gobbledegook

[dstebbins]

Can someone give me the rundown on how I can tell just by the name which video card is best in a side-by-side presentation? I saw a 512MB DDR AGP video card that runs at 500MHz, and someone directed me to a 128MB DDR AGP card running at 233MHz that he said was better. The only difference I noticed was that one was X700 and the supposedly better one was 9000GT. I DON'T KNOW WHAT ALL THAT GOBBLEDEGOOK MEANS!

While your telling me what the differences are, can you direct me to a hardware critic site? One where I can search by entering keywords into a search bar, making sure I get the reviews I need.

 

[Big B]

Clock speed doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. Look at it this way: if someone can carry a spoon and run 50mph, that's all fine and dandy, but realize that having him move stuff for you is going to take a lot longer than the guy that can go 20mph but carries two couches at a time.

The X700 is one of the newer chips in ATi's Radeon line of graphics processors. I'm not 100% sure of the 9000GT, but it sounds like you're referring to the Radeon 9000, which is a slightly downgraded Radeon 8500.

DDR is a type of memory, and GDDR3 is a modified version of that designed for use in graphics applications, like gaming.

The other thing is the amount of memory on the card. I've seen some low-end cards being strapped with 512MB of RAM, but that's like putting a big spoiler and big wheels on a Yugo. It's all show, no go.

One of our members, pelvis_3, has a partial listing of video cards in order of power over here.

The best sites I'd go to for reading up on this would be Anandtech and Hexus.