Any Difference between a 128/256mb 6800GT?

lancer

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Not sure which to buy, a 128mb 6800GT or a 256mb 6800GT

I know theoretically rhe 256mb should be better, but do games even use the extra memory?
 
not that I know how to monitor the amount of video memory being used, but Battlefield 2 I think recommends 256MB of memory on the gfx card. Basically I would go for the 256 version if you can afford it, it should last you longer.
 
lancer said:
Any Difference between a 128/256mb 6800GT?

about 128mb


umm make sure you check memory speeds.. ive seen some 256mb GT's that may well have more ram, but they reduce the memory speeds
 
Technically, the higher the resolution, the more RAM you require - but this amount is pretty insignificant today.. it was more an issue back in the day when 4MB of video memory was considered high end.. a 4 MB video card would let you display 1600x1200 resolution.. like I said, 4 MB is nothing today..

Today, at least for gaming, the RAM is used by the GPU for the computational work of manipulating and storing the textures processed by the card.. in theory, the more ram you have, the more textures it can store in memory for faster access if the game is written to support the higher amount of RAM.

Personally, I would go for 256MB unless you are the type that has lots of money and buys a new card every couple years. If you were looking at buying a new card in a year or two, you might want to stick with 128MB because you would buy a new card again soon anyway. If you don't like blowing $300 or so on the newest cutting edge card every year and want to eek out as much life out of your next purchase, spend the $300 or so on a nice 256MB+ card now.
 
well now that i found my wallet, you don't need to buy either of them, you are getting one shipped to you in the morning, its sitting right next to me ina big brown box :)
 
To play devils advocate.

1) More RAM doesn't mean faster.
WHY?
If a GPU only utilises 64MB due to bandwidth constraints that is all that it can-will use. So the rest is useless. Yes it can store more texture maps, but if the GPU can't use them as it is already maxed out.....

2) Most cards have a memory management algorithm to keep the memory as free as possible.
Just like windows uses memory management, so does your GPU. And in most cases the game has little control over use. There have been no improvements in wait-load states for me in HL2 with 128 vs 256.

3) I'm number one in F@H still.*











*may not be a legit reason.
 
Steevo said:
To play devils advocate.

1) More RAM doesn't mean faster.
WHY?
If a GPU only utilises 64MB due to bandwidth constraints that is all that it can-will use. So the rest is useless. Yes it can store more texture maps, but if the GPU can't use them as it is already maxed out.....

2) Most cards have a memory management algorithm to keep the memory as free as possible.
Just like windows uses memory management, so does your GPU. And in most cases the game has little control over use. There have been no improvements in wait-load states for me in HL2 with 128 vs 256.

3) I'm number one in F@H still.*


*may not be a legit reason.

LOL..

1) I agree. I never meant to say that 256 will always be faster.. only that it was a little more "future proof". As someone mentioned above, having faster 128MB memory speed might be faster than a card with slower 256 MB memory.

2) Actually a game, can have a large amount of control over the memory use if they want it to. I beleive I stated above that most games today won't see much performance increase but in tomorrows games, the greater available memory can mean more storage space for textures and greater gain (thus my statement of, if you plan on buying another card in a year or two - stick with a 128MB card now..)

3) I think that it is a very legitimate reason..:) *





*I think I read somewhere on FAH site that they were trying to write a core that used the GPU processing instead of the CPU which would make an interesting, if mostly useless, benchmark of video card speed.
 
Well usually i buy 1-2 cards a year, so i really only need to future proofed by about 12 months, $300 isn't that much to spend considering the amount of time i'd spend enjoying the product for example

But it seems this whole thread it mute now anyway as mooo is coming to the reascue.
 
I don't know what difference it makes in practice, but on paper Doom 3 recommends its High Quality texture mode only for cards with 256MB RAM or more.
 

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