About 8600gt 512mb and 256mb

[stanley85]

My place here selling 8600gt drr2 512mb and ddr3 256mb and the price are almost the same. i wonder anyone of you tested the result that how much the performance different between these 2 card? if let say some of the game require 512mb, then 8600gt ddr2 512mb or 8600gt ddr3 256mb will run better? thanks in advance.

 

[bardia]

I'd go for the 256 without hesitating. It is beyond any contestation the better card.

 

[caskachan]

BUY NONE! get the 8800GT cheaper than 8800GTS and GTX and nearly as fast, new fab procces the best bang for the buck right now (where i live the 8600gt is 140$ the GTS is 350 and the GT is 240, well worth the 100 extra)


MEMORY INTERFACE the wider the better
DDR3 > LOADS of DDR2 ram
Loads of ram = higher res NOT performance
(higher res comes at the expense of lower performance)

 

[ghostwalker]

I game at 1280*1024 and am looking to get the 8800GT but is there any point in me getting the 512Mb version (for this res) or should I stick with the 256Mb version?

 

[zenmaster]

The 8600GT 256Mb will be much faster than the 8600GT 512mb.

The reason is that the 512mb version has DDR2.
That will kill the performance of that card.
Get the DDR3 version.

Also, The 8600GT does not really have the processing power to run the resolution/details that would make use of 512mb if you found a card with 512mb of DDR3.

 

[ghostwalker]

Sorry, was just asking about the 8800GT, not the 8600GT!

 

[blader15sk8]

And he was replying to the OP, not you.

But as for your question about the 8800GT, at your resolution, the 256MB should be fine. The performance improvements will be minimal at best if you got the 512MB.

 

[stanley85]

hmm..i know that 8800gt will be much better than 8600gt. just the price in me here is quite expensive and his budget only allow to get 8600gt. although i know ddr3 is much better but i still doubt that, if the game recommend 512mb, which one (ddr2 512mb, ddr3 256mb) will run better?

 

[stanley85]

hmm...no ppl test before.?

 

[bardia]

stanley85 I know it seems counter intuitive, but trust us on this one (or don't, and track down some of the VGA charts.)

The size of video memory means jack squat compared to the difference between DDR2 and DDR3. I remember back in the day my brother's 64MB TI4200 putting 512MB FX5200's to shame. Size these days is mostly marketing, unless you are cranking really really high resolutions (like, 1650X1050 or higher) and even then, I'd still go with the 256 version, because the faster memory will more than make up for the size.

Think of it this way, that extra space will give a tiny boost (1-2% maybe) to your card SOME OF THE TIME, but extra speed will give an enormous boost (probably 30-50%) ALL OF THE TIME.

Make sense?

 

[stanley85]

hmm..ic. thanks for the clear explanation.

 

[cpl-pike]

What about this quandary? I have two graphics cards to choose from a PNY 7600GT 256MB DDR3 or a Zotac 8600GT 512MB DDR2. which is the better card mmm?

 

[dirtmountain]

There's not going to be a spits worth of difference between the 2 cards. Both are low powered graphic cards that will struggle with most modern games. They'll play WoW at reasonable resolutions (1440X900) with most settings on low at fairly low frame rates (20s -30s)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-gtx,2270-6.html