What makes a good Graphics Card?

[Bilbocard]

I was just wondering what actually makes a Graphics Card good and what affects it the most.

If anyone can help I would like to know the effect of:

-Memory
-Core clock
-Memory clock
-Stream processors
-Shader clock

Thanks in advance.

I was thinking about upgrading from this:

-Memory 256MB
-Core clock 496MHz
-Memory clock 440MHz
-Stream processors 0
-Shader clock 1000MHz

To:

-Memory 1024MB
-Core clock 950MHz
-Memory clock 4300MHz
-Stream processors 192
-Shader clock 1900MHz

Will this lead to a massive improvement in games like RIFT and WoW?

Also what is SLI ready?

Thank you for taking your time to read this and for possibly replying!
Billy.

 

[jamiehavok]

rather than knowing the exact effects of all the clock rates etc your better off reading some reviews online about the different gfx cards on the market and buying one that's best for your budget.
sli ready means you can pit a 2nd gfx card of the same type on a compatible motherboard for increased performance.

before you get better gfx card however make sure your power supply can hanndle it and the rest of your system isn't going to hold it back so you notice little performance gain.

 

[robbieshanks]

I always find this site a really good way of comparing graphics card performance:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2964-7.html

As long as you are going up by at least 3 levels in the hierarchy it is generally a worthwhile upgrade. Although you haven't given the model of the existing or proposed new cards, looking at the numbers I'd say you'll be getting a significant improvement.

Better to post what you're planning on buying and your current system specs and ask the knowledgable types round here if it will work.