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High resolution vrs RAM on graphics cards question

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fourfives   08-08-2007 at 10:27:58 PM

I keep reading that people say if your only going to play at whateverXwhatever resolution you really do not need to buy a graphics card with 768MB memory on it. Shoot for the 512MB or even less 320. I guess this confuses me because looking at toms charts for example...oblivion on a GTS 640 MB gets burned vrs the same resolution on a GTX (1280x1024). Not that 1280X1024 is a low resolution but it's not certainly the highest these days. So I guess my question is why is this repeated so much? Is this only incorrect on Oblivion?

Ultimately if I wanted to play Crysis at 1280X1024 would i'd see better performance with a GTX vrs a GTS. Is it simply the extra ram is 'wasted' and the GTX is just a flat out faster card cpu wise assuming I play at 1280X1024?

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aevm   08-08-2007 at 10:51:42 PM
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There's more to it than just the amount of RAM. It's also the number of stream processors. Think of it this way: the GTX has 128 little elves inside hammering at the pixels, and these elves have 768 bottles of beer to keep them happy and productive. The GTS has only 92 elves and 320 bottles. The number of bottles is definitely important, but the number of elves is more important. And to push this silly analogy further, ATI cards have fewer elves but they are bigger. :)

Nobody knows yet what Crysis wants. Yes, I can tell you that the GTX will do better in Crysis at 1280x1024. It's possible that both will do so good that you won't notice a difference. It's possible that both will do so badly that you won't be able to enjoy it on either card. We'll see in November.

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fourfives   08-08-2007 at 11:02:34 PM
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LoL I loved your dumbed down answer. I guess don't get hung up on Crysis.

I guess my concern is would I waste money if i'm going to stick with a 19 inch monitor that can only go up to 1280x1024 with a GTX. It would appear (at least with games such as oblivion) that the answer to that question is no...Sure in the future i'll probably buy another monitor at some point to get higher resolutions.

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linuxlab   08-08-2007 at 11:07:13 PM
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off topic though I really like the analogy; isn't it so that Ati would have more but smaller elves?

on topic when Crysis finally arives and or when the Cryteks system requirements are made available the second round of DX10 cards should be on the horizon;

a possibility I would like to suggest is the step up program from eVGA which lets you trade up if a newer model comes out within 90 days of your purchase; for details see http://evga.com/stepup/

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aevm   08-08-2007 at 11:21:50 PM
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Oops, I got it wrong about ATI, true, sorry. The HD 2900 XT has 320 smaller elves, and even together they can't do what their colleagues in the GTX do. It's close but not there yet.

TBH I wouldn't buy a GTX for 1280x1024, yeah, it sounds like a waste. At that resolution the 8800 GTS comes very close to 60 fps in lot sof games, and the human eye doesn't notice anything over that. OK, some people say they do, good for them :)

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