Legit Reviews

Could someone give me a brief rundown of the stats and how they affect the performance of the card?
Stream processors
Memeory interface ( 128bit, 256bit)
Memory type ( GDDR3, GDDR5 )
Memory quantity
Pixel pipelines

Core clock really depends on what type of core it is right?

I saw XFX has at least 10 different part numbers for their GTX 260

Is a card that has 720 stream processors with 1 gig of GDDR3 at 128bit better than a card that has 128 stream with 1gig of GDDR5 at 256bit.

Graphics cards have gotten so complicated that you can't really compare performance on stats alone anymore. It's why you really have to check out graphic card reviews (preferably ones with a lot of other cards in) to see where the card you're looking at compares on the scale of things.

The only place where you can make a guess to the added performance is on same model cards that are factory overclocked (like stock vs XXX) but even then the performance jump is going to be less than the % core clock increase.

Even your example doesn't have enough info to pull a winner out, as the 720 sp card could have them all clocked a lot lower than the 128 sp card. And certain games/apps rely on memory bandwidth more than others, so folding would probably kick ass on the 720sp card, but memory intensive games might win out on the 128sp card.

I know you made the example up to try and suss out the most important feature for performance, but generally cards that are lower specced in things like memory busses (128bit) and RAM type (GDDR3, and watch out that it is GDDR and not just DDR) will usually be all round lower specced cards (so won't have that many shader cores stream processors to begin with) and this is usually a quick indication of if they are high end cards or not (And if you're not looking for a high end card, but a decent mid-range card, you really are going to have to check out the benchmarks to see what's worth getting).

Dan

No benchies but this looks good for the $ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131163
I have about 6 I am looking at.

The 4850 is still a solid card. I see no problems with the one you picked out.

Dan

if you can swing the extra $30 i'd say go for the 5750 for DX11 support. I was able to find one with Dirt 2 included when I picked on up for my HTPC.

I'm not sure how it all works, but I know the data path makes a huge difference. I see the one card has 720 streams but is only 128 bit bus. The other card has only 128 streams, but has a 256bit bus.

My feeling is that the bus width is more important. Regardless of how many streams you have, you can only fit so much data down the bus and you end up with a bottleneck.

I found something strange..I don't see any Radeon HD5xxx's that have a bus higher than 128 bit, further I dont see any Nvidia 200 series that have DX 11 capability but all of them are 256 bit bus as is my 8800GTS. Has Radeon discovered that a bus higher than 128bit really isnt any help to gaming performace due to other limitations or what? Has Nvidia descided not to bother with DX11 yet because most games can't use it yet or what? I mean I can get a HD4850 for $109 with only DX 10 if no games use DX11. I know its not as good a card as the 5750 but compared to my 8800GTS I bet its a good bit better and the only reason given to go with the 5750 over the 4850 was DX11.

Merlin wrote:I found something strange..I don't see any Radeon HD5xxx's that have a bus higher than 128 bit, further I dont see any Nvidia 200 series that have DX 11 capability but all of them are 256 bit bus as is my 8800GTS. Has Radeon discovered that a bus higher than 128bit really isnt any help to gaming performace due to other limitations or what? Has Nvidia descided not to bother with DX11 yet because most games can't use it yet or what? I mean I can get a HD4850 for $109 with only DX 10 if no games use DX11. I know its not as good a card as the 5750 but compared to my 8800GTS I bet its a good bit better and the only reason given to go with the 5750 over the 4850 was DX11.

nvidia hasnt got the tech to do DX11 to work yet, and the main DX11 game out is DiRT 2, but there are a few other titles out there, and several are getting updated with dx11 support, and i'd say ATI is doing just fine on the 128-Bit bus, as a 5870 can almost outmuscle every card nvidia offers, and the 5970 can no problem

I think I am settleing on the XFX 5770...any thoughts?

I have one(5770) and I play dirt 2 at 1920 x 1200, DX11 and almost every setting maxed and it runs silky smooth.

You'll enjoy that card, I guarantee it!

now all I have to do is earn the $$ anyone need their lawn mowed?

how bout snow removal.. we got dumped with another 7" last night.

smack323 wrote:how bout snow removal.. we got dumped with another 7" last night.

Initial thought from having lived where we get snow MAYBE once a year is that I'd want to trade snow levels, but having had a taste of blizzard weather in Michigan before, I feel your pain

but really i would have loved to see some snow this christmas

no, the idea of offereing to mow the lawn in winter means I don't really want to work. Shoveling snow is hard work. Oh well I guess i'll have to work for it after all.

Merlin wrote:I found something strange..I don't see any Radeon HD5xxx's that have a bus higher than 128 bit, further I dont see any Nvidia 200 series that have DX 11 capability but all of them are 256 bit bus as is my 8800GTS. Has Radeon discovered that a bus higher than 128bit really isnt any help to gaming performace due to other limitations or what? Has Nvidia descided not to bother with DX11 yet because most games can't use it yet or what? I mean I can get a HD4850 for $109 with only DX 10 if no games use DX11. I know its not as good a card as the 5750 but compared to my 8800GTS I bet its a good bit better and the only reason given to go with the 5750 over the 4850 was DX11.

Nvidia cards are way better for Folding (you never said what kind of performance you were looking for) and ATI is better for gaming right now (that will change when fermi comes out). Nvidia has memory buses of 448 and 512 as well (GTX260, GTX275 and GTX280, 285, 295) not just 256 (that's the 8800 and 9800 lineup).
so if gaming is your main objectiv than ATI has a better bang for the buck right now but sucks @folding.
also the number of shaders of ATI and Nvidia cards is not comparable because their architecture is totally different and not comparable by the number of shaders (ex. a radeon 4850 is about on par with a GTX260, despite in huge difference in shader count and the GTX260 will be way better in folding despite of the much lower shader count)