Which is more important? Core Clock Speed or Memory Clock Speed?

[Aloha717200]

When it comes to video cards, which is more important?

I decided to go with the X8XX family of graphics cards from ATI and am now comparing different manufacturers....the problem is, some of these manufacturers use different core/memory clock speeds on the same card. Knowing whether memory clock or core clock was better would help me make my decision.

I looked this up online and found a couple other forums with this question, but, the answers on those sites conflicted with each other. On one forum, people said Core clock was definitely more important. On another forum, everyone said that it was the memory clock that was most important.

So which is it? Can one of our experts on here perhaps help me to understand the difference?

Just for example, here's two GTOs with different clock speeds:

Sapphire X800GTO 256MB
Core Clock: 400Mhz
Memory Clock: 980mhz
256-bit
12 Pipelines
Cost: $151

Powercolor X800GTO 256MB
Core Clock: 475Mhz
Memory Clock: 900Mhz
256-bit
12 pipelines
Cost: $155

Same price on these two, but what's the difference in performance?

Next:

Sapphire X850 PRO 256MB
Core Clock: 500Mhz
Memory Clock: 1000Mhz
256-bit
12 pipelines
Cost: $219

Best clock speeds, but, is it worth the extra 64 dollars?

[JSkorna]

Hi,

Higher core and higher memory speed is sure worth the 64 dollars. The values really work together. That is why you get conflicting reports.

Hope this helps,
Jim
http://www.hifisim.com

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