Pixel Pipelines vs Stream Processing Units?

[Athlon Mark]

Tried the search button, but no luck.....

Can someone provide some enlightenment about a comparison of these?

Here's the story---my good old X850 Pro AGP died last week after I tried to improve it by adding a better heatsink (go figure :confused:). Anyway, it allowed me to play Half-Life 2 at 1280x1024.

Looking for a replacement, I am totally lost because the newer cards describe stream processing units instead of the older pipelines. My X850 was locked at 12 pipelines. Is 120 stream processing units an upgrade or a step backwards?

For reference, I was looking at the HD 2600 Pro and HD 2600XT video cards.

[ALiEN2953]

it is far too complicated for me to quickly explain the difference between the 2, but in the price range you seem to be looking your best bet would be one of ATI's new HD4650 or HD4670 512mb or if you would like to go the Nvidia route then a 9500gt or 9600gt would do the trick.

[Athlon Mark]

Thanks ALiEN, but I need an AGP for my old system.

The more I read about it, the more I'm leaning towards this Sapphire HD 3850:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730

Reviews seem to show Sapphire with the best drivers for this card in AGP.

[AsusLover]

Thats a pretty decent card :) Has a decent cooling solution also

[Kampfzerstorer]

This is going to be an overly simplified answer:

A pixel pipeline is a processing unit able to do a few specific operations like pixel shader operations.

A stream processor is a more general purpose processing unit capable of being programmed to do more types of operations than a pixel pipeline can do.

The newer architecture can more easily adjust to a varying workload than the old can.

[Mekks]

you could find yourself a x1950pro AGP for really low cost, i had one untill i upgraded.

[Athlon Mark]

you could find yourself a x1950pro AGP for really low cost

Anyone have one they want to get rid of ;)

[thescavenger]

Anyone have one they want to get rid of ;)

Offering goods for sale outside of the classifieds = no. -- David