Question about GPU Memory Interface

[kmelaza]

Im a noob when it comes to things like this about computers, so here is my question.

Does the Memory Interface of a card impact performance and the certain task the card can do?

Example i was browsing some GPU on Newegg the other day and saw 128-bit and 256-bit memory interface on some cards, but i saw some stronger cards on clock speeds and shaders running on 128 bits interface, than the 256 bit one i saw, so my question is which 1 is better for gaming? does it really matter?

-Ty in Advance

 

[-Fran-]

Ugh, that's a kinda long question to answer XD

To put it in a simple way, graphic cards can be "held back" with 2 major factors that need to be balanced out: Memory bandwidth and GPU "computing power" (or "number crunching" so to speak).

Inside the "memory bandwidth"part, there's the "memory interface" that you mention, wich allows de GPU to address and move more memory per cycle, but the memory itself works at a certain speed (tha Mhz brotha, lol). So, to achieve a certain "memory bandwidth" you have to mix both: speed and interface. That's the GB/s a card has for internal memory movement, which is the bottom line regarding the memory bandwidth.

The GPU processing is the other side of the equation, but it's a way way more complex scenario to explain than memory... Now, there's a rule of thumb that applies though: the more "stream processors"/"cuda cores" (ATI/nVidia resp.), "ROPs", Mhz, memory interface, etc, the better.

So, at the end, you actually look a video card that has to be balanced out giving or taking from all those variables.

TL;DR: 128bits + fast VRAM ~= 256bits + slow VRAM memory wise for a certain GPU spec/type. 256bits (or more) + fast VRAM is king; rule of thumb.

Cheers!

 

[kmelaza]

Best answer selected by kmelaza.

 

[Vivek Viru]

k according to the rule mentioned above which is best card 7870 or 660ti ?
7870 has 256bit memory with 5000Mhz
660ti has 192bit memory with 6008Mhz
SO WHICH IS BEST AND MORE FUTURE PROOF??
PLZ REPLY...!