I'm attempting to compile a list of commonly misunderstood concepts about graphics and graphics cards. Please feel free to suggest your own, or correct any mistakes I have made. Please note that I WILL NOT correct mistakes until your correction is confirmed by at least two other people, or supported with a credible article.
I will attempt to give credit where it's due, but I cannot guarantee that I will mention everyone's name for every tidbit of information. Generally speaking, I'll pull the names of the first one or two people that contribute useful information on a topic. Sorry to anyone else that helps but got their answer in after the buzzer.
Q. I want to upgrade my 8800 GT. I saw a 9400 GT in the store. The number is higher... is that better for playing games?
A. NO! Generally speaking, the first number in a video card's "name" designates the series it belongs to. So, the 8800 GT is a Nvidia "8 series" card, while the 9400 GT is a "9 series." The remaining numbers distinguish the card's place in the series. The higher the place, the more capable the card is (usually for gaming). Low-numbered cards (9400 GT, GeForce 210, HD 5450, etc.) are generally designed for low-end, 2D applications such as simple office tasks or light HTPC work. Mid-numbered cards (9500 GT, HD 4670, HD 5570, etc.) are geared toward full HTPC use and light gaming. Higher-numbered cards (HD 5750, GTX 260, HD 4890, GTX 480) are geared toward playing 3D games. While a higher series number generally indicates a newer and therefore more advanced video card (e.g. HD 4000 series vs. HD 5000 series), it does not indicate a performance increase as a whole. A low or mid-range card from a newer series is almost always trumped by a high-end card from the previous series, though there are some exceptions. When in doubt, check a GPU benchmark like Anandtech's, or this one from Tom's hardware.
Q. I'm looking at two video cards - one has 512MB of RAM, and the other has 1GB. Is the 1GB card faster? - Thanks betasub and LoneNinja
A. Not necessarily. As with the question above, the video card's GPU is the primary factor in the card's overall performance, so a high-end card with less memory will almost always outperform a mid-range card with more memory. Furthermore, you must also take into account the type / speed of RAM. With two nearly identical cards (9600 GSO for example), one using GDDR3 and the other using GDDR2, the GDDR3 card will most likely be more powerful. Similarly, the memory bus width comes into play (128-bit, 256-bit, 384-bit, etc.), and a wider bus is almost always a benefit when all else is equal. Finally, some cards that are otherwise identical have other inherent differences that also contribute to performance discrepancies, such as in the case of the GTX 460 768MB vs. 1GB. With two video cards that are completely identical (same GPU, same memory type, same memory bus width, reference PCB, reference cooler, etc.) except for the amount of RAM on the card, more RAM is never a bad thing. Additional video RAM can make a performance difference depending on the resolution of your monitor and the type of games you play - higher resolutions require more video RAM. Just like above, when in doubt, check out benchmarks for the cards you're comparing.
Q. I want to upgrade. Am I CPU-bottlenecked or GPU-bottlenecked?
A. Aside from the obvious (an HD 4850 paired with an Athlon 64 4000+, or an i7-920 paired with a 9600 GT, for example), it really depends on your resolution and the games you play. Lower resolutions are more dependent on the CPU, while higher resolutions benefit more from a GPU. Additionally, games that are more focused on 3D environments (usually first person view), beautiful scenery, and details are often more GPU-bound, while birds-eye view or isometric strategy games tend to be a bit more CPU-bound. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, so ask when in doubt.
Q. I have an AMD motherboard / processor, but I want to use a Nvidia graphics card (or vice versa). Will it work? - Thanks betasub and LoneNinja
A. Yes. While there are some minor compatibility problems with some motherboards, all that generally matters is the video card's interface (PCI-E, AGP, or PCI). If your motherboard has the correct slot for the video card you bought / want to buy, you're good to go. The same does not hold true for SLI and Crossfire - while Crossfire works on nearly all recent motherboards / chipsets with two PCI-E x16 or x8 slots, SLI is limited to motherboards that license the technology from Nvidia (or find some sort of work-around). In general, SLI works on all recent Nvidia chipsets (some higher-end 4-series, most high-end 5, 6, and 7 series), Intel X58 chipset motherboards, and select Intel P55 chipset motherboards. SLI does not work on motherboards with AMD chipsets, or most unmentioned motherboard chipsets (P965, X38, P45, etc.) without third-party driver workarounds. Check your motherboard's manual or product sheet to be sure.
Q. My motherboard only has PCI-E 1.0, but the new graphics card I bought uses PCI-E 2.0 (or vice versa). Will it work? - Thanks cusideabelincoln
A. Yes. In someone's infinite wisdom, they choose to make PCI Express both backward and forward compatible, meaning that an older PCI-E version motherboard can be used with a newer PCI-E version video card, and a newer PCI-E version motherboard can be used with an older PCI-E version graphis card. Keep in mind that PCI-E version 1.0 only has half the bandwidth of PCI-E 2.0, so a 1.0 x16 slot has the equivalent bandwidth of a 2.0 x8 slot. This generally won't make a big performance difference, but it could hurt performance numbers slightly, especially with a top-end Crossfire or SLI configuration.
Q. Is it better to buy a single high-end card and use it alone, or two less powerful cards for SLI / Crossfire? - Thanks Ancalagon44 and toyota
A. It really boils down to how much the cards are going to cost and how well they perform. SLI and Crossfire often does not scale 100%, meaning that you don't get double the performance for having double the video cards. You might get 50-80% extra performance from the second card, for example, but it greatly depends on the card, the drivers, and the game / benchmark; in rare cases, multi-GPU setups perform worse than just a single card of the same type. Use graphics benchmarks to determine how well the Crossfire or SLI setup performs compared to the single video card, and determine based on overall price from there. When in doubt, a single card is often the safer way to go, as there are less performance caveats or driver problems to deal with - you can always add a second card later on. The no-brainer exception is when a less powerful card goes on sale for an unbelievable price, and when SLI'd or Crossfired, it easily beats a far more expensive option, OR when you're running at an "extreme" resolution or graphics settings (2560x1600 with anti-aliasing for example) and a single card simply isn't fast enough to keep up.
Q. My motherboard doesn't support x16/x16 PCI-E lanes, only x8/x8. Should I bother with SLI / Crossfire?
A. If that's your cup of tea, sure. Here's a great comparison of an HD 5870 Crossfire setup benchmarked at various PCI-E link speeds. As you can see, x8/x8 takes a minor performance hit, x4/x4 takes a moderate hit, and only x1/x1 really loses a ton of performance. Remember that older motherboards with PCI-E 1.0 (as opposed to 2.0 and higher on modern motherboards) already run at half the bandwidth, so PCI-E 1.0 x16 is equivalent to PCI-E 2.0 x8.
Q. I just bought a laptop / notebook with a Mobility Radeon HD 5870! Can I play any game I want at 1920x1080 with all settings cranked up, just like I can with my desktop HD 5870?
A. No. Mobile video cards aren't the same as their desktop counter parts. They're much smaller, and they must fit into a much more strict thermal envelope due to the laptop's size and cooling capacity. For example, a Mobility Radeon HD 5870 is rumored to be roughly equivalent to an under-clocked desktop HD 5770. It's one of the fastest graphics chips you can get for a laptop at the moment, but it still doesn't hold a candle to what a desktop can do.
Q. My laptop / motherboard has integrated Intel graphics, such as the GMA X4500MHD. What games can I play?
A. Not many, honestly. You can play web- (Flash-) based games (assuming the rest of the system is up to the task) such as on sites like Facebook, Pogo, Yahoo / MSN / etc. You should be able to play older games like Starcraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires, etc. without many problems. Expect any 3D games from the past 5 years or so to crawl.
Q. The video card I want to buy has a really big fan. That means it'll be loud, right?
A. Probably not, but possibly. The size of the fan doesn't directly determine the overall noise level; the fan's RPM and several other factors do. With that said, a larger fan generally moves more air for a given RPM, and more air flow means more heat moved away from the hot components. So, a larger fan will generally be quieter than a small fan.
Q. I compared two video cards in the same test, and one ran at 65C under load, while the other got up to 80C! Will the first one dump less heat out into my case?
A. Maybe, or maybe not. A video card's (presumably GPU's) temperature under idle or load doesn't directly indicate how much heat it's putting out into the environment. Rather, it indicates how well the heat sink / fan / water block moves heat away from the area where the temperature reading is being taken. No matter how much heat the heat sink is dissipating, the heat still has to go somewhere. The statistic to look at is the GPU's thermal design power (TDP). A lower TDP will usually mean less heat pumped out in the first place.
Q. I do lots of Photoshop work. What graphics card should I get? (Pending Revision, thanks kalniel)
A. If you already have some sort of decent discrete or even integrated card, you probably don't need an upgrade. While GPU acceleration is available for some tasks in Photoshop, it is limited to specific cards (professional cards like Quadro or FireGL and a few desktop consumer / gaming cards), and generally not worth it for "average" Photoshop work. Your money is better spent on memory, monitors with superior panels (IPS, PVA / MVA), a colorimeter to calibrate your monitor, or even a CPU upgrade.
Stickied temporarily. Will remain if the OP keeps up with it.
Anandtech Moderator - Keysplayr
Have unstickied as OP has not been updated in over four months.
Super Moderator BFG10K.
I will attempt to give credit where it's due, but I cannot guarantee that I will mention everyone's name for every tidbit of information. Generally speaking, I'll pull the names of the first one or two people that contribute useful information on a topic. Sorry to anyone else that helps but got their answer in after the buzzer.
Q. I want to upgrade my 8800 GT. I saw a 9400 GT in the store. The number is higher... is that better for playing games?
A. NO! Generally speaking, the first number in a video card's "name" designates the series it belongs to. So, the 8800 GT is a Nvidia "8 series" card, while the 9400 GT is a "9 series." The remaining numbers distinguish the card's place in the series. The higher the place, the more capable the card is (usually for gaming). Low-numbered cards (9400 GT, GeForce 210, HD 5450, etc.) are generally designed for low-end, 2D applications such as simple office tasks or light HTPC work. Mid-numbered cards (9500 GT, HD 4670, HD 5570, etc.) are geared toward full HTPC use and light gaming. Higher-numbered cards (HD 5750, GTX 260, HD 4890, GTX 480) are geared toward playing 3D games. While a higher series number generally indicates a newer and therefore more advanced video card (e.g. HD 4000 series vs. HD 5000 series), it does not indicate a performance increase as a whole. A low or mid-range card from a newer series is almost always trumped by a high-end card from the previous series, though there are some exceptions. When in doubt, check a GPU benchmark like Anandtech's, or this one from Tom's hardware.
Q. I'm looking at two video cards - one has 512MB of RAM, and the other has 1GB. Is the 1GB card faster? - Thanks betasub and LoneNinja
A. Not necessarily. As with the question above, the video card's GPU is the primary factor in the card's overall performance, so a high-end card with less memory will almost always outperform a mid-range card with more memory. Furthermore, you must also take into account the type / speed of RAM. With two nearly identical cards (9600 GSO for example), one using GDDR3 and the other using GDDR2, the GDDR3 card will most likely be more powerful. Similarly, the memory bus width comes into play (128-bit, 256-bit, 384-bit, etc.), and a wider bus is almost always a benefit when all else is equal. Finally, some cards that are otherwise identical have other inherent differences that also contribute to performance discrepancies, such as in the case of the GTX 460 768MB vs. 1GB. With two video cards that are completely identical (same GPU, same memory type, same memory bus width, reference PCB, reference cooler, etc.) except for the amount of RAM on the card, more RAM is never a bad thing. Additional video RAM can make a performance difference depending on the resolution of your monitor and the type of games you play - higher resolutions require more video RAM. Just like above, when in doubt, check out benchmarks for the cards you're comparing.
Q. I want to upgrade. Am I CPU-bottlenecked or GPU-bottlenecked?
A. Aside from the obvious (an HD 4850 paired with an Athlon 64 4000+, or an i7-920 paired with a 9600 GT, for example), it really depends on your resolution and the games you play. Lower resolutions are more dependent on the CPU, while higher resolutions benefit more from a GPU. Additionally, games that are more focused on 3D environments (usually first person view), beautiful scenery, and details are often more GPU-bound, while birds-eye view or isometric strategy games tend to be a bit more CPU-bound. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, so ask when in doubt.
Q. I have an AMD motherboard / processor, but I want to use a Nvidia graphics card (or vice versa). Will it work? - Thanks betasub and LoneNinja
A. Yes. While there are some minor compatibility problems with some motherboards, all that generally matters is the video card's interface (PCI-E, AGP, or PCI). If your motherboard has the correct slot for the video card you bought / want to buy, you're good to go. The same does not hold true for SLI and Crossfire - while Crossfire works on nearly all recent motherboards / chipsets with two PCI-E x16 or x8 slots, SLI is limited to motherboards that license the technology from Nvidia (or find some sort of work-around). In general, SLI works on all recent Nvidia chipsets (some higher-end 4-series, most high-end 5, 6, and 7 series), Intel X58 chipset motherboards, and select Intel P55 chipset motherboards. SLI does not work on motherboards with AMD chipsets, or most unmentioned motherboard chipsets (P965, X38, P45, etc.) without third-party driver workarounds. Check your motherboard's manual or product sheet to be sure.
Q. My motherboard only has PCI-E 1.0, but the new graphics card I bought uses PCI-E 2.0 (or vice versa). Will it work? - Thanks cusideabelincoln
A. Yes. In someone's infinite wisdom, they choose to make PCI Express both backward and forward compatible, meaning that an older PCI-E version motherboard can be used with a newer PCI-E version video card, and a newer PCI-E version motherboard can be used with an older PCI-E version graphis card. Keep in mind that PCI-E version 1.0 only has half the bandwidth of PCI-E 2.0, so a 1.0 x16 slot has the equivalent bandwidth of a 2.0 x8 slot. This generally won't make a big performance difference, but it could hurt performance numbers slightly, especially with a top-end Crossfire or SLI configuration.
Q. Is it better to buy a single high-end card and use it alone, or two less powerful cards for SLI / Crossfire? - Thanks Ancalagon44 and toyota
A. It really boils down to how much the cards are going to cost and how well they perform. SLI and Crossfire often does not scale 100%, meaning that you don't get double the performance for having double the video cards. You might get 50-80% extra performance from the second card, for example, but it greatly depends on the card, the drivers, and the game / benchmark; in rare cases, multi-GPU setups perform worse than just a single card of the same type. Use graphics benchmarks to determine how well the Crossfire or SLI setup performs compared to the single video card, and determine based on overall price from there. When in doubt, a single card is often the safer way to go, as there are less performance caveats or driver problems to deal with - you can always add a second card later on. The no-brainer exception is when a less powerful card goes on sale for an unbelievable price, and when SLI'd or Crossfired, it easily beats a far more expensive option, OR when you're running at an "extreme" resolution or graphics settings (2560x1600 with anti-aliasing for example) and a single card simply isn't fast enough to keep up.
Q. My motherboard doesn't support x16/x16 PCI-E lanes, only x8/x8. Should I bother with SLI / Crossfire?
A. If that's your cup of tea, sure. Here's a great comparison of an HD 5870 Crossfire setup benchmarked at various PCI-E link speeds. As you can see, x8/x8 takes a minor performance hit, x4/x4 takes a moderate hit, and only x1/x1 really loses a ton of performance. Remember that older motherboards with PCI-E 1.0 (as opposed to 2.0 and higher on modern motherboards) already run at half the bandwidth, so PCI-E 1.0 x16 is equivalent to PCI-E 2.0 x8.
Q. I just bought a laptop / notebook with a Mobility Radeon HD 5870! Can I play any game I want at 1920x1080 with all settings cranked up, just like I can with my desktop HD 5870?
A. No. Mobile video cards aren't the same as their desktop counter parts. They're much smaller, and they must fit into a much more strict thermal envelope due to the laptop's size and cooling capacity. For example, a Mobility Radeon HD 5870 is rumored to be roughly equivalent to an under-clocked desktop HD 5770. It's one of the fastest graphics chips you can get for a laptop at the moment, but it still doesn't hold a candle to what a desktop can do.
Q. My laptop / motherboard has integrated Intel graphics, such as the GMA X4500MHD. What games can I play?
A. Not many, honestly. You can play web- (Flash-) based games (assuming the rest of the system is up to the task) such as on sites like Facebook, Pogo, Yahoo / MSN / etc. You should be able to play older games like Starcraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires, etc. without many problems. Expect any 3D games from the past 5 years or so to crawl.
Q. The video card I want to buy has a really big fan. That means it'll be loud, right?
A. Probably not, but possibly. The size of the fan doesn't directly determine the overall noise level; the fan's RPM and several other factors do. With that said, a larger fan generally moves more air for a given RPM, and more air flow means more heat moved away from the hot components. So, a larger fan will generally be quieter than a small fan.
Q. I compared two video cards in the same test, and one ran at 65C under load, while the other got up to 80C! Will the first one dump less heat out into my case?
A. Maybe, or maybe not. A video card's (presumably GPU's) temperature under idle or load doesn't directly indicate how much heat it's putting out into the environment. Rather, it indicates how well the heat sink / fan / water block moves heat away from the area where the temperature reading is being taken. No matter how much heat the heat sink is dissipating, the heat still has to go somewhere. The statistic to look at is the GPU's thermal design power (TDP). A lower TDP will usually mean less heat pumped out in the first place.
Q. I do lots of Photoshop work. What graphics card should I get? (Pending Revision, thanks kalniel)
A. If you already have some sort of decent discrete or even integrated card, you probably don't need an upgrade. While GPU acceleration is available for some tasks in Photoshop, it is limited to specific cards (professional cards like Quadro or FireGL and a few desktop consumer / gaming cards), and generally not worth it for "average" Photoshop work. Your money is better spent on memory, monitors with superior panels (IPS, PVA / MVA), a colorimeter to calibrate your monitor, or even a CPU upgrade.
Stickied temporarily. Will remain if the OP keeps up with it.
Anandtech Moderator - Keysplayr
Have unstickied as OP has not been updated in over four months.
Super Moderator BFG10K.
Last edited by a moderator:
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