Video Card Questions, Selection Quesitons

Intcorquad

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2007
1
0
18,510
ok first of all i was wondering, what the difference is between a 320mb (OC) video card and just a regular 320mb video card, if any, is it better, faster what?

I was reading on toms and they were doing a test between ATI and geforce and were rating the cards on various games. I kept seeing 320MB OC geforce out performing the 640mb geforce regular cards on almost all benchmarks. Now is that because the games were optimized for the lower end models or is the 320mb just better?

Also i have a selection question:
EVGA 8800 GT $249 512MB 256MB GDDR3 DX 10
----is the a big difference between these two??----
EVGA 8800 GTS $368 512MB 256MB GDDR3 DX 10

EVGA 8800 GTS $369 640MB 320MB GDDR3 DX 10 Money is no issue, please gimme an opinion i'd really appreciate it
 

Gravemind123

Distinguished
Aug 10, 2006
649
0
18,980
The most powerful video card you listed is the 8800GTS 512Mb. It performs about as well as an 8800GTX, sometimes even passing the 8800GTX and the 8800Ultra. Overall, the 8800Ultra is still the most powerful card, especially at highest resolutions. The 8800GTS 320/640Mb are the older G80 based 8800GTS, where as the 512Mb one is the new G92 core based 8800GTS. The 8800GT is also G92, and performs in between the old 8800GTS and the new 8800GTS.

Either pick up a new 8800GTS or an 8800GTX if money is no issue. I would say 8800Ultra, but it's just an overclocked 8800GTX anyway, so unless it doesn't cost that much more then the 8800GTX don't spend the premium to get it.
 


The 320 OC will be the faster of the two. OC stands for OverClocked, which means that the core, shader and memory speeds have been increased.



The 320 OC will beat a regular 640 at lower resolutions, but as soon as you turn the res and texture settings up, the 640 will start to run away. More memory helps with higher textures and resolutions



Of the ones you listed, go with either the 8800GT 512 or the 8800GTS 512. They are based on a newer, less power hungry core that performs better than the older G80 GTS'.