co.uk with the correct info I will be only to happy to alter it



 

Jargon

Clock Speed - The clock frequency of the main GPU on the graphics card

DDR - Double Data Rate. Technology used to double the rate at which data can be transferred.  Achieved by using the peak and trough of a signal to carry data.

Memory Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be transferred across the memory Bus per second

Memory Speed - The frequency of the main memory

Pixel Pipelines - Part of the graphics card that renders pixels and adds textures to them. More pixel Pipelines means more pixels can be rendered per clock cycle

RAMDAC - Random Access Memory Digital to Analogue Converter

SDR - Single Data Rate

More explanations at the Jargon Dictionary

 

Need more help? why not try the PantherProducts Forum and ask some of the other PC builders for advice. No Question where you need help is too silly we are always happy to help if we can.



 

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