Video card branding

HardLanding · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject: Video card branding

Never having had an interest in the latest/greatest graphics setup before buying FS2004, I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of understanding this product category.

But my first source of confusion is the card names and brands. What exactly is NVIDIA? Do they make both chipsets and cards? Can one buy the NVIDIA chipsets on cards from other vendors? Or is NVIDIA a card manufacturer that uses chipsets from separate graphics engine vendors? How about Radeon, and ATI, and Chaintech, and XFX, and eVGA, etc.?

Thnx,
HL

RadarMan · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:20 pm Post subject:

The way I understand it ATI has "partners". They produce the same card to their specifications under both their name and ATI's name
Example Sapphire ATI.

Personally I will only buy an ATI card not a partner card.
I've had these discussions with others, many more knowledgeable than I and it's their contention that partners add something extra to the card, a better fan perhaps.
I'll still only buy a card made by ATI.
I'm sure that it's the same way with NVIDIA.
My opinion.
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1320

Radar

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Greekman72 · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:32 pm Post subject:

NVIDIA and ATI are the chipsets that manufactureres use for their products.

For example :ALBATRON,PNY use NVIDIA chipsets

GECUBE, ASUS use ATI chipsets.

Altough there is a model of ASUS that uses an NVIDIA chipset(ASUS nVidia GeForce FX6600GT - 128MB )This is about AGP slot cards.

For PCI express cards ASUS uses ,in more than one model,the NVIDIA chipsets.

i hope i help you.Of course there are more manufacturers.I only place you some examples.
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Liono · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:36 pm Post subject:

OK the two main players in the field of Graphics Cards are Nvidia and ATI both make VERY good Graphics Cards. The Website can be found here

Nvidia
ATI

There are 3 different types of graphics cards on the market

PCI
AGP
PCI-E

The newer PC's that are made now come with AGP or PCI-E boards. Two see which slot you have you can either open up the case or download a program called belarc which can be found here

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

This is very cool program to have lying around. If your brave enough to open up the case. To find out which slot you have you will see 3-5 WHITE slots. These are PCI slots alittle further up you will see a brown a slot about 3/4 the size of the WHITE slots this is an AGP slot.

At the end of the day which ever graphics card you go for is upto you.
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Greekman72 · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

Good job Liono Clap

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HardLanding · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:43 pm Post subject:

This board, which was such a headache to set up I don't even want to go into it, can handle both AGP and PCIE cards. (It's an ASRock 939 Dual SATA2, for those interested.) I bought it specifically so I wouldn't have to dump my AGP card for a PCI Express model when I wasn't really sure what I'd be needing for FS.

Meanwhile, my budget Chaintech card (Volari V3 XGI) seems sufficient for me to learn the ins and outs of FS while surveying the graphics card market. For example, today I learned to tune the NAV radios and fly a course using VOR.

HL

HardLanding · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

Liono, one concern I've had is, PCI Express being a newer standard than AGP, whether PCI-E cards are as reliably interchangeable as AGP. Regardless of the particular card's quality, pretty much any AGP card will work in a m'board with an AGP slot. I've been wondering if the same can be said for PCI-E.

HL

Liono · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:13 pm Post subject:

Most AGP cards will work on your mobo just make sure that they are there 1.5v.
I'm not 100% sure but I think it still apply. As I don't PCI-E yet I can't give you a proper answer.
You can ask your local fender or online shop. Here some really good places to look at

Overclockers in the UK
Newegg in the US

edit
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Oh I forgot to say IF you go for the PCI-E make sure it's x16 compaitable
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