few newbie questions

I'm sure i can just google this but i would like to be able to understand it without having to look something else up. its not that i'm lazy its that i just need to make a decision on something and i'm stuck.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=689002

thats my thread about the pc i will be getting someone else to build me.
i'm trying to learn what the video card would be best for me in it since i will be using it mostly for gaming but eventually for photography, web designing, movies, and probably more gaming.

thing is the card i've chosen seems a bit expensive compared to what seems to me to be the same card under different maker.

also i've been reading around and see its possible to "unlock?" the video cards to make them pretty much a tier above i guess it just means to overclock i'm sure ill learn all in time.

so basically i will be getting the card in the post if i can't find something thats a bigger bang for my buck.

but my questions are
1- What is the use of the memory on it?
2- The core clock differs on some of the similar models sometimes by 60 Mhz is that a big difference?
3- What is the Effective memory clock?
4- would any of the drivers interfere with performance? Open gl 4.1 seems to be a step high than anything i've seen so far i'm not sure what that means though hah!
5- The max resolution is 1600 ... does that mean on just one display? or is that multiple ones or something cuz crap i can't even fathom that.
6- Can i run 2 displays with it in the future? maybe 3?
7- With my build would nvidia or amd make any difference as far as performance?

1) Memory on the card is substantially faster than actual system RAM. There is also no delay where the processor has to retrieve it from system RAM and give it to the card. This makes on-board RAM extremely important, to a point. To speak in simple terms, if a video card can hold 10 textures itself, it will run fine with 1-10 textures in memory, but could see a huge performance hit if it needs one more than it can hold. The size of the RAM on the card will determine how much information it can hold. The textures themselves are stored there, and a few other "features" (anti aliasing) can take substantial amounts of memory. Resolution also plays a large factor with how much memory a game will use. So, if you are running a huge 2560x1600 (or multiple monitors), higher amounts of memory on the card should help prevent it having to wait for the system RAM and take a huge performance hit.

2) If you are comparing the exact same model cards, it simply becomes a linear function. If the base clock is 600 MHz and another version is 660 MHz, that will be a 10% performance increase for that component on the board. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that you may not always see the benefits of something running faster. For example, if the memory bandwidth was the limit, the core on the card is going to be waiting for data to transfer, rather than rendering at full speed. In this example, running the core faster would have a minimal impact on your performance. But, removing that block (by upping memory speed) would net a large performance increase.

3) Effective * clock just means what it is multiplied out to. I'll use DDR3 RAM as an example. DDR stands for "Double Data Rate". So, for every "base" MHz (the original signal), the RAM can transfer 2 bits instead of 1 (peak and trough). They multiply this out for marketing purposes. Which sounds better? "Dual pumped 800 MHz RAM" or "1600 MHz RAM".

4) Drivers for a card are very important to how fast it renders on the screen. It is the basic software component that tells the graphics card what to do and how to do it. With high end new cards, you might be changing drivers often, since they tend to optimize the drivers frequently.

5) The maximum resolution (2560x1600) should be per port on the video card.

6) As long as the video card supports that many outputs, it is not an issue to add another monitor in the future. I'm using a GTX 260 with two 24" monitors; one per DVI port.

7) I haven't been keeping up with their newest releases, but I've always seen the difference as minimal, except in a few rare cases. It really comes down to personal preference and price.

(Artemis has just gained +1 intelligence). Wow man thanks didn't expect to understand much of that but I ended up understanding most of it. Seems like i made a decent choice in card then. Now one more question then is it possible to "unlock" a 6970 to be equal to a 6990?

I couldn't answer that for you as I'm not fully up to date on the newest hardware. Someone will have to chime in.

Artemis-X said:

Now one more question then is it possible to "unlock" a 6970 to be equal to a 6990?

Click to expand...

Absolutely not. The 6990 is a DUAL GPU card on a single PCB(board). The 6970 is a SINGLE GPU on a single PCB. You cant magically create another GPU with a BIOS flash.

Well it's cuz I read about someone unlocking a 6950 to be a 6970 for all purposes didn't know if it was possible to do something similar to a 6970

Nope. 6970 is the top of the heap of single GPU cards from AMD.

Ah ok well the one I've been looking at has somewhat of mixed reviews for it's size and apparently it ways enough to kinda sag down. Sounds like it might snap after enough time of it sagging down. Do any of you know if it's ok to just lay down the case? Or would air circulation kinda be gimped?

A card won't snap under its own weight.

Ah well one more questions as far as suggestions does anyone have any? Recommendations or anything? There's some reviews on the vid card I chose saying it's a bit noisy or that it's hard to crossfire. Oh and one more question I've seen things saying dual and quad crossfire but never triple is it possible? I've seen dual tri quad sli should I get an nvidia card If I plan to get 3x gpu?

WTH is dual tri quad SLI?

As far as Crossfire/SLI in the first place, you really should have a multi monitor setup. Otherwise, a single powerful card will be fine.

Hahah I didn't mean to not put any punctuation what I mean to say was. I have seen that you can have dual sli , tri sli, and quad sli but i hadn't noticed if there was such thing as tri crossfire. I will eventually have a multi monitor setup. I just don't think I'll be upgrading everything at the same time rather I will be getting one thing at a time.