differences in prices

[Delvecchio1975]

Hi,

why is a SAPPHIRE 11090-03-20R RADEON X1650 PRO 512MB PCI-E GRAPHICS CARD (99£) so much cheaper than an Nvidia GEFORCE 8800 GTS OC 320MB PCI-E GRAPHICS CARD (199£) ? Isn't more megabytes better? sorry for being a n00b!

best regards,
:eek: Delvecchio :eek:

[Alaron]

Video RAM is not an indication of performance. The 8800 series are brand new, support DirectX 10 and have a heck of a lot more horsepower under the hood. The X1650s are a couple generations old, DirectX 9 and less powerful. They are still nice budget cards, but for pure power, the 8800 wins hands down.

[Delvecchio1975]

thanks for the clarification Alaron,

but why do e.g. games always say for instance 128MB for the videocard under 'technical requirements'?

[Alaron]

New games need more video card power. Plain and simple. The RAM on the video card is where the card stores images that it is working on. So more RAM means that the card can handle more data at once and more complex/high resolution images. But as I mentioned, ram is not the only factor. I would take a more powerful 256MB card over a weak 512MB card.

[Delvecchio1975]

Very helpful Alaron, thanks - final question: how can you tell from a video-card if it's "powerful"?

[Alaron]

That takes a bit of research, since there are so many variables involved in the power of the card. But a great place to start is to ask for recommendations based on a budget. Then we can point out the best bang for the buck. You can also compare cards side by side from sites such as Toms: www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html