Why are some 256 graphics cards cost $99 and others cost $700?

Question

Can someone tell me what the differences are?
Tell me what I should look for?

Answer 1

I assume you are talking about 256mb graphics cards....

Answer is pretty simple, it is the speed of the card. The 256MB determines how much information the card can store but the processor on the card determines how fast it can process that 256MB.

I have an ATI 2400HD with 256MB of RAM. It makes things look nice but the processor is slow so when I am playing a game things often get very choppy/slow. Cost $39

I also have an ATI 2600HD with 256MB of RAM. It doesn't look any better or worse than the cheap one but it is a much faster card so games look smoother not choppy. Cost $89.

Really expensive cards are REALLY fast and any game looks good even on maximum settings. Then again for the $700 they had better :)

Answer 2

The cheaper ones have just ddr memory (slow) and the graphics core have a slow (<500mhz) and relatively lean architecture (low number of shaders or stream processors).

The expensive ones have FAST ddr3 memory, fast core clock (>500mhz) and robust architecture (high number of shaders or stream processors).