GPU VS. VPU

[buttwhacker]

I want to buy a video card which is 128MB or 256MB for gaming purpose not necessarily for graphics creation purpose so should I go for the cheap VPU or I have to shell out all that money on a GPU.

What is a DVI out, I see thats what makes the GPU expensive..... pls. explain me a bit and what is your recommendation, pros and cons.

Thanks for all da help

 

[kurt454]

Nvidia calls their graphics chipsets GPU. ATI calls theirs a VPU. DVI is digital video out on the video card. You need to do some reading on video cards before you purchase anything.

 

[dug777]

VPU=GPU, same thing diff name as i understand it (happy to be corrected tho ). Get a 128mb 6600GT or a 256mb x800xl o6800GT depending on your price bracket/needs...

more details please? (DVI out only needed if you have a new LCD monitor).

 

[otispunkmeyer]

VPU = video processing unit

GPU = Graphics processing unit

same thing

DVI is a digital video interface. its meant for use with digital monitors ie LCD and TFT.
(ince your wondering LCD = liquid crystal display and TFT = thin film transistor)

normal monitors (cCRT's) use normal analogue video out, this comes on all cards except very high end.

DVI makes cards more expensive as they need that little bit of extra hardware to make it work

 

[buttwhacker]

i am looking at something cheaper than $100..... i know i am cheap but its just for gaming, I am not going to gain a cent out of it. I do not have a LCD OR TFT which means it has to be compatible with my CRT...... any more ideas??

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: buttwhacker
i am looking at something cheaper than $100..... i know i am cheap but its just for gaming, I am not going to gain a cent out of it. I do not have a LCD OR TFT which means it has to be compatible with my CRT...... any more ideas??

maybe a used 9700pro?

new i guess a 6200....

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: buttwhacker
i am looking at something cheaper than $100..... i know i am cheap but its just for gaming

Those two comments cannot exist together on a solid gaming rig. What kind of games will you be playing? First Person Shooters, RPGs, simulators?

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

a 9800 pro refurb should be under 100, or a 9700 pro like dug said. your pretty limited under 100 bucks.

 

[buttwhacker]

I want to play the GTA - San Andreas. Now I have a 32MB which was fine for the GTA - Vice City but for GTA - SA the recommended specs is 128MB....
Where can I look for used or refub 9800....??

 

[amheck]

Here's somethng to get you started. Copied info from another site. Also, do a search in the video forum for "$100" and you'll find a couple threads.

__________________________________________________________________________
$110 or less section

AGP CARDS

Honorable mention to the 5200 with extra capabilities but this card is more for multimedia and shouldn't be picked up by a serious gamer, though it can do HL1 and CS well, I'm sure.

5200 with CATV/composite $77 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-127-109&depa=1

ATi 9600 non-pro agp $81shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-305&depa=1

ATi 9600 pro agp $92 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-409&depa=1

The 9600 pro is a great card and I suggest it over the non-pro if you are a gamer.

PCI-E CARDS

Nvidia 6200 $102shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-125-167&depa=1

X300 $79 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-396&depa=1

I suggest the X300 only if you dont have the extra money for the X600pro. The X300 gets trampled in games, I think I read it was equal to a 9200, so don't expect to be playing Doom3 on it.

X600 pro $109shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-411&depa=1

Best performing card of the bunch.

PCI CARDS

I recommend the 5200 but the 9250 is a good card too, the only reason I put the 9250 up is because it's best for those who have agp cards as well as pci cards in thier systems to keep with the same manufacturers with both agp and pci cards. Why? Well, the short answer is for stability and the long answer is driver conflicts cause system instability.

The 9250's price has dropped quite a bit and it's now a contender for the 5200 in a system with only pci cards.

Nvidia 5200 PCI $67 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-164-044&depa=1

ATI Radeon 9250 PCI $59 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-164-033&depa=1
___________________________________________________________________________________

 

[sbuckler]

Don't fall for the trick of putting lot of memory on a really low end card - in your price range look for cards with 128mb of memory only, any more won't help. Powerful graphics card are very important if you want to play games - get a nvidia 6200 (non turbo cache model) if you are feeling very poor, a little faster is a 6600 but you'd really be better off getting a 6600GT which if not *hi-end* at least has a bit of grunt.
ati 9800 pro is a little slower then a 6600GT but not much - if you can find a good one cheap then go for it (you want 128mb of memory but it must have the 256 bit memory bus not the cheapo 128 bit one).

Don't worry about DVI - it's pretty standard these days, but you'll still be able to plug you're VGA monitor into any graphics card.

Oh I take it that you computer isn't that new and has AGP (that's the style of slot that's used to plug your graphics card into the mohterboard). Hence make sure you get an AGP graphics card. If you have a PCI-E slot (the newest machines do, it's the new standard replacing AGP) the obviously buy a PCI-E graphics card. There are versions of most cards for both AGP and PCI-E except 9800 which is AGP only.

 

[buttwhacker]

Originally posted by: amheck
Here's somethng to get you started. Copied info from another site. Also, do a search in the video forum for "$100" and you'll find a couple threads.

__________________________________________________________________________
$110 or less section

AGP CARDS

Honorable mention to the 5200 with extra capabilities but this card is more for multimedia and shouldn't be picked up by a serious gamer, though it can do HL1 and CS well, I'm sure.

5200 with CATV/composite $77 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-127-109&depa=1

ATi 9600 non-pro agp $81shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-305&depa=1

ATi 9600 pro agp $92 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-409&depa=1

The 9600 pro is a great card and I suggest it over the non-pro if you are a gamer.

PCI-E CARDS

Nvidia 6200 $102shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-125-167&depa=1

X300 $79 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-396&depa=1

I suggest the X300 only if you dont have the extra money for the X600pro. The X300 gets trampled in games, I think I read it was equal to a 9200, so don't expect to be playing Doom3 on it.

X600 pro $109shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-102-411&depa=1

Best performing card of the bunch.

PCI CARDS

I recommend the 5200 but the 9250 is a good card too, the only reason I put the 9250 up is because it's best for those who have agp cards as well as pci cards in thier systems to keep with the same manufacturers with both agp and pci cards. Why? Well, the short answer is for stability and the long answer is driver conflicts cause system instability.

The 9250's price has dropped quite a bit and it's now a contender for the 5200 in a system with only pci cards.

Nvidia 5200 PCI $67 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-164-044&depa=1

ATI Radeon 9250 PCI $59 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-164-033&depa=1
___________________________________________________________________________________

sorry mate none of those above links worked..... all changed but I am going to look at the newegg website for those models
thanx for the effort.

 

[PrayForDeath]

If you wanna play GTA SA, then you're fine with your current video card. It's the same 5 year old engine as GTA III with some modifications. So it will be playable on your system if you were able to run Vice City. So I'd say try it first on your current video card, and if you find it unplayable, then buy a new video card.
If your budget is 100$ then you should either get a 9600Pro or a used 9800Pro.

 

[imported_Pressure]

Whatever you do don't get a FX 5200.

 

[buttwhacker]

well i didn't know it had the same engine...... thats a good idea..... lemme give it a shot to see if it works...... thanx PrayforDeath...

 

[aka1nas]

It may be the same engine but it will be still be more demanding than older games. Can you tell what GPU is on your card? The amount of RAM doesn't really tell us much besides about how old the card might be. I am guessing something like a GeForce 2 MX if its a 32MB card.

For buying new cards, look more at the chip on it rather than the RAM. A video card is like a little computer by itseld so the GPU is like your AMD or Intel processor and the RAM is just like the system RAM on your computer. It is nice to have a lot of RAM but sometimes these manufacturers pair a really slow GPU with more RAM than it would effectively be able to use to make it look like a better card than it is. For example An old 400Mhz Pentium II with 2 GB of RAM still wouldn't be all that great of a computer, even though it has all that RAM.

 

[Jeff7181]

JUST for gaming? Gaming is the reason video cards are as powerful as they are.

 

[jasonja]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
VPU = video processing unit

GPU = Graphics processing unit

same thing
...

Actually VPU = "Visual Processing Unit" the term visual is used instead of video to indicate that it encompasses video (think AVI), 2D, and 3D.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
JUST for gaming? Gaming is the reason video cards are as powerful as they are.

Im guessing he/she was just covering just in case someone offered an AIW-type card on the table or something with more flashy features that wont necessarily help gaming.

 

[Pete]

Best you can do for ~$100 is a used 9700 Pro or, preferably, a used 9800 Pro. The 9800P is preferable both because it's 10-15% faster, but also because some 9700Ps have a rolling lines issue with their DB15 ("VGA") output. You can get around the rolling lines by using a DVI-VGA adapter on the DVI output, but that basically means no dual-monitor for you. Then again, people looking for <$100 3D cards probably aren't using dual monitors, so this may not be an issue for you.

NewEgg has new 9800Ps for ~$115, I think, so used should be going for less than $100.