Difference between 256Mb and 128Mb on Video Cards

[ShoobieRat]

It all really depends on what yer going to do with yer card. If yer just going to play medium-weight games, it's not so important. If yer playing heavy games, or you're doing a lot of graphics work or modeling, that extra bit of memory is a real lifesaver.

 

[Mr. Switch]

256MB of memory can also accomodate AA/AF. if you have ever played a game like Doom3 at 6xAA/16xAF, Ultra quality, on a 128MB card, you'll see that the data is too much, and it will drop it on to your hard disk in virtual mempory. that is where the 256MB, and even 512MB comes into play.

Doom 3 on ultra quality alone uses 500MB of texture data. couple that with 6xAA/16xAF and it will exceed the 512MB threshold.

EDIT: In short, the 256MB card is the much better buy.

 

[Nubius]

Yeah it tells you when you click 'Ultra Settings' that it's meant for 500mb+ of texture data lol. 512mb cards were supposed to be out already but they are just barely making the scene into hardware

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Thats why ya get a lot of system ram and up the AGP aperture size



err did i spell that right?

 

[Bpowa]

K thanks everybody, now just to start saving for that, another hard drive, motherboard, and possibly watercooling. Thanks all

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Thats why ya get a lot of system ram and up the AGP aperture size



err did i spell that right?

But your system ram is very slow in comparasion

My ram is 6.4 GB \ Sec on system and like 20 GB \ Sec on my 6600GT

 

[dale5605]

Duh, 128MB... Simple questions deserve simple answers...

That is not a simple answer so much as it is a wrong one.

This question really isn't that difficult. Anything below a 6800 and an x800 will not effectively utilize 256mb of RAM and therefore it is pointless to have and actually cards with that amount will usually have decreased performance over their 128mb counterparts.

A 6800 or an x800 will be able to properly use 256mb ram and this is a huge help, anything that uses 128 on these cards is a downgraded version.

I wouldn't buy anything that's been downgraded like that. So basically don't buy that 6800 128MB because it has less memory, less pipes etc.

If you get a 6800/x800 or higher make sure it has 256mb. And definitely get the gt. Basically if you are shopping ATI stay away from pro's and se's and these are crappy cards IMHO. If you are going for nvidia stay away from the ones with no suffix (ie just 6800) and LE as these are the crappy nvidia cards. For a 6800 make sure you are buying either a GT or ultra, nothing less.

 

[gaara]

If you get a 6800/x800 or higher make sure it has 256mb. And definitely get the gt. Basically if you are shopping ATI stay away from pro's and se's and these are crappy cards IMHO. If you are going for nvidia stay away from the ones with no suffix (ie just 6800) and LE as these are the crappy nvidia cards. For a 6800 make sure you are buying either a GT or ultra, nothing less.

I'm a bit torn on this issue, many of these cards listed above such as SE or non-suffix nVidia cards may have one bad pipeline, or in some cases, no bad pipelines, they were simply turned off to retail at the lower price. If you're lucky, you can snag one of these and unlock the hidden pipelines and bang, you've got a card that will perform the same as it's full pipeline counterpart at a fraction of the price.

 

[dale5605]

True, but that's only if you get lucky and all the pipes are intact which I think is pretty rare. I think that's a bad way to try and save money myself.
I see your point though, for those that successfully unlike the pipes and overclock the frequencies they might save $40. But I don't think it's worth it. Spend the money, get the good stuff. I think I would rather have a 6600 gt than a 6800 LE (especially that one that has 256mb memory on a 128 bit bus *shudder* )

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

On the leadtek cards their was like a 90% suscess rate for unlocking pipes? Yeah.