128mb vs 256mb

[Wingznut]

When people would ask me about video cards, I used to tell them not to bother with 256mb onboard RAM because it wasn't worth the cost...

Doom 3 now changes that theory, doesn't it?

 

[chameleon239]

Oh yes it does. A whole new era of gaming will be upon us soon. It may not be too far away that we will be seeing 512 mb cards

 

[BenSkywalker]

IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it. I could bring JKII to a crawl(sub 5FPS) on 128MB boards while 256MB parts were flying through(60+) without a hitch.

DooM3 really pushes it to the forefront as it is a game that a very large percentage of enthusiasts will be picking up and it really can use the 256MB frequently instead of on rare occasions as has been the case with most existing games.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it. I could bring JKII to a crawl(sub 5FPS) on 128MB boards while 256MB parts were flying through(60+) without a hitch.

DooM3 really pushes it to the forefront as it is a game that a very large percentage of enthusiasts will be picking up and it really can use the 256MB frequently instead of on rare occasions as has been the case with most existing games.

Hmmm I don't know about Doom pushing this to the forefront. The 6800GT and 6800NU benches on HardOCP were pretty much the same, although it's true he used no AA.

A partial disagreement with Ben Skywalker- a first for me. 😉

In any case, to the OP:
Doom 3 changes that theory because:
There's no 256MB card for <$300 that comes even close to the 6800NU 128MB in performance at Doom3, the 6800NU performs as well or better than two much costlier ATI 256MB cards (X800 and X800XT), and there are two 256 MB cards that outperform the 6800NU. (the GT and Ultra)

It would be nice to see some benches with AA on though.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it. I could bring JKII to a crawl(sub 5FPS) on 128MB boards while 256MB parts were flying through(60+) without a hitch.

DooM3 really pushes it to the forefront as it is a game that a very large percentage of enthusiasts will be picking up and it really can use the 256MB frequently instead of on rare occasions as has been the case with most existing games.

Uh, I highly doubt JKII has differences as major as that on 128 card of yours... Something is either wrong with your driver installation or something else....


It only makes it worth while to go 256 when your going to High Quality Mode, even then HardOCP benched a 128MB Card High Quality....

6800 128MB 1280x1024 High Quality

Does it change gaming? Yes it does, but only if you're going high end.

 

[MoosKnuk]

Now none of us without a 512 card will be able to see doom with fully uncompressed textures, oh my! Well i guess the visual quality margin between 256 and 512 cards not huge.

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it. I could bring JKII to a crawl(sub 5FPS) on 128MB boards while 256MB parts were flying through(60+) without a hitch.

DooM3 really pushes it to the forefront as it is a game that a very large percentage of enthusiasts will be picking up and it really can use the 256MB frequently instead of on rare occasions as has been the case with most existing games.

Don't get me wrong, Ben... My main point was that the extra onboard RAM wasn't worth the significant extra cost to the vast majority of enthusiasts.


(Oh btw... Hi! Seems as though we don't cross paths much since the Voodoo 5500 days. 😉 )

 

[BFG10K]

IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it.

I agree completely and there are more than a dozen games that show visible performance gains by simply running them on a 256 MB board compared to a 128 MB board, even games from 2003 or so.

VRAM requirements are exactly like CPU processing power, GPU processing power, HD space or anything else in computing. It just keeps rolling forward as new stuff comes out.

Hmmm I don't know about Doom pushing this to the forefront. The 6800GT and 6800NU benches on HardOCP were pretty much the same, although it's true he used no AA.

Remember Doom III auto-compresses textures based on the VRAM size. The more VRAM you have the more uncompressed textures you can run and the better the IQ you'll have.

Uh, I highly doubt JKII has differences as major as that on 128 card of yours...

I don't know about JK2 but JKA is one of the games that shows visible texture swaps on 128 MB cards. In fact one of my custom demos catches this happening.

 

[Excelsior]

BG10k, you post on Ars right? I hope my mind isn't playing games with me..😕

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
IMO the situation hasn't exactly changed, the 256MB parts have been worth it for some time now provided that you have a fast enough GPU paired with it. I could bring JKII to a crawl(sub 5FPS) on 128MB boards while 256MB parts were flying through(60+) without a hitch.

DooM3 really pushes it to the forefront as it is a game that a very large percentage of enthusiasts will be picking up and it really can use the 256MB frequently instead of on rare occasions as has been the case with most existing games.

Uh, I highly doubt JKII has differences as major as that on 128 card of yours... Something is either wrong with your driver installation or something else....


It only makes it worth while to go 256 when your going to High Quality Mode, even then HardOCP benched a 128MB Card High Quality....

6800 128MB 1280x1024 High Quality

Does it change gaming? Yes it does, but only if you're going high end.

Why would you ever go anythig but high end?

 

[Todd33]

As I understood it, 128MB does not compress textures at all in D3, it was lightmaps or something. Either way, you won't see a difference. I don'y see people throwing away their DVDs, which are compressed far more.