How to be good at reading specs?

[Hollengrhen]

There's a lot of IT conventions going on here in Singapore, and whenever I tag along with my parents, I see countless laptops and computers and I just want to know, how do I be good in reading specs? Common sense tells you that a GTX 980 is better than a GTX 760 and an i7 is better than an i3 for example, but then R9 290, 8800 GTX and Xeon appears and then I get lost. I know the basics, like what a computer consists of, but besides simple knowledge on the different processors and graphic cards, I'm a total newbie. Is there a list somewhere that compares every graphics card and organizing them according to performance? How do i tell whether Computer A is better than Computer B? What is the basis for comparison?

[DigitalHermit]

Watch reviews, read reviews, look at benchmarks...

[virtualTune]

you just look at a lot of benchmarks and gather experience and knowledge until you do it by heart

[xnoobftw]

There's a lot of IT conventions going on here in Singapore, and whenever I tag along with my parents, I see countless laptops and computers and I just want to know, how do I be good in reading specs? Common sense tells you that a GTX 980 is better than a GTX 760 and an i7 is better than an i3 for example, but then R9 290, 8800 GTX and Xeon appears and then I get lost. I know the basics, like what a computer consists of, but besides simple knowledge on the different processors and graphic cards, I'm a total newbie. Is there a list somewhere that compares every graphics card and organizing them according to performance? How do i tell whether Computer A is better than Computer B? What is the basis for comparison?

THERE IS MEH? WHERE?

[DIV1D3]

I'm sorry but I won't give like a "Higher/Lower/More/Less is better" for each section of the specifications of every single PC component just because I have loads of thing to do very shortly

But generally the higher the number, the better it is lol. 

Bar CAS latency with RAM though. 

If you're looking at VRAM (GPU), RAM (those modules you stick in the mobo), core/boost/memory clock, memory size and a lot more other areas the higher/faster one, will most often or not be better than the comparison. 

Just keep watching reviews and benchmarks of GPUs/CPUs/RAM and the lot to gain a better understand in everything* tech, PC wise. 

 

*Obviously not everything, but a good amount. 

[minibois]

Know what to look for. You say an i7 is better than an i3, but do you think an i7 is better than a i5 too? Depends on what i7 and what usage.

Low end, old i7 is not better than a high end i5 if we're talking about gaming.

Also, aren't Xeons server CPU's? Just like how Quadro's are server GPU's?

[Extingquish]

It's just something that happens naturally, just looking at benchmarks, reading reviews etc. There isn't really something to "Learn how to read specs overnight" it's more a long term thing

[Interfectorem]

Know what to look for. You say an i7 is better than an i3, but do you think an i7 is better than a i5 too? Depends on what i7 and what usage.

Low end, old i7 is not better than a high end i5 if we're talking about gaming.

Also, aren't Xeons server CPU's? Just like how Quadro's are server GPU's?

Xeon CPUs don't have to be used in servers. Xeons must be stable (You don't want some error in a server), and cannot overclock, maybe a little, but not as much as a "K" skew processor. There's even some LGA1150 Xeon processors with 4C and 8T, which pretty much makes it a locked 4790K without an iGPU at the price of a 4690K. Same thing applies for Quadros, they're pretty much the GeForce series but with different drivers optimized for content creation.

[minibois]

Xeon CPUs don't have to be used in servers. Xeons must be stable (You don't want some error in a server), and cannot overclock, maybe a little, but not as much as a "K" skew processor. There's even some LGA1150 Xeon processors with 4C and 8T, which pretty much makes it a locked 4790K without an iGPU at the price of a 4690K. Same thing applies for Quadros, they're pretty much the GeForce series but with different drivers optimized for content creation.

Thanks for the info.

Do you have a list of what Quadro card is like what GTX card? I have a Quadro 410 and would like to know what it compares with

[Interfectorem]

Thanks for the info.

Do you have a list of what Quadro card is like what GTX card? I have a Quadro 410 and would like to know what it compares with

I'm on Mobile, but what I found is that the Quadro 410 uses a GK107 chip, which the GT 640 card also uses. I'll do some more research when I get home. EDIT: it's closer to the GT 640.

[typographie]

There's a lot of IT conventions going on here in Singapore, and whenever I tag along with my parents, I see countless laptops and computers and I just want to know, how do I be good in reading specs? Common sense tells you that a GTX 980 is better than a GTX 760 and an i7 is better than an i3 for example, but then R9 290, 8800 GTX and Xeon appears and then I get lost. I know the basics, like what a computer consists of, but besides simple knowledge on the different processors and graphic cards, I'm a total newbie. Is there a list somewhere that compares every graphics card and organizing them according to performance? How do i tell whether Computer A is better than Computer B? What is the basis for comparison?

 

Unfortunately with the utterly insane way this hardware is named, there is no easy way to do it. You just need to read a lot about it and get familiar with the names. Even understanding the fundamental stuff, like what frequency (Hz) a processor runs at for example, don't necessarily even mean anything when comparing across different hardware architectures or generations.

 

Video cards are a good example. You mentioned the Geforce 8800 GTX. Nvidia has gone through a number of different naming schemes throughout the years. In chronological order, they started with the Geforce, Geforce 2, Geforce 3, etc. Then the Geforce 5000/6000/7000/8000's. Then GTX 200/300*/400/500/600/700/900's. *And the 300's only existed as laptop or OEM cards. That ignores the Tesla/Quadro series as well. And then AMD is even worse.

 

Reading reviews/benchmarks of video cards is really the only accurate way to stay on top of how Card X compares to Card Y.

 

Tom's Hardware puts out these hierarchy charts of CPUs and GPUs monthly. They're very helpful for reference in a pinch, but just be aware that these tiers are kind of broad:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

[PhantomChevron]

THERE IS MEH? WHERE?

Expo and suntec Etc. Tomorrow last day for one at Expo, though the deals look pretty bad for laptops, better on phones and cameras