Kwipper
08-15-2006, 12:00 AM
ATI & Nvidia Graphics card name dechipering.
Lets say you are looking at a selection of graphic cards in a retail store and you may notice that about only 50% of the manufacuters don't put a lot of detailed specifications about the rendering power of the graphics card on the box. Here is how to make sense of all of those weird numbers and codes that will confuse the heck out of the common consumer.
I have noticed that a lot of people would think that an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro would give better performance than an ATI Radeon X800 XL because they look at the 1600 being larger than 800.. thus it MUST give better performance.. right?
...WRONG! Lets start by breaking the names apart.
----
ATI:
----
ATI Radeon X800 XL
becomes...
ATI.. Radeon... X... 800... XL...
------------------------------------------
ATI = Manufacutrer
Radeon = Series
X = 10 = Version of Series (Rendering features based on chipset. Series 10 seemed to be using the R420 chipset which supported Shader Model 2.0b features.)
800 = Performance class of series (In series 10, the classes were 300, 550, 600, 700, 800, 850)
XL = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I am still trying to decipher the proper order for this Series of chipset)
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
becomes...
ATI... Radeon... X1... 600... Pro...
------------------------------------------
ATI = Manufacutrer
Radeon = Series
X1 = X+1 = 11 = Version of series (Rendering features based on chipset. Series 11 seemed to be using the R520 chipset which supported Shader Model 3.0 features.)
600 = Performance class of series. (In series 11, the classes were 300, 400, 600, 800, 900, 950)
Pro = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I am still trying to decipher the proper order for this Series of chipset)
Now that is is broken down like this it should say something like....
ATI Radeon X800 XL = High Performing, Shader Model 2.0b graphics card
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro = Midrange/Low End, Shader Model 3.0 graphics card
It sounds to me that the X1600 pro has the features, but doesn't exactly have the horsepower in the engine to run all of those features very well.. and this is based on the name of the card alone, without even looking at the specifications of the card.
Now if I were to take a look at the specifications of these cards, they would prove that I am indeed correct.
You should be able to use this same method on the Nvidia cards.
-------
Nvidia:
-------
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GTX
becomes...
Nvidia... GeForce... 7... 950... GTX...
Nvidia = Manufacutrer
GeForce = Series
7 = Version of series (Version 7 supports Shader Model 3.0)
950 = Performance class of series (In series 7, the classes were 300, 600, 800, 900, 950)
GTX = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I would imagine the order for this series is GS, GT, GTX, GX2 in order from underclocked to overclocked.)
Let me know what you think of this guide and feel free to correct me on anything. I am trying to make this guide as accurate as I can make it.
Lets say you are looking at a selection of graphic cards in a retail store and you may notice that about only 50% of the manufacuters don't put a lot of detailed specifications about the rendering power of the graphics card on the box. Here is how to make sense of all of those weird numbers and codes that will confuse the heck out of the common consumer.
I have noticed that a lot of people would think that an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro would give better performance than an ATI Radeon X800 XL because they look at the 1600 being larger than 800.. thus it MUST give better performance.. right?
...WRONG! Lets start by breaking the names apart.
----
ATI:
----
ATI Radeon X800 XL
becomes...
ATI.. Radeon... X... 800... XL...
------------------------------------------
ATI = Manufacutrer
Radeon = Series
X = 10 = Version of Series (Rendering features based on chipset. Series 10 seemed to be using the R420 chipset which supported Shader Model 2.0b features.)
800 = Performance class of series (In series 10, the classes were 300, 550, 600, 700, 800, 850)
XL = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I am still trying to decipher the proper order for this Series of chipset)
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
becomes...
ATI... Radeon... X1... 600... Pro...
------------------------------------------
ATI = Manufacutrer
Radeon = Series
X1 = X+1 = 11 = Version of series (Rendering features based on chipset. Series 11 seemed to be using the R520 chipset which supported Shader Model 3.0 features.)
600 = Performance class of series. (In series 11, the classes were 300, 400, 600, 800, 900, 950)
Pro = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I am still trying to decipher the proper order for this Series of chipset)
Now that is is broken down like this it should say something like....
ATI Radeon X800 XL = High Performing, Shader Model 2.0b graphics card
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro = Midrange/Low End, Shader Model 3.0 graphics card
It sounds to me that the X1600 pro has the features, but doesn't exactly have the horsepower in the engine to run all of those features very well.. and this is based on the name of the card alone, without even looking at the specifications of the card.
Now if I were to take a look at the specifications of these cards, they would prove that I am indeed correct.
You should be able to use this same method on the Nvidia cards.
-------
Nvidia:
-------
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GTX
becomes...
Nvidia... GeForce... 7... 950... GTX...
Nvidia = Manufacutrer
GeForce = Series
7 = Version of series (Version 7 supports Shader Model 3.0)
950 = Performance class of series (In series 7, the classes were 300, 600, 800, 900, 950)
GTX = Splits hairs of the series indicating if it is an Underclocked or Overclocked from regular timings. (I think that the proper order from underclocked to overclocked names change with each series chipset introduced. I would imagine the order for this series is GS, GT, GTX, GX2 in order from underclocked to overclocked.)
Let me know what you think of this guide and feel free to correct me on anything. I am trying to make this guide as accurate as I can make it.