Video card troubles!

[1337infamous]

May seem like a new question but, what will a 640mb gfx card do that a 320mb won't? will i notice a huge difference in games and whatnot?

 

[Akubane]

hmm i could be wrong, but it would do twice as much. seeing as it has double the capacity. so if its a crazy top end game, you might notice twice the improvement? just my thoughts though.

 

[1337infamous]

i have read that its the memory, but what the heck does video memory do? Enable bigger resolutions?

 

[Akubane]

can't help you there, don't know its exact function. But yes I imagine larger resolutions would be a start. my old 128mb radeon 300x has a max res of 1280.x1024. whereas my 8800gtx can take whatever any monitor I get could handle. (as far as i've seen anyway) another guess is the actual power of the card itself. How well a job it does at rendering complex textures and physics at high speeds, giving you decent enough framerates in games etc. i.e. bigger the number, better the card. you get what you pay for linda thing.
Though this is I'll i know enough to say, and seems the forums are kinda quiet tonight ^^ hopefully someone else can give you a bit more help

 

[Sora]

Understand that more memory only helps if the game needs it. For example if you play on a 19inch monitor at 1280x1024 you would probably notice barley any difference in most games today from the 320 and 640 8800GTS, maybe a slight amount more difference on really memory hungry games.

However lets say your using a 22inch monitor at 1600x1200 this is where you will start to notice some difference between the two but still not a HUGE difference or anything...unless you are gaming at even higher resolutions which then the 640mb will start to pull a good bit ahead the standard 320.


What I'm saying here is if you are going for an 8800GTS I would say if you have a 20 inch or lower then the 320 is all you need for a while. If you are gaming at 22inch or higher then the 640 would be a good investment but even the 320 1600x1200 is a monster gamer

 

[commandercup]

Understand that more memory only helps if the game needs it. For example if you play on a 19inch monitor at 1280x1024 you would probably notice barley any difference in most games today from the 320 and 640 8800GTS, maybe a slight amount more difference on really memory hungry games.

However lets say your using a 22inch monitor at 1600x1200 this is where you will start to notice some difference between the two but still not a HUGE difference or anything...unless you are gaming at even higher resolutions which then the 640mb will start to pull a good bit ahead the standard 320.


What I'm saying here is if you are going for an 8800GTS I would say if you have a 20 inch or lower then the 320 is all you need for a while. If you are gaming at 22inch or higher then the 640 would be a good investment but even the 320 1600x1200 is a monster gamer

good explanation, to add on

the extra memory basically acts as ram for the gpu so you could consider the PCB a mini mobo like your pc

anyways, all the compressed graphics and textures and models and such goes onto the ram, so if you play something like Quake 4 on ULTRA which features uncompressed textures, those will all have to be used/utilized on the gpu's ram, thus having more is better, ULTRA takes a humongus hit for lower memory ratings

also... like mentioned, resolution affects it a lot too, so does anti-aliasing

 

[veg1992]

Understand that more memory only helps if the game needs it. For example if you play on a 19inch monitor at 1280x1024 you would probably notice barley any difference in most games today from the 320 and 640 8800GTS, maybe a slight amount more difference on really memory hungry games.

However lets say your using a 22inch monitor at 1600x1200 this is where you will start to notice some difference between the two but still not a HUGE difference or anything...unless you are gaming at even higher resolutions which then the 640mb will start to pull a good bit ahead the standard 320.


What I'm saying here is if you are going for an 8800GTS I would say if you have a 20 inch or lower then the 320 is all you need for a while. If you are gaming at 22inch or higher then the 640 would be a good investment but even the 320 1600x1200 is a monster gamer

this is correct... but its proven.. no matter the resolution.. the 640mb has little to no edge over the 320mb..... lemme search the forum..

http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/8800gts-benches-148424/

 

[dave39]

The 320mb is the way to go unless you are thinking about resolutions higher than 1680 x 1050. I am using a 320mb version and it performs great on all the games out currently. The 320mb superclocked version actually outperforms the 640mb standard versions on some gaming benchmarks.

 

[kobe24]

yeah like sora said the 320 is bank for ur buck goodness but the 640 is really a waste

 

[veg1992]

yeah like sora said the 320 is bank for ur buck goodness but the 640 is really a waste

yes its very good bang for the buck