waste of money?

[vagabond]

Hi all,

Gotta friend asking for advise. He's currently got the GeForce 2 GTS 64MB and asked me if upgrading to a GeForce 5 FX 5200 128MB DDR would make a noticeable performance increase. I can't really recommend to him what I don't know. I'm still stuck at GeForce 4 ti 4200. He can't give out more than 100 Euro. I was thinking about giving him my Ti and me going for a Radeon???

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[Ion]

The performance different between fx5200(non-ultra) and GF2 doesnt justify an upgrade especially when you can sell him your ti4200 which spanks fx5200's ass.

 

[TKS]

That 5200 sucks donkey balls...don't even allow anyone to buy that. Whoever buys that one needs hit on the top of the head with a tack hammer cuz they are a retard. Give him your 4200 and go for a Radeon.

----------
<b>I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman! </b> <i>Homer Simpson</i>

 

[vagabond]

THXS for the feedback ION and TKS. That's what I thought.

Another question, why are the GPUs with 64MB DDR more expensive than the ones with 128MB DDR? Did I miss something in the benchmarks or hardware articles?

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[rahimiv]

Someone (I believe its the tom's hardware guide buying guide) says something about the 128MB using lower quality RAM's... could get the 8x version which has the faster RAM, but get the 64 meg though, no point getting 128's since the card isnt fast enough to use all that...

 

[vagabond]

I read that part too but why isn't/can't the GPU use the full 128 Megs of RAM that's built into it? Does it have something to do with the pipelines? Can anyone answer this? I'm perplexed.

That's like saying I've got a BMW 318i( I do ) with 115bhp and can only use 57.5bhp of it 'cause the car will only rev to 3000rpm! Doesn't make sense.

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[dunno]

The reason it's not good to buy a mid or low end card with a ton of memory is because you probably aren't going to be playing it with super-high res and full AA/AF anyway since it's mid/low end and therefore there is absolutely no need for the extra memory. In other words, in situations where it actually uses the extra ram, its gonna run too slow on the card anyway that it doesn't matter.

 

[vagabond]

So in other words this is just marketing B U L L S H I T from the GPU manufacturers.

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[ufo_warviper]

So in other words this is just marketing B U L L S H I T from the GPU manufacturers.

You've got THAT right !

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[vagabond]

DAMN!

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[ufo_warviper]

Not to worry, he has'nt purchased yet has he? Tell him to geth the Ti 4200, its a solid card for the price. Ti 4200 rox as a budget card!

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[vagabond]

That's just it, I'm still debating if I should sell him mine and buy a radeon but which radeon would improve on the ti 4200? I can't afford the newest GPU. I could probably give out 125-150 Euro.

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<b><font color=blue>VAGABOND<font color=blue></b>

<b><font color=blue>veni,vidi, and ended up in THGC<font color=blue></b>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I wouldn't trade your GF4, unless you can get a least an R9600Pro as a replacement (likely about 150+ Euros), but also saying that it's only worthy if he's payin for the whole thing, you paying ayhing more than 25-50 Euos for the upgradeisn' really worth it IMO. He may be able to find a GF4 of his own, but with that low price you're mainly in the GF4 category, but YOU may be lucky to find an R9600P for around that price.

As for the 64mb versus 128mb, you'll only notice the difference at very high res. and/or with AA/AF turned on. With cards like th FX5200 it's almost pointless as the GPU doesn't have enouh Oomph to really tak advantage of the extra, and may only give 1-2 fps difference and even then the GPU wil likely be over-worked due to all the extra work. With card that max out their GPUs at around the 1024x768 level, the extra memory is of little use, since eiher boosting the res. or boostig the AA/AF will likely offer little improvement (especially with nV's use of AA/AF). Sure the extra memory is nice, but it will rarely if ever give that class of card any extra performance, but on the newer cards, 64mb really isn't enough anymore.

To use your car analogy, it's like having the same fuel pump and gas tank as an F1 or Funny car, but running it on a 2 cylnder Citroen engine, it's nice to be able to move more fuel and have more at your disposal, but it's not going to increase the performance of the vehicle, because already it's no fully using the stock setup. Hope that helps.


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[vagabond]

Thanks TheGreatGrapeApe that was the explanation I was asking for.

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<b><font color=blue>veni,vidi, and ended up in THGC<font color=blue></b>