why go 64 meg when 32 is just fine

[mong_2]

why go 64 meg when 32 is just fine
why why why

[smartxtai]

Althought we prolly don't ues the full 64 mb of ram, a 64 MB Hercules Prophet II is actually almost 30% faster than a 32 MB Prophet II. The whole performance of the graphics card actually goes up even though 64 MB of ram seems like a wasste.

[Dputiger]

Actually, it's not the amount of memory that matters quite so much as the bandwidth. Tomshardware has looked at this issue quite a bit recently.

[mad hampster]

I gotta agree with mong, it seems kinda silly. I saw several benchmarks that showed that the only time the 64 meg is faster is in high res-32 bit color but not by much, not really worth an extra $100 IMHO

[alpha]

Why have a PIII733 when UT will run on a PIII500 just fine?? Because when UT's sequel (for example) comes out, and you still want decent performance, you won't have to change your graphics card. Plus, every little helps http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Brian48]

Actually, the extra memory does come in handy when playing levels with extremely heavy textures and with games that don't use memory efficiently (ie. D3D in UT).

I picked a 64mb Prophet II when it first came out. It was offered to me at cost and the price was actually cheaper than the 32mb version so buying it was a no-brainer.

I would say 95% of the time, you won't miss the extra memory. Running my own tests, Q3 timedemos using the "Quaver" benchmarks was significantly better with my GTS2 compared to a buddy's 32mb Elsa Gladiac. I get absolutely no slow downs what so ever playing the "Hero's Keep" level in Q3A with the texture slider all the way to the right and at 1024x768x32 w/hi-sound.

Still, I wouldn't have spent the $100 extra either if I didn't had to.

[mad hampster]

alpha, there is a BIG difference in 200mhz on a proccessor, on the GTS there is virtually no difference in 64 or 32 mb or ram. They could dump 128mb and it still wouldnt help alot, because of the massive bandwith problem.

[Dputiger]

Unless your running Quake III in 1600x1200 you'll never miss the extra RAM.

[BadBen]

In Canada (well a EBworld local store in Ottawa) a 32mg GF2 GST cost 539.99$CDN and the 64mg 549.99$CDN. For 10 dolard more I think would go for the 64mg because he better performance in High Resolution and 32bpp color.

[mad hampster]

Maybe, but paying an extra $100 on an already expensive card is a bit rich for my blood.

[Dputiger]

I say just buy what you can afford. I'm not real thrilled about buying modern video cards until they fix that bandwidth problem--but God knows when that will be.

[neo_otyugh]

ummm....as if paying $300 for a vid is not a little steep anyway...?

[alpha]

I still say that the 32mb extra will make a lota difference, 'specialy in future games, when texture detail improves a lot. Also, the consumer having lotza texture memory will allow game designers to use more varied textures in stuff.

[Wilan Wong]

Why go for extra memory, when there is a memory bandwidth problem??

[AuraEdge]

The decision was easy for me - I'm still not a believer of 32 bit color, and at 16 bit at just about any resolution, extra RAM wont make a difference.
I did treat myself to a little bit of OGL FSAA since I got my GTS tho http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif.

[mad hampster]

What programs do you run FSAA in? I tried it in Half-life and didnt see any noticeable changes

[Ultima]

It seems a bit outdated I know, but with tnt2's I didn't see any difference.

At work we have the v3800 both in 32Mb and 16Mb, both I have tested with 3DMark2000.

I don't remember the exact scores, but they were practically the same.

Pim

[Warthog]

I fully agree with Alpha.

I always look towards the FUTURE when buying computer hardware. I'm not a fan of having my hardware not be good enough after a year or so. Theoretically, a 64mb card will still be really good for a long time. Sure, it won't be the best, but it will still play the latest games for a time. Think about it: my last comp (just sold it) had a 4mb video card - it did just fine. My new comp will have a 64mb Geforce2. My computer card will have the same amount of video memory that basic computers have in system memory! yikes!

But I won't NEED to upgrade for a long, long time.

Warthog

[falcompsx]

*general* rule in computers...buy as much as you can afford...