Quote Originally Posted by [FBI]Xetsuei™ View Post
Also, just because the ram and core speeds are faster doesnt mean its better/more powerful. Lets take a look at the GeForce 8600GTS and the 8800GTX. The core for 8600GTS is 675mhz and the memory is 1ghz. With the 8800GTX the core is 575mhz and the memory is 900mhz. Does that mean that the 8600GTS is better than the 8800GTX? Hell no!

So,

X700 > X1550 while X8600 < X8800. Core clock speeds don't matter, neither do amounts of RAM, ram bus speed or pixel pipes except of course when they do matter. A DX transition does matter, but the age of the engine of the game does not, in this case, come into play. There are some "series" changes in there, but you wouldn't know from the manufacturer, just from one online retailer.

On what criteria, besides running the game in question with various cards, can you make an educated guess at how well a card will run it?