Author Topic: Video card acronyms -- what do they mean? (Read 354 times)

Krusty · « **on:** September 25, 2006, 09:09:24 AM »

Well there's a lot of video cards that use the same processor but the cards have different acronyms in the name.

What do these mean?

For example, I know that the GT means souped up but I don't know what GT means. I imagine it means "grand turbo" but that's just my imagination at work.

I know FX means stripped down POS, but I don't know if it stands for anything (I imagine it's just a marketing pre-fix for this type of card).

So what do these mean, if they stand for something?

- GT

- GS

- XT

- FX (probably not an acronym)

- XTO

(any others you can add in)

TinmanX · « **Reply #1 on:** September 25, 2006, 11:25:54 AM »

SLI - Scalable Link Interface or joining 2 video cards together for performance

Other than that though, they are just letters tagged on to the end, like on cars, by the manufacturer to denote power.... a GTX is usually better than a GT, blahblah.

Unfortunatly they are not an accurate way to gauge performance across brands. Nvidia's XT is the amongst the lowest performers whereas XT for ATI is amongst their most powerfull.

Schutt · « **Reply #2 on:** September 25, 2006, 12:18:02 PM »

Except for SLI the acronyms are all made up for marketing hype. Also it is diffrent depending on model number.

X = Extreme

GT = Grand Tourismo ... derived from a race class for street cars and used there

GS = Grand Sport, class below Grand Tourismo

XT = More Extreme than extreme

GTX = Grand Tourismo Extreme

GTO= Famous Car

GT, GS, GTX, GTO come from cars and are associated with good performance by a lot of people, thats why they are used.

X, XT, XxxxXT = X is used for eXtreme since 10 years now and recognized as that.

They dont mean anything for the card... and sometimes the cards with extra letters is worse than the one without any letters, as well as there were manufacturers selling the weaker chip in a card labled like the better ones and overclocked... So a GT card with GS chip overclocked and running hotter& less stable.

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** September 25, 2006, 12:22:59 PM »

The way I've noticed it (at least for NVidia cards) is that GT is the big daddy. It's the end-all be-all of performance. The GS seems to be the standard line, often much weaker than the GT (by a lot). The XT seems to be weaker still than the GS. They don't have any "normal" cards, so I don't know what it's "extreme" from, in that there's no normal baseline to then call the next card "extreme"

I knew what SLI was I just wasn't sure about those suffixes. Thanks, you've both been helpful.

moneyguy · « **Reply #4 on:** September 25, 2006, 05:26:13 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Schutt
Except for SLI the acronyms are all made up for marketing hype. Also it is diffrent depending on model number.

X = Extreme

GT = Grand Tourismo ... derived from a race class for street cars and used there

GS = Grand Sport, class below Grand Tourismo

XT = More Extreme than extreme

GTX = Grand Tourismo Extreme

GTO= Famous Car

GT, GS, GTX, GTO come from cars and are associated with good performance by a lot of people, thats why they are used.

X, XT, XxxxXT = X is used for eXtreme since 10 years now and recognized as that.

They dont mean anything for the card... and sometimes the cards with extra letters is worse than the one without any letters, as well as there were manufacturers selling the weaker chip in a card labled like the better ones and overclocked... So a GT card with GS chip overclocked and running hotter& less stable.

you forgot GSX.

38ruk · « **Reply #5 on:** September 25, 2006, 11:39:48 PM »

Quote

The way I've noticed it (at least for NVidia cards) is that GT is the big daddy

GTX is Nvidia's big daddy

Krusty · « **Reply #6 on:** September 25, 2006, 11:57:19 PM »

I don't think I've seen any GTXs lately.

Slash27 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 26, 2006, 01:35:03 AM »

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=38&N=2010380048+1305520548+106790717+1067920130&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=38&N=2010380048+1305520548+106790717+1067916838&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48

There is a 7950GTX on there somewhere too.

Krusty · « **Reply #8 on:** September 26, 2006, 09:50:12 AM »

Interesting... Is GTX a recent addition? Becuase I've been looking at only AGP cards lately (I have an AGP slot) and I notice all of those are PCIe.

Oh well, thanks for the addition!

EagleDNY · « **Reply #9 on:** October 01, 2006, 04:03:27 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
Interesting... Is GTX a recent addition? Becuase I've been looking at only AGP cards lately (I have an AGP slot) and I notice all of those are PCIe.

Oh well, thanks for the addition!

BFG makes a Nvidia 7800 for the AGP slot - take a look at the 7800GS - 256Mb card.

EagleDNY