Which is better 8800gts 320mb or 8800gts 640mb?

Hello All!

I want to get a new 8800 GTS and am wondering which would be better for my max resolution of 1280 x 1024?

Here is my rig:

M2N-SLI deluxe, bios 0609
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Zalman 9500 AM2) (am buying the 6400+ when I get the vid card)
Corsair XMS2 6400 c4 4,4,4,12, 2T, 2.1v
XFX 7900gs 256 extreme 550/770
mushkin 550 watt PSU
Coolermaster Centurion (120mm back, 120mm and 90mm front) qfan is off
idle 36^c cpu, 30^c mobo
Viewsonic VX922 - 19" LCD

That is what I am thinking and for $75 more is the extra 320mb worth it.

Unfortunately I have an SLI mobo and not a crossfire. Plus I am just an Nvidia fanboy, I admit it.

It's kind of a push to me.... I've heard the extra memory is only beneficial if you game at extremely high reloslutions and that up to about 1600X1200 there's not much of a difference... However with Crysis coming and DX10 maturing ( YES IT WILL HAPPEN SOMEDAY.. ) It may very well be worthwhile to future-proof yourself a little and spring the extra$$$$ for the extra memory.. BTW G92 is around the corner, might want to wait ....

I just got my 320MB XFX 8800GTS XXX Edition card and I have heard great things about it. It's too bad I can't give you an honest response about the performance though (at least not from experience) since the PSU I bought I had to RMA since it was faulty. -.- Oh well, it's only like another week or so before I get it back. Heh...

Anyway, I really don't see the need to buy the 640MB version because it's only about 3-4 fps better and the 1280 x 1024 resolution isn't that high. I've seen videos of people getting 100 fps or so in BF2 with max settings at that resolution with the 320MB version.

Also, the 640MB version was actually about $100 more (if you're going with XFX like me, it was), and I didn't have the money to upgrade since I had just bought my E6600, PSU, and now, the video card. But, I guess if you have the extra money, go for it.

Off topic a little: how did you measure how much VRAM was being used by the game?

I agree with the "waiting" part. 8800 GTS 640 probably won't be any more future proof than the 320.

I don't know why people confuse the amount of Vram with resolution or screen size, there are other rewards for having more Vram. Lets say that I have a 17 inch LCD and (A) I have an 8800GTS 320MB and I'm playing GRAW 1 & 2, guess what, I am lock out from choosing high quality textures because the game limits people with less than 512MB of Vram.

Were talking about texture quality here not screen resolution or size. Anyhow (B) I have a 17 inch LCD with an 8800GTS 640MB and now because I have enough Vram (more than 512MB) to go around I can now select high quality textures which makes it look awesome on any size screen.

Have a look at GRAW, the 320MB OC version is getting hammered by the 640MB version!

>> http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/416/13

I seldom play on anything higher than 1280x1024, as frame-rates to drop a bit more beyond that, and i can't tell much difference anyways. Personally, I'd get the HD2900 Pro or the 640MB 8800GTS. That extra VRAM will help out.

Finally someone who isn't a complete moron

So now that I know I am going to get an 8800gts with 640mb what does waiting for the new skew model (16 more stream processors) give me. Hopefully one of you can explain to me the performance gaines by 16 more stream processors.

Thanks!

Think of the stream processers as pixel pipelines even though thats not right. The stream processers are unified meaning they can provide many different functions to aid in graphics performance, its ultimately up to the Dev's to decide what that function will be. I dought they have even been fully utilised as of yet.

On how much? $75 on $400 sure, but if you're in the US then $75 on $250 gets to be a tougher difference for value.

If you're looking to upgrade again by this time next year, then I'd say get the GTS-320, otherwise get the GTS-640; but if you can wait, then the new entrants (8800GT and GTSextra-640) should push prices of remaining GTSs down for both the 320 and 640 models whichever you decide on, and also by then Crysis should be properly tested and give good info on the differences in one of the more influential games.

I want to get a new 8800 GTS and am wondering which would be better for my max resolution of 1280 x 1024?

At that resolution the 320 MB version will be fine - if you want to go higher at some point say 1600 x 1200 then you'll be better with the 640 MB version

Im bias yes, but i don't think the extra 14 fps is worth the $75, since to me, 61 fps is enough.

Oh and those $75 can be a good save now if you "need" another card in a month or two =)

Thats pretty stupid really, 308 megs of ram, what about virtual ram? Theres around 100-200 megs of virtual ram in default settings, = more than 512.

(stupid as in the graw makers, not you )

I agree with you about Grin, the makers of GRAW. The graphics aren't the best I have seen, I think GRAW 1 has much better graphics than GRAW 2. GRAW 2 for PC in mostly a port from XBOX 360, at least for the maps. My little brother has GRAW 1 for XBOX 360 and he has the same maps I do in GRAW 2.

Do remember you aren't just purchasing it to play the games that are out now, but you are also purchasing it to play the games that will come out presumably over the next 2-3 years.

The quality (and possibly size) of the textures will increase as new technologies evolve and future game engines will try and push your video card more and more. The fewer times you card has to grab stuff that it couldn't hold in its ram the better.

Right now that resolution won't strain either card, but the amount of detail that future game engines will bring is another matter entirely. Think of spending the extra money on the 640 as a bit of future proofing.

I have never regretted getting more power than I needed at the time of the purchase because inevitably I will keep it long past its prime and the better it is initially the longer it is useful to me.

The only difference between the 640 & 320 is the extra Vram, other than that they have the same GPU. I know of a way to force high texture quality, tried it on my 7800GTX 256MB and it shuttered very badly. So theres only one reason why the 640 beat the 320 and thats the extra Vram, GRAW can require a big frame buffer on medium and high texture quality.

And Crysis recommended spec's for the graphics card is 8800GTS 640mb or better. Sure right now the 320mb GTS looks good but you have to open your eyes to the future (next few months) and then you'll see what I am trying to say. You have to start thinking ahead and not just the hear and now, you have to prepare yourself for what lies ahead. To see a big noticable difference between the 320 v.s the 640 in GRAW have a look for yourself, more games (Crysis) will come out that rely on big frame buffers and even the 8800GT comes with 512mb of Vram. >>>http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/416/13


Now this game is as far as I'm concerned a typical next-gen game, it relies heavily on large and high-quality textures and the fact that we have only 320 MB is hurting performance heavily.

This is a massive drawback that you need to consider. I honest to God wish that the cards tested today would have had 512MB at default. Compare the results with the 640 MB version of the GTS. That's how important having enough memory is with titles like these.

I believe that Crysis will use up a lot of Vram.

It'll also depend on how it uses that VRAM, some things have a great immediate need for RAM and they would be greatly affected by latency, whereas swapping textures may be improved by newer PCIe2.0 and better compression and texture algos.

The limitations may change, and efficiencies may change where you don't need as many textures, you can simply do a materials calculation and apply it on the fly from smaller base textures.

You need to liston to these guy's I just built a upgraded game sysem and because the 8800GTS had better scores than the 640 I went ahead and got a evga 8800gts and am extremely happy with it so far except I just took the Crysis test and on Recomended hardware I failed on the Video card. I could have spent the extra buck]s to get a 640 or a cheapeer GTX for that matter.

So hear I am wishing I had spent a little more money on my video card and not being able to do anything else about it now. My system
ASUS P5K van P-35
C2Q6600 Quad Core at 3.3 Gig on Air
ArticCooling 7 92mm cooler.
4X1Gig of Cruciall Balsistic pc6400 DDR-2 800 at about 912mhz
EVGA 8800GTS at 575/1800 OC 3DMark06-10,453
OCZ GameXStreme 700wat osu
10,000rpm Raptor C/drive
250Gig WD for storage.

As you can see I spent over a grand putting this upgrade togeather over the space of about 3 month's and the only thing I really think I did wrong is the video card but who know's mabey the gts might play the game ok on reduced setting's. Im hoping so anyway. But if I had it to do over I would have bought a better video card. BadArthur

From where did you hear that the 8800 GTS card can play Crysis on high or very high with 30-40 FPS?

If it dosent ill excrete bricks and eat my mouse.