32 or 64 meg ?

[Guest]

I'm assembling the components of my next system and I'm still researching the vid card. I've accumulated the following so far:

Abit KT7A RAID
AMD 1G Tbird (w/ Global Win cooler)
Crucial 256mbyte CAS2 RAM
SBLive!
3Com NIC (for cable connex)

I've decided to go with an NVidia based GPU but can't decide if 64 meg is worth it. OTOH, the 64meg cards the clock rate is usually higher, i.e.

GeForce 2 GTS 32/64MB DDR RAM - core clock 200Mhz - memory clock 333Mhz (166Mhz DDR)

GeForce 2 Pro 64MB DDR RAM - core clock 200Mhz - memory clock 400Mhz (200Mhz DDR)

GeForce 2 Ultra 64MB DDR RAM - core clock 250Mhz - memory clock 460Mhz (230Mhz DDR)

The Ultra is simply out of my price range. My decision then is between a 32/64 mbyte GTS or a 64 mbyte Pro (the Pro being a pretty big stretch $$$ wise as well).

So my 'bang for the buck' question is does 64MB make that much of a diff, and if so, is it worth the extra money for the higher clock of the Pro?

 

[LordKaos]

GeForce 2 Pro 64MB DDR RAM - core clock 225Mhz - memory clock 400Mhz (200Mhz DDR)!

Well, if you buy a Hercules 3d Prophet 2 GTS you can @it because it has heatsinks on the memory banks (So the pro and the Ultra , as a matter of fact! The Pro and Ultra´s heatsinks are standard issue now, from Nvidia!) and it handles it very good!

The best bang fo thr buck is Certainly the Pro!
You won´t regret your decision if you buy a
3D Phophet 2 Pro!
I know i haven´t with the GTS w/ 64 Mb!


Better burn in Hell with some company than freeze in Heaven all alone

 

[noko]

Get the 64 megger. Allows higher resolutions playing 32 bit games before hitting the very slow AGP memory speeds. Newer games -> larger and more textures -> need more memory. Plus with the 64 meg card you can turn off texture compression and take a very small hit in speed but quality will go up.

 

[Guest]

I'd say NONE of those cards. 64meg is a total waste because of texture compression. Effectively you get 4:1 compression with no real performance hit so a 32meg card is like a 128meg. A 64meg card with 256meg worth of effective memory is useless. You can put 1/2 of Q3A into video memory. My recommendation is the radeon 32meg DDR. Here's why, it performs better than a GTS and cost <$90!!!! Don't belive me? Here you go:
http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/vidcards/ati/radeon/
The drivers have recently been updated putting the radeon in the lead. Ofcourse 16-bit performance is unspectaclar, but the 32-bit performance is the same as the 16-bit!

 

[rcf84]

try a ATi radeon 32mb ddr. get a Pentium1 HSF and ram heatsinks. i did that combo and its at 210 / 200.

First person to get a topic banned. ABIT BP6 Lives FOREVER!!!

 

[LordKaos]

"the 32-bit performance is the same as the 16-bit!"

No it isn´t , and you know that!

What´s the fun in playing at 16-bit when you can play at 32-bit?
Better burn in Hell with some company than freeze in Heaven all alone

 

[Guest]

No offense, but what the heck are you talking about? I'm talking about performance ie. SPEED. When have you heard "image quality" mean the same thing as performance? If you look at some radeon benchmarks you will clearly see that the 16-bit performance is only a couple frames per second faster than the 32-bit. Radeon's 16-bit performance is MUCH slower than the GF2 GTS. Radeon's 32-bit performance is faster than the GTS's. Clear?

 

[LordKaos]

You call 20-30 fps a couple??

Better burn in Hell with some company than freeze in Heaven all alone

 

[Ncogneto]

Nvidia vs Ati is getting alot like AMD vs Intel.
Both cards have there advantages and disadvantages. Nvidia has more speed. Ati slightly better quality exspecially on dvd playback. Ati can be a little bit of a challange to install on a VIA chipset. Hard core gamers should get the gforce pro. Occasional gamer and dvd user get the Ati radeon. The 64 meg card will help over the 32 meg card when using 32 bit color at high resolutions, anything over a 17 inch monitor should benefit from the additional 32 megs of ram at resolutions above 1024 x 768.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!