How to know which graphics card is better?

Can someone answer this question for me? Thanks in advance

http://www.hwcompare.com/

I typically use that site to get an idea so I approve of that site.

For somebody that stays up to date on cards (primary on the nvidia side) I can usually tell a better card from the other by looking at the specs and read up on reviews on a specific card or two.

I don't know graphics cards that well, but I have a good idea of what's good and what's bad.

The higher the number, the better it is.

by that logic, an 8800gt is better than a gtx 680, this is false.

Here's a bit of a guide on graphics cards.

AMD:

if it has an X before it, it is just plain bad. This series is most likely the lowest tier of dedicated graphics you will see in computers from 1990 to now.

AMD Radeon HD Series: This is the series that is modern. In this series, you have a range of numbers. The first number acts like a generation counter. the 4000 series is the earliest series. The earlier the series, the worse the performance and vice versa. the numbers you will see will be basically like this, the 6 can be any number, remember it represents the series. (From now on, replace X with the generation number) The latest series of AMD graphics cards is the 7XXX series.

AMD Radeon HD 6990: this is the highest end card. It consists of two X970's, sometimes "underclocked" so that it can run on one card.

AMD Radeon HD 6970: this is the highest performance single GPU from AMD, it costs the most and performs the best.

AMD Radeon HD 6950: Still a high end card, but less expensive and performs a bit slower than the X970's

AMD Radeon HD 6870: This is where the budget price-performance ratio card is. Most people will buy this card since it performs well, and is affordable.

AMD Radeon HD 6850: Again, one step lower, but still performs well in modern games.

AMD Radeon HD 6790: This card is worse than an X850, but a bit better than an X770, they're not too popular.

AMD Radeon HD 6770: This is usually the cheapest card that can actually play modern games on lowest settings.

AMD Radeon HD 6750: Once again, one step lower.

AMD Radeon HD 6670: This is usually used if you have integrated graphics, but they just don't cut it

AMD Radeon HD 6570 : This is usually used if you have integrated graphics, but they just don't cut it

AMD Radeon HD 6450 : This is usually used if you have integrated graphics, but they just don't cut it

Nvidia

4 Number cards: Once again, the first number is the generation. The generations range from 2 to 9. It's not uncommon to see an 8800 or a 9800, but these cards cannot play modern games. These cards are worse than the 3 number cards (560, 670 etc.). Again, keep in mind that the first number can be anything ranging from a 1 to a 6 for Nvidia cards, generation means a lot.

GeForce 510: Crappy card, usually used if you have really bad integrated graphics
GeForce GT 520 : Crappy card, usually used if you have really bad integrated graphics
GeForce GT 530 : Crappy card, usually used if you have really bad integrated graphics
GeForce GT 545 : slightly less crappy card, still usually used if you have really bad integrated graphics
GeForce GTX 550: This falls in between AMD's X770 and their X850, it's an ok card if you don't have the money.
GeForce GTX 560: This is comparable to the X870's from AMD. Once again, it's the card that has great price-performance ratio, it's the card you'll see most people getting.
GeForce GTX 560 SE: here's when it gets a bit confusing. There are different "mutations" of certain cards. SE basically means "slow edition." It's clocked at a lower frequency and will have less performance than the original.
GeForce GTX 560 Ti: This is the opposite of SE, it is clocked higher and is faster than the original.
GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core: This one has more cores, it's kind of like a 565. Not as good as a 570, but definitely faster than a 560 TI.
GeForce GTX 570: Second highest single GPU card, will probably run any modern game on high settings.
GeForce GTX 580: Highest performance single GPU card, it's expensive as well.
GeForce GTX 590: This has two X80 cards on it, Uber expensive.

Intel

If you see that your graphics card is intel, then you have integrated graphics.
If it says graphics media accelerator, it's pretty bad, you can run some games, but definitely nothing modern.
Intel HD graphics 3000: this is pretty ok, you can play games that have crappy graphics like portal 2 or tf2 or hl2 on highest settings usually, don't expect to be playing bf3 though.

Intel HD Graphics 4000: this is twice the performance of the 3000 graphics, you can play many modern games at medium settings, but you probably won't be able to play the most intensive games.



Final Notes:
Ok, well that sums it up pretty much. That was a lot of typing. Feel free to PM me any questions about a specific card as there are some deviations between certain types of cards (for instance certain 5450's have a different memory transfer rate). Also, some cards have a different amount of ram. If you're using multiple monitors or a very high resolution, you'll want more ram, but 3 gb's seem to be the most you could ever possibly need with current games (if you have 3 1080p screens running together).

That list is not very accurate, I'd suggest looking at benchmarks instead.

It compares cards based on benchmarks, disregard the list.

That site really doesn't tell you much. It only can really measure the memory bandwidth a card has. It doesn't have benchmarks on most cards.

This site does a better job of that: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372

I don't think thats is always the case. In the beginning i was thinking the same thing however there was something in my brain that keeps telling me, this is not always the case. Go to this search up any graphics card model number (notebook cards only) and on the right hand side you can see a list of gfx cards listed and you will know what is mean