How to tell from good graphics cards?

[-WX]

There are many cool technical names for all the graphics cards available with ATI and Nvidia, etc... but how can you tell their actual capabilities or specs?

Is it a general rule that the higher the price, the better it is?
Is it also a general rule that the higher the number of the 'card', the better it is? (e.g. X1600 > X600)

I hope you can clear this up for me.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Generally, yes, both observations are correct, GENERALLY.... This is not in all cases though. Your best bet is to read reviews on the hardware to see how it performs and stacks up against other cards.

There are the entry level cards, midrange, and then the higher end enthusiast cards. On the higher end, things get a little more confusing, because there are cards with the same numbers...
Ex: x1950PRO, x1950XT, x1950XTX, so-on and so-forth...

As far as prices go, SHOP AROUND. GENERALLY, the higherend stuff will cost more, but just because one item costs more than another, it could be overpriced, and out-performed.

Do your research.

 

[M733mhz]

The main things you want to look at are the clock speeds for memory and core. Also the amount of pixel pipelines is important, simply put the more of both of those things, the better.