Shopping for a video cardFollow

I think the price point is good for a decent video card but I really don't know that much about them.

It might help if you list the rest of your system here too. So people can make a better informed reply.

So am I right in understanding when you say that means that video cards come with RAM on card? I thought I heard that was were it was going (I really don't know much about hardware) to take a load of the system ram.

Any discrete card has at least some RAM of its own. Basically anything past the low, low end will use all its own memory, but there are cards that have a little RAM built in, and then use some of the system memory as well. Integrated graphics commonly will not have any of their own memory, and will simply use a chunk of the system memory.

Another possible point of confusion is that 32-bit Windows (without workarounds) can only actually address 4GB worth of memory registers...so it typically uses a chunk of those to address hardware instead of system RAM. More memory on the graphics card will mean Windows needs to use more of those addresses to talk to the card, so instead of say, using 3.5GB of 4GB of memory, it might only be able to use 3GB.

The GTX 460 comes in 768MB and 1GB flavors, but the price difference isn't that great, so the general recommendation is to go for the 1GB version.

Thanks, that sounds like a good option.

So, searching Newegg for said card gives a handful of results, all of which I can only assume are the same card but different manufacturers (or just sellers?)... or are they actually different? If so, which should I go for? I haven't really heard of any of these before (the top two results are Palit and Sparkle).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007323%20600062521%20600007779&IsNodeId=1&name=1GB

The ones that are out of stock? Which one is best? These two seem to have the same specs... the only difference I can see is in the model #. Also, what do you think about this one? It seems to have the best and most numerous reviews.

So, SLI has to do with Crossfire, correct? And that is where you basically have 2 video cards for increased performance? I don't plan on actually doing this, but for general knowledge's sake, do they have to be the same card or can they be different?

Thanks again for your help and answers, it is greatly appreciated.

Out of curiosity, what are some of the issues with Gigabyte cards? I know in terms of motherboards they're fairly decent, but not too sure on video cards. I ask since I was thinking of buying one around October.

I've had good results with PNY. I try and buy all PNY components, and only had 1 bad stick of RAM, that I think I might have even fried.

A bit more info about SLI and crossfire. SLI (Scalable Link Interface) is Nvidia's multiple graphics card linking technology. It is theoretically possible to link up to 4 of specific models of cards on specific motherboards (The EVGA SR-2 motherboard for example) Most "gaming" motherboards will take 2 or possibly 3 cards. You generally want to have identical hardware, with identical bios revisions and hardware revisions, but that is not a 100% requirement. The Intel X58 chipset also supports "Asynchronyous SLI" where you can link2 different types of video card in SLI mode. This is an unstable, unholy abomination unto all the gods of computing, never do this. Ever. Yeah, I'm looking at you Apple.

Crossfire is also capable of going to up to at least 3 cards. I've never seen a 4 card crossfire array, but the SR-2 might be able to do it. You again would want to match hardware and bios revision, but crossfire plays a bit easier with differing cards in the same family. It's still a horrible affront to computer kind and your computer will explode out of shame if you do this. but you could if you want to.

Video card manufacturer ranking, in order of personal preference:
EVGA - best warranty support assuming you remember to register the card, best hardware overall in terms of components used on the board
PNY - occaisonal hardware issues, but almost as good warranty as EVGA
XFX - Comparable to PNY
BFG - tends to use really nice copper heat syncs, rest of the components are sometimes lacking.
Asus - good hardware, warranty can get annoying on the video cards.
Leadtek - not so much recently, but i've had good luck with their hardware in the past.

If your potential card isn't on that list, I wouldn't buy it.

Yeah. The trick is making sure you can get the exact same model number for best performance. but it is doable.

Interesting, I'll look into that. Thanks.

So, can someone explain to me what the difference between the one linked above for $249 and this one for $199 is?

edit: Specifically, the $249 one is "superclocked"... what does that mean? Is that different than just overclocking it myself?

Edited, Aug 4th 2010 10:34am by Vataro

Haha, I feel retarded. I could have sworn that other one also said 1 gig... thanks for pointing out my idiocy.