ATI Video Card Suffixes - Descriptions/Common Features

Descriptions/Common Features

Each suffix tends to indicate a general trend of features and limitations that are common when applied to different lines of card and different graphics cores. These are related to the number of processing units (pipelines) available, the bit width of the video RAM interface, and the clock speed of the graphics core and video RAM.

• Processing Units: This is the number of processing units, otherwise known as "graphics pipelines;" different suffixes among the same line may use the same graphics core, but less-expensive/less-powerful suffixes may have a number of the pipelines disabled, effectively unusable by the card. These "pipelines" each traditionally includes a single render output unit, and one or more each of texture mapping units and pixel shader units. However, for Radeon X1k cards, it should be noted that the "pipeline" doesn't actually exist, so this will refer to all of the units grouped together, counted by the number of render output units.
• Memory Interface: This is the form of interface the graphics core has with its video RAM. As a number, it refers to how much data, in bits, can be read from or written to the memory every clock cycle the memory goes through. Radeon X1k cards also have an internal "ringbus," which is twice as wide as its actual external interface; in this case, the actual interface width is used, not the width of the ringbus.
• Clock Speeds: This is the clock speed that the graphics core and video RAM run at; they do not need to be the same. The faster the clock speed, the more the graphics core and/or video RAM can accomplish in a second. All modern video cards use DDR SDRAM, which, for all performance issues, is twice as fast as its actual clock speed indicates. All clock speeds mentioned here for DDR RAM are their effective "DDR speeds," and their actual clock speeds are half that.
• Cooling: This chipset is known for high temperatures. Aftermarket coolers are highly recommended by most.