I have a good graphics card in my computer. A Variant of the 6800.

Here is the specs:
256MB memory
256-bit memory
325mHz Core Clock
700mHz Memory Clock
12pp, 5vp

Okay now I know my way through a computer, but I wanted to get some things about the video card cleared up. Anyone who is willing to describe these specs and what each actually does for my gameplay are more then welcome.

I know the memory stores the video textures.
I don't know what the bit of the memory benifits.
The core i'm not sure completely.
The memory clock I believe affects performance greatly but i'm not sure how.

And the pp and vp, i dont know what they offer.

Post edited at 11:02 am on Feb. 1, 2007 by DJ Josh

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Well RAM is the onboard RAM for the video card, basically it keeps the screen image in memory. It is important for high resolutions as that is when you actually may be limited to certain sizes due to the amount of RAM.

Core and memory clock are just the respective clock speeds of each. Memory is the clock speed  of communication between the GPU and memory chips, core would be the GPU itself.

Clock speed makes them a little faster, if you look at 'extreme' editions etc. they will pick the better cards from the batch and up the clock speeds slightly from the factory.

Performance increases with rises in both, IIRC usually the memory clock can be pushed higher than the core clock.

Pixel pipelines is how fast they can process pixels.

x Bit is memory bus width.

Post edited at 7:43 am on Feb. 2, 2007 by whimsy

Thanks everyone anyway.

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In the pipeline

An important attribute to look out for in a graphics card is the number of pixel pipelines, which are also called pixel processors or pixel shaders.

Usually though, they are simply referred to as “pipelines.”

When you fire up a 3D game, the GPU executes a series of instructions to apply textures and transformations to the pixels that form your screen image.  

This series of instructions is called a pipeline, and current GPUs have multiple pixel pipelines operating in parallel.  

In general, the more pipelines the GPU has, the faster it will be able to render an image.

In future graphics cards the number of shader units will also be an important specification to check, but for now, you can still judge the performance of current GPUs by the number of pixel pipelines they have.

Mainstream cards have eight or 12 pipelines, high-end cards usually have 16 pipelines, while the ultra high-end cards have up to 24 pipelines.  

On the other hand, entry-level cards have only two or four pipelines.

While higher clock speeds are important, you could get more performance if you choose a card with more pipelines over one that has a faster clock speed.  

Take for example, the Radeon X1300 Pro, which runs at 600MHz and has four pipelines, and compare it with the Radeon X800 XL, which runs at 400MHz and has 16 pipelines.

A less-informed user might think the Radeon X1300 Pro is faster, but in fact the Radeon X800 XL beats it by a wide margin due to its higher number of pipelines.

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The Vertex shader = Objects in a 3D scene are typically described using triangles, which in turn are defined by their vertices. A vertex shader is a graphics processing function used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment by performing mathematical operations on the objects' vertex data. Before DX8, vertex shading effects were so computationally complex that they could only be processed offline using render farms. Now, developers use Vertex Shaders to breathe life and personality into characters and environments, such as fog that dips into a valley and curls over a hill; or true-to-life facial animation such as dimples or wrinkles that appear when a character smiles. People talk about pixel shaders alot these days, but the vertex shader gave birth to the pixel shader, just as important of a discovery as hardware transform and lighting was a few years earlier.

Pixel shaders = A Pixel Shader is a graphics function that calculates effects on a per-pixel basis. Depending on resolution, in excess of 2 million pixels may need to be rendered, lit, shaded, and colored for each frame, at 60 frames per second. That in turn creates a tremendous computational load. Modern cards process this load through Pixel Shaders. Per-pixel shading brings out a high level of surface detail-allowing you to see effects beyond the triangle level. Rather than simply choosing from a pre compiled palette of effects, developers can create their own. Pixel Shaders provide developers with the control for determining the lighting, shading, and color of each individual pixel, allowing them to create some really cool effects.

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