For a video card, a 512-bit bus is a lot or a little?

The race for video card performance has been going on for a long time, resulting in a lot of controversy, guesswork and fiction that lead potential buyers into complete confusion. In addition to choosing a manufacturer, it is necessary to decide whether to prefer high frequencies or bit rates of the device. The focus of the article is a video card with 512 bits. This review primarily concerns the feasibility of buying, without reference to specific brands.

Basic knowledge

For all video cards, the 512-bit index is the amount of data that it can process per unit of time. On the market you can find adapters working on 64, 128, 192, 256, 284 and 1024 bits. Logically, the more, the better. But at the same time the price for the production of such video adapters is directly proportional to the width of the bus. Therefore, it's not so easy to find 512-bit video cards on the market, and if they do, their price is too high for the average user. Manufacturers of devices went in a different direction, increasing the memory frequency and introducing SLI and CrossFire technologies, which allow installing several identical video cards in one system unit.

Calculation of productivity

For video card performance, the priority is the throughput, which is calculated by multiplying the bus width and the memory frequency. Therefore, the performance of modern video adapters has been increased by raising the effective memory frequency. Go into the technology does not make sense, the main result - there is no need to launch a powerful game to search the market for a device with a 512-bit bus. This innovation was welcomed by all buyers positively, as evidenced by numerous reviews in the media. Only for the joy of many customers forgot about the power of the video card, for the future. After all, the manufacturer, trying to excel in the market among competitors, set the adapter maximum frequencies, under which the device can work without failures for several years.

Benefits of bit-rate

For a 512-bit video card, it makes no sense to pre-factory overclock. The modern adapter will give a head start on the bandwidth to any device with a lower bit rate. Yes, the price of a video card is much more expensive than its competitors, but for several years the fans of productive games will not have the desire to improve the computer. Increasing the frequency of the bus under the demand of the game is very easy to raise the bandwidth of the card. And if you pay attention to video cards for gaming servers, you can find that most devices have 512 bits. This once again confirms that the bit rate of the bus can not be discounted.