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What is 192 Bit in GPU?
192 bit in GPU means that the graphics card can access that many bits of data in one clock cycle. From the technical perspective, this number denotes the data bus width through which data and information is transmitted between the GPU and its memory.
It can also be defined as the amount of data in bits that can be in the video memory at any given point in time or the number of wires, which are also called traces, that connect the graphics memory to the Graphics Processing Unit.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- 192 bits in GPU indicates the bit rate of the card which actually denotes its overall bandwidth or the memory output.
- When the bandwidth is more, images will be rendered by the graphics card more swiftly to the screen which makes a 192 bit graphics card better than a 128 bit GPU.
- A 192 bit GPU will render better quality images with higher resolution than graphics cards with a lower number of bits.
- These cards are mid-range graphics cards that can handle more traffic due to their larger bus.
- These specific GPUs will be able to compress and send larger amounts of data than the graphics cards with lower bits.
Understanding 192 Bit in GPU
Technically, 192 Bit connection of a graphics card indicates the number of bits of data that can be on the Video Memory to the GPU connection at a given point in time.
In simple words, you can consider it as the number of traces or wires that connect the memory of the graphics card to the GPU.
Generally speaking, the bit rate of the graphics card is a specific component that signifies the overall memory output or its bandwidth.
When the bandwidth of a graphics card is more, it will allow the card to render images more quickly to the screen.
This also means that a graphics card with 192 Bit will render images that are of better quality and resolution as compared to the images displayed by a 128 Bit graphics card.
Ideally, the bit rate of a graphics card depends on the number of pins of the processor.
And, the overall output of the graphics card can be increased by overclocking the RAM because the memory bandwidth of the card is actually the product of the frequency of the RAM and the bit rate.
This also means that the increase made in one will effectively increase the other since both of these aspects serve no other particular purpose other than contributing to the overall memory bandwidth.
Therefore, higher the RAM frequency and the bit rate, the higher will be the memory bandwidth.
This means that the 192 Bit graphics card with a higher RAM will have a higher memory bandwidth than one with a 128 Bit memory interface but the same amount of RAM.
And, that is why it is said that the performance of the card overall is not affected by the bit rate alone.
Therefore, with all that said, graphics cards with higher bit rate such as 192 Bits will be more effective when these are overclocked.
In terms of traffic, a 192 Bit graphics card will be able to handle larger traffic due to the larger bus.
Of course, a higher amount of RAM will also help a lot in producing a higher performance by the graphics card.
This will offer much more lanes to allow moving a lot of bits.
What Does 192 Bit Mean on a Graphics Card?
In the simplest words, 192 Bit of a graphics card refers to the memory bus width, as already mentioned.
When the width of the memory bus is more, for example 192 bits, a larger amount of data can be transmitted to and from the graphics processor and the memory or Video RAM.
This is in comparison to a graphics card with 128 bits, for example, which may be running at the same speed.
Just as bits in a graphics card refers to the number of bits you can move at a time, the clock frequency indicates the number of times you can do so in one second.
The product of these two values gives the memory bandwidth, which is divided by 8 to change it into bytes.
Typically, 192 bits mean that the graphics card can access 192 bits of data at a time, which is reasonably good but the performance would have been even higher if the number was higher, say 256 bits.
If all other factors remain the same, a 256 Bit graphics card would transfer nearly 33% more data in the same time as a graphics card with a 192 bit memory interface would.
Now, mind it – it is just 33% more data. This certainly does not mean that the data will be transferred at a 33% faster rate.
This is because the processor of the graphics card will be handling the data at probably the same rate.
Yes, it is true that higher the bit rate may result in an increase in the performance level but it will surely not be to the level you think.
Typically, the bus width of a graphics card may help in finding out the general ranking of the card within the same GPU architecture.
For example, if a 128 Bit graphics card is considered to be an entry level card then a 192 Bit graphics card will be a mid range card, a 256 Bit card will be a higher mid range card and so on.
It may also help in finding out the memory amount but it will certainly not help in determining the memory bandwidth, which is the most important factor that determines the performance of a GPU.
In order to find out the memory bandwidth, you will need to know the bit rate and the transfer rate, and, the more it is the better.
Therefore, bit rate, whether it is 128 Bit, 192 Bit, 256 Bit or more, seems to be a wrong term.
It is actually something that is measured in a second. Therefore, bit rate typically refers to the bus width.
And, if you want to keep your graphic card really busy, you will need a very wide bus having a pretty fast and more data rate per pin, like 192 bits, to allow more parallel read and writes.
Remember, latency is not a significant issue in the case of a graphics card as it is in the case of the CPU.
Is 192 Bit Graphics Card Good?
In order to know whether a 192 Bit graphics card is good or not, you will need to refer to the memory bandwidth actually, as said earlier.
This can be calculated in different ways such as the memory compression technique, which however is quite complicated.
The whole idea behind it is to figure out the amount of data the graphics card can compress so that it can transfer more of it over the connection. This data is then decompressed.
A 192 Bit graphics card will be able to compress and send more data as compared to a 128 Bit graphics card and less when compared to a 256 Bit graphics card, technically.
However, irrespective of the technique you implement, the whole idea is to figure out the effective memory bandwidth of the graphics card based on the bit rate and the clock speed.
The factors that you need to consider essentially for it include:
- The number of bits of the connection
- The frequency of the clock and
- The amount of memory compression.
In simple terms, you will need to consider factors like:
- The number of wires or traces in it
- The speed at which the data flows between the GPU and the memory and
- Whether or not the data is compressed and, if so, then how much of it is compressed.
However, all these efforts may not be required at all when it comes to choosing a graphics card of 192 Bit or higher or lower.
This is because the bit rate of the graphics card is really a non-issue.
Everything will depend on other vital factors such as:
- The model of the Graphics Processing Unit
- The number of cores in it and
- The other components of the graphics card as well as the computer system overall.
Also, you can rely on the manufacturers of the graphics card with 192 Bit, whether it is NVIDIA or AMD, because none will be so foolish to sell a graphics card which is relatively expensive than one with a lower bit rate knowing that it has memory bottleneck.
Ideally, the performance of the graphics card does not vary on whether it is 192 Bit or 128 Bit or higher.
It entirely depends on the actual bandwidth or throughput.
This is measured in Gigabytes per second and is determined based on the frequency of the RAM and the bit rate of the connection.
Moreover, graphics cards with 192 Bit and those with 128 Bit or higher cannot be separated by the bus size only.
This is realistically a common misconception among the users.
Therefore, the speed of the RAM is a very important factor to consider in order to find out whether or not a 192 Bit graphics card is good.
In fact, the 192 Bit interface may not mean much if the memory clock is not at par, if not higher.
This is because the memory bandwidth is determined by the memory clock more than it is done by using the bit rate.
This is actually the factor that determines the overall performance of the Video RAM.
Typically, a 192 Bit graphics card may be quite lowly for a high-end GPU sans the memory clock.
It is, in fact, the memory clock that balances the act and makes up for any deficit that there may be in the performance of the graphics card.
For example, if you compare the AMD Radeon 7870 and the GTX 660 TI, the latter offers a much higher and faster performance as compared to the former in spite of having a 192 Bit memory interface as opposed to the 256 Bit memory interface of the latter.
This is because it comes with a clock speed that is much higher.
In fact, it is 6008 MHz as opposed to the memory clock of 4800 MHz of the Radeon 7870 graphics chip.
Is 192 Bit GPU Good For Gaming?
Yes, the 192 Bit graphics cards can be used for several purposes by a wide range of users.
It is surely good in comparison to most of the basic graphics cards with a lower bit rate.
These graphics cards can also support 3D graphics and it will be good enough to meet most of your computing needs, and it, of course, includes gaming.
However, whether or not you will be able to play those high-end games will depend on the other aspects of the graphics card as well as the processor and other vital components of the computer.
Conclusion
So, with that, this article comes to an end. Hopefully, with the information provided through it has made you more knowledgeable than before regarding 192 Bit graphics cards.
At least, now you know that the performance of the graphics card does not entirely depend on it.