I'm looking at some radeon video cards and was wondering if the higher the number or series means it is a better card. For example I'm looking at a radeon X1300 pro and a radeon X1600 pro. Here's some cards I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16814161003,N82E16814102677&SubCategory=48 The 1300 costs a little more but I don't really know why especially since the pipelines for the 1600 is 12 and the 1300 is only 4. The only advantage I can see for the 1300 is that it has a core clock of 600 mhz as opposed to the 1600 which has 500mhz. Thanks for any input or advice.
There should be a significant difference between the x1300pro and x1600pro with the x1600pro being maybe 2x better. The 6600GT and x1600pro are about equal and I am not sure which is better from the two. One of these should significantly outperform all of them and is the same price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rtyCodeValue=0&Submit=Property&SubCategory=48 Do not be fooled by the lack of SM3 support in the x800 series. None of the cards you selected will actually be able to use it even though they all support it. SM3 is more for the x1800 or better and the 7800 or better series because only those have the power to use it. Also, HDR can be used in SM2, but game developers are usually too lazy to program for it. It is much easier for SM3 and also looks better. If you want a faster card, then the 7800GS would be the best choice because it has support for SM3 (and has the muscle to use it), but it is $270. The ATi equivalent is the x850xt which out performs it, but again it is an SM2 card. The x850xt is $240. The way it works with ATi is, the first number is the series. The x1 in your cases. The x is the Roman numeral 10 so this is the Radeon 11000 series. Now, they have the low grade, mid grade, high grade and premium grade. They are separated by the next number, so the 3 vs 6. The x1300series will be the low grade. The x1600 will be the low-mid grade and the x1700 will be midgrade if they decide to make it (which I doubt). The x1800 is the high grade and the x1900 is the premium grade. After this they may decide to release another card for competition purposes. This is only to have a better card than an nVidia equivalent or the other way around for nVidia. This is why you have x1600, x1600pro, x1600xt, x1800, x1800pro, x1800GTO, x1800xl, x1800xt, etc... Also, another thing for competition is an extra number boost, like the x850 series which is better than the x800 series.
