What to look for?

[PH4NT0MBL4DE]

When choosing a graphics card what specs do I look out for. Is it this card has a higher clock than the other or do I have to look out for something else. And can a card with a lower clock speed be faster than one with a higher clock speed

 

[mjones1]

You can't purely just look at clock speeds since different graphics cards have different architectures so perform differently. If you gave a budget we could give you some suggestions.

 

[RetrogamerX]

Also its helpful to know what CPU you have and what rez you game at.

 

[Ephraim]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32760.html is not foolproof but is a good start if you are looking at gaming. Give us an idea of budget and what you play and people here will be more able to help.

 

[PH4NT0MBL4DE]

Well I'm not looking for a new card at this current time. I think I'm going to wait until the new amd 9000 series. But is it possible to just look at the spec of a card and say "wow that's a beast of a card" or do I just have to compare bench marks?

 

[eddyr]

A range of benchmarks from different sources is best.
Once your familiar with a gen architecture's performance you could make some assumptions based on some raw numbers/specs within that generation but there aren't that many models typically that you would need to rely on guesswork.

 

[nineteenforty4]

benchmarks

 

[opethdisciple]

benchmarks

+1

 

[PH4NT0MBL4DE]

I have only been into computer gaming since the start of this year so I haven't watched the different series of cards come out. Is it likely that the nvidia cards due out next year will be largely better and fast than the amd 9000 series or will they be around the same level just like this gen?

 

[los]

No one knows. We don't even know what the 9000 series are going to be like for sure. But obviously you would like to think each new series will be better than the last. But they should be using 20nm technology by then which should give it a bit of a boost