What exactly does GPU bitrate do?

[cpuxtech]

What exactly does a GPUs bitrate function as. Just high resolution scaling, or is it someting more specific, because i have always heard to look at memory over bitrate, but just wondering what the difference would be between a card that has 192, 256, 384, even 512! Thanks

[xAcid9]

bitrate or buswidth? i'm confused.

[ZeroPlasm]

I think you meant the memory bandwidth on the VRAM.

Lets take the VRAM as a highway, you are trying to get something transported over as fast as possible.

Latency/Timings = Lenght of highway

Memory Speed = Speed of the cars on the highway

Memory Bus = The amount of lanes there are on the highway

So lets compare a GTX 680 and a 7970GE, both have the same memory speed at 6Gbps, but the 7970 has a 384bit Memory bus instead of a 256bit memory bus found on the GTX 680.

So in theory the 7970GE is faster.

[Opsilon]

it should be the same... the numbers stand for memory controllers on your card, and they show how much bandwidth your card has, today's single controller has 64 bit so that means if your card is 128 bit it has 2 controllers of 64 bit, 192 = 3x64 memory controllers, etc... that is the general idea.

for example NV GF GTX 680 has 2 gigs of ram and has 4x64 bit controllers, that card has 8 256 mb ddr5 ram chips and 2 per single controller

difference should be that more bitrate you have you can ad more memory that you can use freely and not lose performance, and you do not have to overclock the memory on the card very high.

the more controllers you have you get higher bandwidth from your card at a lower memory clock for a amount of memory you have, you can see this in today's cards, NV has fewer memory controllers but higher memory clocks, and AMD uses more memory controllers ( they put more memory anyway ) but lower clock speeds

for performance it can mean a lot but there are other things you must consider, and that is the gpu itself and how do memory and it work together, for instance a HD 7950 has more bandwidth than a gtx 670, but the gtx 670 beats it still.

Hope this answers your question.

[ZeroPlasm]

it should be the same... the numbers stand for memory controllers on your card' date=' and they show how much bandwidth your card has, today's single controller has 64 bit so that means if your card is 128 bit it has 2 controllers of 64 bit, 192 = 3x64 memory controllers, etc... that is the general idea. for example NV GF GTX 680 has 2 gigs of ram and has 4x64 bit controllers, that card has 8 256 mb ddr5 ram chips and 2 per single controller difference should be that more bitrate you have you can ad more memory that you can use freely and not lose performance, and you do not have to overclock the memory on the card very high. the more controllers you have you get higher bandwidth from your card at a lower memory clock for a amount of memory you have, you can see this in today's cards, NV has fewer memory controllers but higher memory clocks, and AMD uses more memory controllers ( they put more memory anyway ) but lower clock speeds for performance it can mean a lot but there are other things you must consider, and that is the gpu itself and how do memory and it work together, for instance a HD 7950 has more bandwidth than a gtx 670, but the gtx 670 beats it still. Hope this answers your question. [/quote']

I beg to differ, the 7950 beats the 670 when both cards are at their max OC. AMD is coming up with newer drivers as well which boosts the 7000 Series cards in terms of performance.

[Opsilon]

it should be the same... the numbers stand for memory controllers on your card' date=' and they show how much bandwidth your card has, today's single controller has 64 bit so that means if your card is 128 bit it has 2 controllers of 64 bit, 192 = 3x64 memory controllers, etc... that is the general idea. for example NV GF GTX 680 has 2 gigs of ram and has 4x64 bit controllers, that card has 8 256 mb ddr5 ram chips and 2 per single controller difference should be that more bitrate you have you can ad more memory that you can use freely and not lose performance, and you do not have to overclock the memory on the card very high. the more controllers you have you get higher bandwidth from your card at a lower memory clock for a amount of memory you have, you can see this in today's cards, NV has fewer memory controllers but higher memory clocks, and AMD uses more memory controllers ( they put more memory anyway ) but lower clock speeds for performance it can mean a lot but there are other things you must consider, and that is the gpu itself and how do memory and it work together, for instance a HD 7950 has more bandwidth than a gtx 670, but the gtx 670 beats it still. Hope this answers your question. [/quote']

I beg to differ, the 7950 beats the 670 when both cards are at their max OC. AMD is coming up with newer drivers as well which boosts the 7000 Series cards in terms of performance.

I disagree, the gtx 670 beats the 7950 in rendering and gaming, not to mention that not all 7950 can oc the same, the only advantage is the overvolting factor, the 1st 670's from msi were beast overclockers, y nvidia stopped that, as i said nv has a more constant ocing limit, you can get the cores to 1200, but there are some that can come into 1300 range ( it is rare but still ), in most cases, 7950 is not going to that with every card, the only time 7950 wins is the 1440p with a massive overclock, not to mention that nvidia is not sleeping when amd releases new drivers, they will also release new drivers at the same time.

gtx 670 is a better all around card anyway, 7950 only wins right now if you factor price/performance for most models that are out, but not all of them.

i repeat not all chips are the same in overclocking, and some may not even overclock at all on both sides, and not to mention at stock, the 7950 loses in most cases

this is not a "vs" thread so keep your comments about cards, the question was about bitrate

[cpuxtech]

Yeah I just wanted to know in simple terms, is 256 much worse than 384-Bit? And where will you see the performance difference.

[Opsilon]

Yeah I just wanted to know in simple terms, is 256 much worse than 384-Bit? And where will you see the performance difference.

You will see a difference only on lower and mid ranged cards, on high end cards they make a good balance with gpu and memory speed so you don't see much, but just note this the more memory chips are attached to a single controller means no improvement after a point, that is why you get no real benefit with a gtx 680 with 4 gigs vs 2 gigs, same is with amd cards, "reference" design is what should work, most of the time manufacturers give bold claims that more memory gives a huge advantage, but it does not, only thing you notice is less drop in performance with over 1080p.

I am guessing you want to know what to take from today's cards, and the answer is simple, take what you can afford, do not go under 265 bit cards for today's standards and at 1080p resolutions

for NV cards 256 bit ( 670/680 ) you get 4 controllers for 2 gigs

for AMD cards 384 bit ( 7950/7970 ) you get 6 controllers for 3 gigs

notice the 2x256 gddr5 chips per a single controller

they both have good balance, and the performance is awesome either way, and in the end you just have to decide

the performance for reference cards is : hd7950/gtx670/hd7970/gtx680 and hd 7970 GE are kinda tied because GE is just a high binned 7970 ( but the GE tends to be stronger in the end ) take your poison XD

[BenHTBDT]

You want a 256bit card for gaming. At least. Basically the lower ones cost less and are considerably slower, because it has a smaller bus to access the VRAM.

In other words, its just as important as the amount of RAM. Do NOT buy a 128bit card

Its better to buy a refurbished 256bit 1gb card than to buy a 128bit 2gb card for the same price, if you're money conscious.

Retailers such as BestBuy,Office Depot, Staples, etc. are notorious for selling "2GB HD 5450 GFX CARD!!!!" for about 200% margin, hoping you'll look at the 2GB and think oh yeah this is better than my 256MB 8800gt or whatever and buy it. They try their best to not mention that its only a 128bit card, and hope you don't know that a 5450 is a 2 generation old budget card that you shouldn't let your dog play games with.