Graphics im confused on this naming deal

whats up with the fx*** cards and the ****gt ***xt *****oc can some list the cards from best to worst becasue i dont know what card to buy

 

The NVIDIA FXxxxx cards are obsolete now.

GT is mid-series NVIDIA, for example:

6800 (sometimes called "6800 vanilla"
6800GT (mid-series)
6800 Ultra (fastest)
or
7900GT (base)
7900GTX (fastest)

This is ATI's high range card as well. Usually, it goes like this:

X1x00 Pro (slowest)
X1x00 XT (middle)
X1x00 XT-X (fastest, but not all series have this model)

This usually signifies a pre-overclocked edition of a card.

We're not here to spoon-feed you basic information, we're here to help when it appears that you've made an effort or when the problem is one that has you completely stumped. It appears that neither of these two conditions are the case, so I would recommend that you start reading and searching for articles on the performance of comtemporary graphics cards.

 

well i just bought a pny 6600 256mb agp vga+dvi+hdtv+svideo is it a good card

 

yeah, but not as good a 6600gt which is usualy not much more expensive.

 

Yes 6600 is in between entry-level (6200) and lower-middle (6600GT/6800) but it's essentially the same core as the 6600GT just clocked lower by default, so if you overclock (o/c) you can get very near 6600GT speed (but your slower clocked RAM will hold you back). Just to cover it a gfx card's overall performance is derived from the speed and type of both RAM and core (like a PC's CPU but for gfx). I can do a quick run down to give you a rough idea about nVidia's current range (slowest to fastest) ...

6200
7300GS & 6500 & 6600LE
6600 & 6800LE
6600GT
6800 & 6800XT
6800GS & 6800GT
6800U & 7600GT
7800GT
7800GTX & 7900GT
7900GTX

It's not quite that simple though;

* Many 6200 in PCI-E form use TurboCache (where system memory is borrowed) and these vary quite drastically in speed, and the supplier rarely tells you the important stuff.

* A lot of the cards below 6600GT use a variety of speeds for both the core and memory although generally they're within 10-20% of each other again suppliers rarely give you all the relevant information. ie. Brand-A 6600 isn't identical in speed to Brand-B 6600, generally from 6600GT and up each card regardless of brand will be near enough identical in speed except the 'Special' versions (such as the 'OC' or 'Golden' ones).

* Some brands of card will sometimes offer their own exclusive unofficial version such as a 6600XT and even with a lot of homework you may never be sure whether it's faster or slower than a regular 6600 (or 6600GT).

* I've listed the 6800LE as equal to the 6600. The core speeds are very similar but the 6800LE has a LOT of modding & clocking potential which are really helped by its super fast memory, it's often regarded as equal to a 6600GT because of this. 6800 & 6800XT also have some modding and clocking potential too which can raise them up near 6800GS/GT levels.

* 6800GS, 6800GT, 6800U & 7600GT all represent a small step up from left to right so could be listed in many different ways. ie. [Roughly] 6800GS is 10% slower than 6800GT which is 10% slower than 6800U which is 10% slower than 7600GT. I couldn't really list all four together because there's a sizable perf diff between 6800GS and 7600GT.

* There was a 7800GTX512 edition which was very rare and hideously over-priced. It is closer to 7900GTX than 7900GT/7800GTX.

* Finally gfx RAM. Cards slower than 6600GT don't really benefit from 256MB (although it won't hurt). 512MB is more about bragging than actual performance gains especially if it isn't coupled with the absolute fastest gfx cards. The speed of the card is more important than the gfx RAM although you don't want to hurt a faster card with insufficient gfx RAM (it can borrow from system RAM but it is far from ideal). ie. A 6600_256MB is much faster than a 6200_512MB and in turn a 6800_128MB will often be decently faster than a 6600_256MB.

 

thank you austin.....

how much of a jump did i make from my geforce 4 ti4400 to my 6600

 

A very nice jump. Your 6600 gets you full DirectX9.0'c' with SM3.0 rather than DirectX8.0 SM1.0 and there are quite a few other improvements such as faster AA+AF and improved efficiency. Of course the key thing is speed and the 6600 will be able to play games with enhanced details and at higher res. You're unlikely to find any benchmarks showing GF4TI4400 vs GF6600 but the 6600 is similar in performance to a Radeon 9700 or 9700Pro. Those should be easily found compared to a GF4TI4400 which was the 9700's competition at the time of release. We can also use paper specs for a rough idea of comparative performance ...

GF4TI4400 Core=1100+125 RAM=8.8GB/s
Rad 9700 Core=2200+275 RAM=17.3GB/s
Rad 9700P Core=2600+325 RAM=19.8GB/s
GF 6600 Core=2400+225 RAM=11.0GB/s (RAM speed varies)
GF 6600GT Core=4000+375 RAM=16.0GB/s