32mb vs 64mb kyro2

[Axloz]

Get this.
I can get a Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 AGP 64MB (KyroII) for $401 AUD (Australian dollars)
or
I can get a Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 PCI 32MB (KyroII) for $236 AUD

Is there a big difference between these two?
Would it be worth getting the 32mb version and waiting till the 64mb version comes down in price?

What do you guys think?

 

[gygheyzeus]

Honestly, just wait for the 64MB to come down in price. Don't even buy the 32MB unless you really need to.

 

[PotNoodle]

Axloz,

In all probability the difference between purely between a 32MB KYRO and a 64MB KYRO will be minimal in most cases.

Because of KYRO?s unique FSAA system you do not need any extra RAM to run FSAA levels, and the only difference will be in high texture demand sitatuations.

However the big difference between the two cards you are looking at is in the bus ? PCI vs AGP. If you can use and AGP card then its always best to go with one.

IMO ? wait for a 32MB AGP KYROII to come, or get the 64MB if you want one now!


gygheyzeus,

?Don't even buy the 32MB unless you really need to?

Other than the fact it?s a PCI board, I?m intrigued to know why you would suggest that?

 

[rickn]

get a 64mb card. If you want your card to have a longer lifespan, then you want a 64mb card. 32mb cards have to resort to using AGP texturing, which is very slow. Texture sizes and storage requirements are only increasing in games, so get a 64mb card

 

[AppleTalking]

The PCI card has two things going against it: the bus interface and the amount of memory. Always use AGP unless you are putting in a video card for a second monitor. It's just a rule of thumb and it makes things a lot easier (not to mention faster!). AGP has a lot more bandwidth for just the one slot, whereas PCI bandwidth is lower and is shared across the whole bus. Secondly, the 32MB of memory will eventually hold you back. Most games today don't take advantage of all 64MB on modern graphics cards, but they will eventually. You'll need that 64MB to take advantage of larger texture sizes and higher resolutions in future games.

I wouldn't get the 32MB PCI card just to wait until the 64MB card comes down in price. Assume that you buy the 32MB PCI now and eventually buy the 64MB card when it comes down to the level of the 32MB card. You would then have spent $472 AUD, versus spending just $401 AUD and buying the 64MB card now. Plus you would have had the 64MB card all that time to enjoy!!

Good luck!
Nick

 

[UKtaxman]

I have a 32mb Kyro2 and I must say that its performance is more than comparable to the 64mb Hercules.-I have the AGP Videologic Vivid!XS(tv out). So far I haven't come across any game that taxes the memory limit what so ever! However you are right in what you say about avoiding PCI if at all possible.
Other than that it is about even with the Hercules-seams to me that the 64mb so far is just a marketing gimick!

 

[uknemesis]

I just got a vividxs kyro 2 with tvout as well, I'm very impressed with it. It's alot faster than my geforce 2 mx and I've got an average cpu in my pc (a Duron 750mhz) so I'm well pleased. )

Nemesis

 

[PotNoodle]

As if by magic someone comes up with some benchmarks!

Aces Hardware Value Grpahics roundup conclusion:

"If you can afford to spend a few bucks more, Videologic's Vivid!XS [32MB] Kyro II offers the best gaming value of all, on the condition that your gaming rig has a strong CPU. To get the best out of this price/performance wonder, you will need to install a small fan on the heatsink and overclock.

The Guillemot 4500 has already a very nice fan, but is quite a bit more expensive than Videologic's offering. The 64 MB onboard RAM makes only a very small difference right now. Most benchmarks showed only a 1-2% advantage."

 

[AppleTalking]

Yeah, but they were comparing AGP-based Kyro II cards. This guy was comparing an AGP 64MB card to a PCI 32MB card. I think we all know that the AGP bus is one heck of a lot faster than the PCI bus.

Good luck!
Nick

 

[Dark4ng3l]

AppleTalking that makes no sense so you are saying that the 2-3% difference is caused by the fact the 32mb kyro2 is pci??? That would mean that 64mb solutions would not be any faster at all.

 

[AppleTalking]

Dark4ng3l: I don't think you understood what I was saying. The review linked to in the post directly above mine states that there is only a 2-3% difference between a Kyro II 64MB and a Kyro II 32MB card. However, that review was using only AGP cards. The original poster was comparing a 64MB AGP card to a 32MB PCI card, not a 32MB AGP card. I think that, for the two cards the original poster was comparing, he should get the AGP version, since it will invariably be faster than PCI.

Nick

 

[PotNoodle]

?I think we all know that the AGP bus is one heck of a lot faster than the PCI bus.?

Now this I can agree on, as my first post in the thread bears testament to, however others were arguing that you absolutely must have a 64MB card ? as far as KYRO is concerned this is only a benefit when the texture space demands exceeds 32MB.

However, having said that its does appear that the difference from PCI to AGP isn?t as great for non-T&L cards (like KYRO) as it is T&L ? the performance differences between V5 PCI and AGP (being within a few percent of each other) and MX PCI?s and AGP?s (sometimes showing large variations when T&L is in operation) show. (Although, I still don?t advocate getting a PCI card if you have a free AGP slot!!)

 

[DARE]

Is there no 64MB PCI cards out there ?

 

[TravisBickle]

Appletalking, could you possibly say anything more half-informed for us?
PCI has less bandwidth than AGP, but there are other issues involved in the ultimate performance of video cards. Kyro should not currently have a problem on PCI.
now read up on why.

 

[AppleTalking]

TravisBickle: I think you need to read my post more carefully before you go making any accusations.

I did not say that the AGP bus offers a quantum leap in performance over the PCI bus. All I said was that the 64MB AGP card would be faster than the 32MB PCI card. I know that the difference is not terribly great, but I believe that it is more than 2-3% that the Ace Hardware review mentioned because they compared a 64MB AGP and a 32MB AGP card.

I realize that there are other things that can affect the performance of a video card. Things like core clock speed, memory clock speed, immediate mode rendering vs. tile-based rendering, and so on do affect the overall speed of the video card. But so does the bandwidth of the bus. If you put a modern video card like the Kyro, or a GeForce2, Radeon, or GeForce3 card on a PCI bus, you will quickly find out that you will take an appriciable performance hit. It will not totally destroy your performance, but it will (as I said in my original post) be slower than an AGP card.

I realize that as a tile-based rendering card, the Kyro II does not have to perform as many calculations because it does not render what you cannot see. But that doesn't mean that the card doesn't need a good amount of bandwidth too.

Please, read people's posts thoroughly before you go jumping to conclusions.

Cheers!
Nick