Memory Buffer Comparison: 256 MB Vs 512 MB

Courtesy of a pair of GeForce 7800 GTXs, both running at identical 450 MHz core and 1.25 GHz DDR memory frequencies, we investigated the performance advantage offered by doubling video memory availability from 256 MB to 512 MB. And the surprising answer is that there's virtually none, even at resolutions as high as 2560x1600. Granted, it's likely that flicking the anti-aliasing switch would demonstrate a more significant delta. However on Nvidia's GeForce GPUs, at least, that would mean sacrificing the glory that is HDR. Only ATI's Radeon X1000 series of processors can currently apply anti-aliasing to the FP16 type of HDR lighting used by Oblivion.