grafics card-brands

[Omag 2.0]

So, I am reading and reading about the latest chipsets for grafics-cards ( Nvidea and ATi). But, my million dollar question of the day is: Does the brand of the card make a difference on the performance of the card? I am talking Asus, Aopen, Leadtek, Creative Labs, MSI, ... The chip is just the engine on the "car" right, so a BMW-engine in a Lada doesn't make a great car.

So  what are the things to look out for and where could i find some info on the different brands? Seems benchmark-tests are performed on chips rather than on cards...

Thanks!

PS: I am refering to different cards with the same chipset. ex. 6600 GT

[elwellnick24]

i have no idea, but i'd like to know more on this subject too...

[the_autopilot]

ATI and Nvidia makes the chipset. This have names like 6800 ultra or x800 xt.

Then card manufacturors like asus and MSI put the chipset on a card and ship. Generally, brands don't matter in terms of performence.

However, different companies package the card differently. For example some companies package games with their cards. Others package overclocking software. Look around for good deals.

Though it doesn't happen often, sometimes there is a different level of craftsmenship between manufacturors (i.e. how well they made the card). I haven't had any problems with any cards from any company except PNY.

I reccommend you to aviod PNY cards from bad experiences with them.

[starseed419]

Heard nothing but great things about the Ledtek 6800GT. That will be my next purchase.

[Rivers]

Some manufactures improve the look of the card with colored PCBs they design their own coolers and offer bundle software and games, others that sell their cards cheaper may use low quality memory modules and other components, I recommend you keep with the manufactures listed on the GPU manufacturer web site. Since I moved to Nvidia cards(used to have voodoos) I

[ulindel]

How about the merits of 128 and 256mbs gfxs cards.

Should one go for 256 ?

Thanx

[Hawkeye313]

If you have a choice go w/ 256mb.  I doubt it makes a huge difference in many games yet (Doom 3 maybe?).  As for the manufacturer, some are better than others.  The chipset is made by ATI, Nvidia, etc. , but the other companies BFG, Asus, Chaintech, Hercules, etc. decide on the heatsink, clock speed, memory, and other perks.  Also the bundle, like free games, is up to the company.

[the_autopilot]

Memory does make a huge difference, but only if the GPU is able to handle it.

Memory allows the GPU to load more textures and whatnot and process it. This allows for better frame rates.

However, some card manufacters put a lot of memory onto crappy cards. Memroy is especially useful at high resolutions with a lot of model and texture detail. Cards like the geforce4 mx4000 (though they have more memory than a geforce4 mx 440) can't use all the memory because the GPU can't handle all the data. Its the card manufacturors way of making people buy something essentially useless. But most people go for it thinking more memory equals more performence; it is true in many cases, but its a guideline rather than the rule.

Also, keep an eye on memory speed. Sometimes, cards with less, but very fast memory are much better than cards with more, but very slow memory.