Nvidia consumer cards (Geforce) are easy. They have two lines of cards, desktop and mobile. Both are separate, but follow the same naming scheme. Difference is the mobile ones (meant to be built into laptops, obviously) have a M at the end.
The cards may be called GTX or GTS, that actually doesn't matter, what matters is the three digit number. the first digit is the generation. Current model nvidia desktop cards are designated with 900 numbers. they skipped the 800s for some reason, so the previous generation were the 700s.
The last two digits tell you the intended audience and use case for the card. Generally, the larger the last two digit number is the more powerful is the card.
Up to x30 or so (630, 730, 930) you've got low end and/or passive cards meant to be used in office PCs.
x40 to x60 is the mainstream line for general users and casual gamers.
x70 to x90 is the premium line for hardcore gamers.
Generally, at least the x80 and x90 cards come at a disproportionate premium, which some people are willing to pay for bragging rights. The sweet spot in terms of computing power per dollar has traditionally been with the x60 or x70 card of every generation. Right now the 970 is considered to be the sweet spot.
Sometimes, there will be a card that has a Ti at the end. Like 760Ti. Nvidia uses these to sell cards that are a bit better than their base cards but not as good as the next higher card. Like, 760 < 760Ti < 770.
Before they started the 3 digit numbering scheme, they had a 4 digit numbering scheme. Which essentially works the same, except there's an extra zero at the end. But all 4-digit type cards from nvidia are now horribly outdated, so no need to bother about those, but it's useful to know from a historical perspective.
Also, Nvidia often rebranded cards into the next generation. For instance, if I remember right, the GTX 670 became the GTX 750. So they move them down a notch or two in the scheme of the new generation and keep selling them. They haven't done that in every generation, but a few times if it worked (i.e. no big processor type change, just a speed bump on generation transition)
Also, sometimes they have a very very top end card at an outrageous price, which I suppose is the video card equivalent of a large pickup truck in a city. Expensive to buy and to run (electricity...), useless due to bottlenecks in other places, but I suppose good for extra super bragging rights or something. Currently that card is called Titan.
In addition, for AMD these days it is pretty easy as well. They have 3 lines of cards; the r5, r7 and r9 line. R5 are low end cards, r7 are mid segment cards and the r9 series are the high end cards.
The number after the r5/r7/r9 is the generation of the cards (eg r9 2xx is a generation older than the r9 3xx series).
Then you have the second number which indicates the performance level. A r9 390 is more powerful than a r9 380 for example. All r7/r9 series of cards have a x-version as well (r9 270 and r9 270x for example). The x indicates that a card is a little better than the non-x version, but not as powerful as the next card in the lineup (r9 270 < r9 270x < r9 280).
Last but not least, the top cards of the AMD line up are the r9 Fury and r9 Fury X. These are positioned just above the r9 390 in price and performance.
SOURCE
No comments:
Post a Comment