Graphics I have a r9800 pro @ XT r360 core, my mate has geforce 5200...

...but whats the major difference? My card is 128mb of ram and his is 256mb... is his better than mine? the clocks arent really all to different are they???

I was just wondering why people say the 9800s are better than things like the 5200s

Thanks

 

tell you what, take both pcs, stick ut 2k4 on them, run them on the same settings and see who's runs better

and the 256 gram on his card is wasted as the card itself is shite

 

why is that one shite tho? im chuffed my card IS better but still why? is it the pipelines or something? his is good for 350mhz core and my card is sposed to run at 365 aint it? (altho currently on 432 its a beasty clocker )

 

the 5200 is the low end card in the fx series, its meant for oem computers and general use not gaming
the 9800 pro is high end

 

ok well thanks for telin me - but still cant see much difference between the specs tbh, is it something to do with 'pipelines' as ive heard about them?

 

the pipelines, the core, the whole archetecture.

think 1Ghz celeron vs 1Ghz athlon. Same speed but totally different performance.

 

ah right, well thanks for the help guys

 

Its kinda like saying a moped and a gp bike both have 2 wheels which is fastest.

Whilst the work that can be done by the 5200 spec is very little the work that can be done by the 9800 by comparison is miraculous.

 

There's an excellent list with all the differences in cards on Adrian's Rojak Pot here.

If that link doesn't work then just go the home page and click on the Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 7.3! link.


EDIT: I am bored...

ATi Radeon 9800Pro (128Meg)

GPU Details

Architecture - R350/R360
Manufacturing Process - 0.15 Micron
Transistor Count - 115 Million
DirectX Support - 9.0


GPU Features

Vertex Pipelines - 4
Vertex Shader Version - 2.0
Pixel / Texture Pipelines - 8x1
Pixel Shader Version - 2.0


GPU Performance

Core Speed - 380 MHz
Fill Rate - 3040 MTexels/s
Memory Bus Width - 256-bits
Memory Type - DDR
Memory Speed - 340 MHz
Memory Bandwidth - 21.76 GB/s


GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (128Meg?)
(the list does not mention any 256Meg FX5200 cards, so I just picked the fastest one on there)

GPU Details

Architecture - NV34
Manufacturing Process - 0.15 Micron
Transistor Count - 45 Million
DirectX Support - 9.0


GPU Features

Vertex Pipelines - 2
Vertex Shader Version - 2.0
Pixel / Texture Pipelines - 4x1
Pixel Shader Version - 2.0


GPU Performance

Core Speed - 325 MHz
Fill Rate - 1300 MTexels/s
Memory Bus Width - 128-bits
Memory Type - DDR
Memory Speed - 325 MHz
Memory Bandwidth - 10.40 GB/s

As you can see, especially in the GPU Performance sections, the 9800Pro totally kicks the FX5200 - this could be smaller because of your friends 256meg version but not by much.

 

a Fx5200 would have to operate at over:
760mhz core
and
680mhz mem

due to having only half the pipelines (4pipes vs 8pipes) and only half the memory bandwidth (128bit vs 256bit)