All the video cards out there offer the amount of memory that they provide. But why the incredible difference in price between cards with the same amount of memory? Dell offers a 256MB card for over $1,000 and another for less than $75. Clearly there are other factors to consider, but what are they and how do they affect the performance?
2007-06-01 10:15:41 · 3 answers · asked by James 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
Videocard performance is now hardly dependent on videoram size especially when you are at 256Mb level or higher. Performance is lot more dependent on:
1. Graphics processor architecture such as number of pixel pipelines or streaming processors, vertex shaders, etc. (more means better)
2. Core clock speed (higher is better)
3. Memory clock speed (higher is better, 256Mb ddr3 will always beat 512Mb ddr2)
The $75 card usually has a lean architecture and draws 25 watts or less. Your existing power supply might be able to handle it. The >$200 cards may consume more than 50 watts such that a power supply upgrade is usually required.
2007-06-01 13:15:33 · answer #1 · answered by Karz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please go to this site and research the cards.
http://gpureview.com
Click compare cards and select the ones u want to see the prices on, this site shows the cheapest price the card can be found at and where
2007-06-01 17:20:18 · answer #2 · answered by Don X Hill 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check these sites, Hardwaresecrets.com, Extremetech.com, Tomshardware.com, peruse their forums for 'stickys' they have saved on this subject.
2007-06-01 17:24:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋