OT: Could someone tell me which of these video cards is better?

[Chocolate Lab]

I don't know much about video cards : but I got both of these and only need one. All I want is something cheap for my PCI-ex16 slot to run dual monitors.

I got the Gigabyte because it was cheap and I was ordering something else online, but I can't find much about it.

Anyway, they are:

1. Sapphire ATI Radeon x550 256 mb

2. Gigabyte GeForce 7200 GS 128 mb

Can anyone help me? I have no idea what the differences really are.

Thanks.

 

[5Stars]

I don't know much about video cards : but I got both of these and only need one. All I want is something cheap for my PCI-ex16 slot to run dual monitors.

I got the Gigabyte because it was cheap and I was ordering something else online, but I can't find much about it.

Anyway, they are:

1. Sapphire ATI Radeon x550 256 mb

2. Gigabyte GeForce 7200 GS 128 mb

Can anyone help me? I have no idea what the differences really are.

Thanks.

I would think, and I'm not that good at thinking, but the card with the 256 mb would be better because it allows a faster transfer rate of 1's and 0's...

 

[David276]

there is alot of diff points that make one "better" than the other so it depends they usually put out products similar in power . there should be a few sites out there to compare them , how fast their gpu is what ,technologies they have in them ect

 

[Kilyin]

They both suck, but they're so similar in specs, that I'd go with the one that has more memory (ATi).. unless your other card is an Nvidia, then I'd go with the Nvidia, because mixing ati and nvidia is generally a bad idea.

 

[kmp77]

I used to defend ATI. No more. Don't get the ATI.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Yeah, I only wanted something cheap for the dual outputs. I won't ever run anything graphics-intensive.

The Gigabyte is nvidia... Is there that much difference?

I don't know why I can't find much online about the Giga. I found plenty of reviews of the Sapphire. The reviews I did find were pretty favorable for a cheap card, but they were also older, which made me wonder if the card was outdated. (Though the outputs seem to be identical -- one VGA, one DVI, one S-video.)

Any other thoughts? :

 

[dallasfaniac]

Depends on what you are going to be doing with them. Those cards only support up to DirectX 9 and more games are switching over to DirectX 10 with Vista out now. If you work with any game engines, you'll want to see if they have any issues with those cards. I know I have had issues with both ATI and GeForce cards in the past, usually involving updating drivers etc. but sometimes just having to replace the cards to correctly render shaders.

Edit: Figures I would spend my 1000th post on programming when it's a Dallas Cowboys forum......

 

[David276]

yeah if you arent gaming just go for the one with more memory it should suit you fine, you probably wont notice a difference. i have yet to have a graphics card on any computer that doesnt crash or do something funny everyonce in a while

 

[silverbear]

I don't know much about video cards : but I got both of these and only need one. All I want is something cheap for my PCI-ex16 slot to run dual monitors.

I got the Gigabyte because it was cheap and I was ordering something else online, but I can't find much about it.

Anyway, they are:

1. Sapphire ATI Radeon x550 256 mb

2. Gigabyte GeForce 7200 GS 128 mb

Can anyone help me? I have no idea what the differences really are.

Thanks.

I've always liked GeForce based video cards, when the one on this PC died, that's what I replaced it with... but a good rule of thumb is more memory is always a good thing...

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

As was stated before both cards are DX9 Cards so if youre running vista it wount get the most out of it.

if youre looking at vista then go for a Nvidia 8600 as that will do what you need.

Both cards are fairly old the AMD series is now at x1950 for that line and Intel has gone to 7950.

Make sure you have a PCIe slot and just go with the more memory as that is going to help you the most if youre just doing basic multimedia stuff. If youre doing any gaming they arent going to be worth a flip.

 

[Blake]

Go to a technology board or some sort of computer gaming board, you'll get much better answers there. You'll just have to be weary of the fanboys