Cheat Engine

Drkgodz · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:45 am Post subject: GPU Questions

What are all the things to look for in a GPU?

superweapons · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:47 pm Post subject:

Compare the number of stream processors, although you shouldn't compare NVIDIA's complex unified shader processors against ATI's, but card-for-card in the same family should be okay. Also compare the clock speeds of the cards, memory size, memory bandwidth (width in bits). Clock speed for very obvious reasons, the more clocks per second, the more calculations. More onboard memory can help improve the performance of textures loading in and out the graphics card. Memory bandwidth will increase the speed in which textures and other data stored in the video memory move between components, and thus, more speed and less "pauses" or stuttering from loading textures into the higher-latency system RAM. Also, you might want to compare the coolers, some higher-end graphics cards of the same model line are loaded with improved cooling solutions.

Looking deeper, you can compare the number of ROPs (Raster Operators) on the chips, the number of transistors (although direct speed might not be won through more transistors), and the manufacturing process of the specific cards you're comparing. There's also some small things that you may want to check out like the removal or addition of smaller hardware components. For example, the 55nm GTX 260 Core 216 is inferior to the similar 65nm counterpart, because the cooler has less heatpipes and NVIDIA decided to remove the VT1103 voltage regulator for easy softmods, while it the new process doesn't help the card much in terms of temperature performance or raw processing capability.

You might also want to compare the freebies that each card is paired with. In some cases, as with the XFX 9600GSO 384MB, it only cost $110, but came with CoD5:WaW for free, and CoD4:MW for free as a combo deal. So you're effectively paying about $10, and getting two games worth quite a bit of money.

Probably one of the best and easiest ways is by looking through some GPU comparison charts produced by benchmarking sites.

timelist · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:09 pm Post subject:

Read the reviews, and if it has lots of 1 star ratings dont buy it

Karakawe · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:04 pm Post subject:

hcavolsdsadgadsg · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:44 pm Post subject:

there's plenty to look at if you really want to compare numbers...

pixel fill rate, texture fill rate, blah blah...

but, hardware numbers can be deceiving.

tldr; look at some benchmarks OF GAMES. no stupid 3d mark bullshit that companies scramble to optimize the fuck out of their drivers for.

Drkgodz · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:03 am Post subject:

What about bits? What's the difference between a 256 and a 128 bit card ?

Karakawe · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:19 am Post subject:

Believe you're referring to the memory interface. Basically, it's how much memory can be accessed at a given time. (Higher resolutions demand better memory bus.)