128 vs. 256 MB

[One Armed Bandit]

Hey everyone -

I have a a pretty qick machine - 2.8 P4 on a Asus P4P800 Deluxe (800 FSB) with 1 Gig of Crucial DDR400 set in Dual line config. As a side point - if u guys have never tried Crucial, it is quite the good RAM - very overclockable, stable, and best of all, cheap.

I currently have a Albatron Ti4200 Turbo, which has served me well but with Doom 3 and HL 2 coming out soon I think I have to set it free.

I would like to replace it for around $150 US and was wondering if anyone could offer up their best picks for that range. I don't care about looks - I care about performance. I am not that much of an overclocker, so please take that into consideration as well.

Now for the real question and the reason I started this thread - with the speed of my machine and amount of RAM that I have, do you feel it is necessary to have to go for the 256 version of whatever card I decide upon?

Thanks in advance to all for expending your valuable time on yours truly.

 

[CHiLLaXen]

Don't look at the Video cards RAM, 128MB and 256MB versions of the same card wont show differences (maybe a frame or two.)

Within the $150 buget, you can get a ATi 9600 Pro, which is a very powerful card. Or if you can bump your buget up a little more, go for the ATi 9600XT, its a little better than the pro and you get a free Half-Life 2 coupon so you can get the game when it comes out. I can't say anything about the GeForce cards as I never had one to use myself.

 

[One Armed Bandit]

Don't look at the Video cards RAM, 128MB and 256MB versions of the same card wont show differences (maybe a frame or two.)

Within the $150 buget, you can get a ATi 9600 Pro, which is a very powerful card. Or if you can bump your buget up a little more, go for the ATi 9600XT, its a little better than the pro and you get a free Half-Life 2 coupon so you can get the game when it comes out. I can't say anything about the GeForce cards as I never had one to use myself.

I am not sure what you mean "to not look at the vid card's RAM". Does this mean I should not take it into consideration when purchasing a new card? That seems like a bold statement considering the 128 to 256 jump per card is also accompanied with an increase in $20-60.

I like your suggestions - I am moving away from nVidia based cards to see what the others can do. It seems Radeon based cards are pulling away from nVidia, at least in the mid-range bracket.

 

[rushm001]

I'd agree that the ATI based cards are better at the moment, but I'm sure nVidia will soon catch up!

I am not sure what you mean "to not look at the vid card's RAM". Does this mean I should not take it into consideration when purchasing a new card?

What he is saying is that the performance gain isn't worth the extra cash.

 

[Viernafein]

From what I've heard, the only thing you'll get out of a card that has 256MB of ram on it is that you can possibly run in the ultra high resolutions without as much slow down.

Take note on how thats worded though. . .with your price range, most GPUs aren't going to be able to push out as much graphically to actually need that 256MB of ram.

 

[LeeJend]

There is no present or forseable game that needs 256 meg of texture memory so you are paying for something that won't get used. Stick with 128 meg video memory.

Use the extra money to get a better card. Buying at ths time I would recommend a 9700 PRO or 9800. Expecting a 2-3 year life out of a mid range video card ($150 range) is going to be disappointing.

 

[Sazar]

@ the moment the extra memory only benefits the high end cards... there is no point to getting a 5200 or a 9600 non pro with 256mb ram unless you work with professional graphics or the like...

getting to the nv35 and r350 level it plays in when you start turning the LOD up a fair bit and nets you a few extra fps