How can you tell the difference between two graphics cards?

My dad is being stupid an saying that there is no way to tell when a graphics card would be better than another.





...i know that there is a way...but am not sure how to put it into words...





Plz be informative, clear, and understanding...10pts to best answer

How can you tell the difference between two graphics cards?
You have to look at all the specs of the entire card, and understand how they relate to each other. More memory doesn't make it a better card. A 1GB 8500GT will still lose every performance benchmark compared to the 512MB 8800GT. Just because its an Nvidia card doesn't mean its going to perform better then an AMD card. The same 8500GT would lose every performance benchmark if you compare it to the 3850.





For current cards, the things to look for are number of shaders, clock speeds for Shaders, Core, and memory, memory bus width, and core used in the GPU. Realize however that you can't compare stats directly if they come from different companies, or even different lines in the same company. AMD cards have many more shaders then Nvidia, but they are clocked much slower. (not to mention that AMD shaders work differently then Nvidia shaders.)





In some ways, you are each both right. Dad is right, you can't just look at two cards, or their stats, and know which is better. On the other hand, if you look at this stuff long enough, you will start to be able to tell how well something will perform if someone tells you the stats of the card.
Reply:The problem in explaining to your dad is I bet, he is not familiar with the technobabble of pixel shaders and frame rates or rendering capabilities. He probably just figures that if you have a good video picture its good enough.





The only real way you can tell what the performance is, is to use a benchmarking software that tests all of the many technical abilties of the card(s). Just saying this card puts out a higher frame rate than another card, really isn't going to mean a thing to your dad.





Instead, you need to approach this from the standpoint of what you want to do with the specific video card and why the others won't work (as well). I presume that you want to play a specific game(s) which require certain bus speeds, GPU speeds, frame rates. The best thing I think you can do is go to the game sites and look up the game you want to play, find out what the requirements are for the video for that game and then show your dad that you need to have that graphics capability if you need to play that game.





Even benchmarks are not going to convince him, he needs to understand that certain games will not play well or at all without specific graphics capabilities. I think this is the best way to sell him on the idea, if he is going to be sold at all.





you might want to leave some questions on some game forums and see if you can get other gamers to tell you which cards they are using for what games.





Well, that's the best I can do, i think, in answering your question.





PS - I bet your dad is looking at the money, which you may not be aware of all his bills and financial situation, it may not square with him to spend, let's say $500 on a top of the line graphics card when he could make a car payment with that.


You have to see his point, is what I am trying to say. I am just guessing here...Well, good luck.
Reply:first I do not agree that you call your dad a stupid





The best way to tell which one is better search by the card name and look for comments from customers, in forums and bloggers .... sometimes you get lucky and get a video on any where you can see the product that you are asking about and check for its performance ....





Also ask in your area, friends, mall, ....cuz the weather and temp is differ from one place to an other and that may affect the performance
Reply:The highest number of mb that is with the name of the graphics card is the better graphics card. Also, nVidia Geforce graphics cards are higher end than most graphics cards.
Reply:what graphics card are you comparing?

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