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What's the difference between video cards

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DeadSeaSquirrels

Senior member
I am eyeing one of my friend's 30" cinema display and to use it, I'm going to have to upgrade to a 6800 or 7800 Nvidia card. But I was wondering what were some of the differences between the different cards which are labelled 7800 (or 6800). Is it basically the same and I should just go for the cheapest one?
 
Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I am eyeing one of my friend's 30" cinema display and to use it, I'm going to have to upgrade to a 6800 or 7800 Nvidia card. But I was wondering what were some of the differences between the different cards which are labelled 7800 (or 6800). Is it basically the same and I should just go for the cheapest one?
Click to expand...

Different manufacturers run the cards at different clock speeds, and have different warranties.

BFG GeForce? 7800 GT OC? 256MB - Core Clock 425MHz (vs. 400MHz standard) - Memory Clock 1050MHz (vs. 1000MHz standard)

EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT - 445 MHz GPU 256 MB - 256 bit DDR3 1070 MHz (effective)

Both companies offer lifetime warranties, people here prefer the eVGA, since it has higher stock clock speeds.
 
Buy the best you can reasonably afford within the build pricing of your system (ie not max your credit cards out). If you are oblivious to the difference, will it really matter? Honestly... No offense intended of course... 🙂
 
its usually the amount of pipelines available, speeds, amount of memory, and others. if you are lucky, you can take one of the lower end cards, and by a bios flash, increase the pipelines, and overclock it to the speeds of a higher one.
 
If you're talking about different cards with the same chip and same amount of memory, the difference is mostly in the board layout, the type of RAM chips (some oc better than others), the warranty/support, and the heatsink/fan. If you're picky about low noise, ask around before you buy. Some fans can be annoyingly loud.
 
he is talking about the difference between a 7800gt and 7800gtx, or the difference between a 6600gt and a 6600, or a 6800gt and a 6800U and a 6800. am i right?
 
Originally posted by: theman
its usually the amount of pipelines available, speeds, amount of memory, and others. if you are lucky, you can take one of the lower end cards, and by a bios flash, increase the pipelines, and overclock it to the speeds of a higher one.
Click to expand...

Bravo, you recommend flashing a card to someone who doesn't know what they are doing...bravo..
 
Also, just to let everyone here know, you need a card that Supports DualLink DVI (which is completley different than Dual DVI). DualLink DVI (DDL) is a double bandwidth single DVI port. The only cards I know of right now that will support DDL (or DDC, as it is sometimes reffered to on PCs), is the Radeon 9600 Mac and PC ed, and certain geForce 7800gtx's. Make sure you check that the 7800gtx you buy supports DDC, or your $3000 investment in the 30' display will be crippled, and not able to run its native resolution.

~new
 
Originally posted by: newParadigm
Also, just to let everyone here know, you need a card that Supports DualLink DVI (which is completley different than Dual DVI). DualLink DVI (DDL) is a double bandwidth single DVI port. The only cards I know of right now that will support DDL (or DDC, as it is sometimes reffered to on PCs), is the Radeon 9600 Mac and PC ed, and certain geForce 7800gtx's. Make sure you check that the 7800gtx you buy supports DDC, or your $3000 investment in the 30' display will be crippled, and not able to run its native resolution.

~new
Click to expand...

The eVGA 7800GT has it as well 🙂. So do most ATI/nVidia workstation cards, and if you can find it, the Dell 6800GTO.
 
Originally posted by: theman
he is talking about the difference between a 7800gt and 7800gtx, or the difference between a 6600gt and a 6600, or a 6800gt and a 6800U and a 6800. am i right?
Click to expand...

Hmm. I guess the original question wasn't so clear, was it? I thought he meant different brand cards with the same chipset. Yeah, in that case you'll see a big difference in performance with different chipsets in the same family, 6600, 6800, and 7800.

EDIT: fixed typo
 
hmm, after re-reading it, it sort of seems like he's talking about different manufacturers, but its confusing because he says, 7800 and 6800, like he was wondering about the different suffixes of those numbers.
 
what were some of the differences between the different cards which are labelled 7800 (or 6800).
Click to expand...

Used to be that there were big differences in image quality, but that's not the case now - nVidia reigned in the el-cheapo manufacturers. You're just looking at differences in clock speeds and warranties (and possibly game bundles too). BFG has really good support. eVGA makes fast cards. But there's not an awful lot in it. You certainly won't see any difference in image quality on that Cinema display since you'll be using DVI, so DACs aren't even in the picture (the DAC is the part of the card which translates digital output into analog for an analog monitor and is the single biggest determinant in image quality - but your image will be all-digital).
 
Originally posted by: BChico
Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I am eyeing one of my friend's 30" cinema display and to use it, I'm going to have to upgrade to a 6800 or 7800 Nvidia card. But I was wondering what were some of the differences between the different cards which are labelled 7800 (or 6800). Is it basically the same and I should just go for the cheapest one?
Click to expand...

Different manufacturers run the cards at different clock speeds, and have different warranties.

BFG GeForce? 7800 GT OC? 256MB - Core Clock 425MHz (vs. 400MHz standard) - Memory Clock 1050MHz (vs. 1000MHz standard)

EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT - 445 MHz GPU 256 MB - 256 bit DDR3 1070 MHz (effective)

Both companies offer lifetime warranties, people here prefer the eVGA, since it has higher stock clock speeds.
Click to expand...


This is inaccurate.

The BFG runs at 460mhz and 1.3ghz memory speed.

EDIT: oh, maybe I'm inaccurate. The BFG GTX runs at 460, the GT version is what you were talking about.
 
sorry if it was unclear, but i've gotten a lot of good information. When the 30" cinema display came out I believe only 6800 chipset stuff was out, but since then 7800 chipsets came out, so either of those would in theory support the 30" cinema display. So that's why I asked about both. But I was really just interested in different manufacturer's version of a 6800 or a 7800, whether there is a real difference between BFG or EVGA. I think what newParadigm said was what I really cared about. Basically how to run the 30" display in it's native resolution on a PC, and I guess I need to look into DDL, and it seems like what he's saying is that not all 6800 or 7800 (whether they are u, GT, or GTX) will have that. Does that sound right?
 
Originally posted by: BChico
Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I am eyeing one of my friend's 30" cinema display and to use it, I'm going to have to upgrade to a 6800 or 7800 Nvidia card. But I was wondering what were some of the differences between the different cards which are labelled 7800 (or 6800). Is it basically the same and I should just go for the cheapest one?
Click to expand...

Different manufacturers run the cards at different clock speeds, and have different warranties.

BFG GeForce? 7800 GT OC? 256MB - Core Clock 425MHz (vs. 400MHz standard) - Memory Clock 1050MHz (vs. 1000MHz standard)

EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT - 445 MHz GPU 256 MB - 256 bit DDR3 1070 MHz (effective)

Both companies offer lifetime warranties, people here prefer the eVGA, since it has higher stock clock speeds.
Click to expand...


People here prefer eVGA for their better lifetime warranty.. If you've performed a failed flash, you can still RMA it.
 
Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
sorry if it was unclear, but i've gotten a lot of good information. When the 30" cinema display came out I believe only 6800 chipset stuff was out, but since then 7800 chipsets came out, so either of those would in theory support the 30" cinema display. So that's why I asked about both. But I was really just interested in different manufacturer's version of a 6800 or a 7800, whether there is a real difference between BFG or EVGA. I think what newParadigm said was what I really cared about. Basically how to run the 30" display in it's native resolution on a PC, and I guess I need to look into DDL, and it seems like what he's saying is that not all 6800 or 7800 (whether they are u, GT, or GTX) will have that. Does that sound right?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is correct. I know for a fact the eVGA line of 7800-GT and GTX cards have DDL, as do many other 7800-series cards, though you should call each individual company to be sure. The reference design of the 7800 has DDL, but companies can change that, if desired. You don't want to make a $500 mistake.

The 9600 Mac & PC Edition ATI card has DDL as well, but it costs $200, overpriced for a 9600 Pro.

Almost all workstation cards from ATI and nVidia have DDL as well, but these are significantly more expensive.

Lastly, the Asus V999 6800 Gamers Edition (the vanilla 6800) has DDL, as does the Dell 6800GTO, which must be pulled from a Dell system.

If you don't get a card with DDL for the 30" LCD, you will not be able to use the native resolution, and things will look pretty crappy on the screen. Using DDL lets you use its true 2560x1600, and, seeing that I own one, is pretty spectacular.
 
SLCentral elf, anything else I need to know about making that 30" compatible with my system? Like, oh yeah you can't use winamp with it or something like that. I'm not really that close to getting it, but if I do I'd like to know what I need to do.

If I get somebody's used 30", I'm basically going to have to get a new computer, and a new video card, it's going to be a huge investment. But seeing that I don't have a TV right now, it's definitely a possibility.
 
Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
SLCentral elf, anything else I need to know about making that 30" compatible with my system? Like, oh yeah you can't use winamp with it or something like that. I'm not really that close to getting it, but if I do I'd like to know what I need to do.

If I get somebody's used 30", I'm basically going to have to get a new computer, and a new video card, it's going to be a huge investment. But seeing that I don't have a TV right now, it's definitely a possibility.
Click to expand...

You can do anything you want on it that you did on your older system, just make sure 100% that the card you get has DDL. You're gonna be very pissed off if it doesn't. Also, you're gonna need a LOT of horsepower to play games at 2560x1600...probably SLI'ed 7800GTX's. Games look decent at lower res's as well, but of course, 2560x1600 is optimal. Right now, I use my 30" on my PowerBook, but within the next week or so, I'll be switching to a PC with the 30". If you want, send me over a PM in a week, and I'll let you know how it is.

You can also slap in a TV tuner into your system and use the 30" as your TV. I plan on doing something like that, except use Windows Media Center 2005 to use my 30" + PC as a DVD/video player.
 
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