6200 - 128 meg ddr vs 256 meg ddr2

[mcquaidster]

I know I've seen a lot of people speak somewhat poorly of the 6200 series, but my aging ti 4200 died and I'm really on a tight budget and the next up is a 6600 for double the price.

So right now I'm looking at a 6200 128 meg for 47 bucks vs the ddr2 256 for 58 bucks. This is in canada (toronto) and the next card up is a 6600 which is 104 bucks.

I can't find benchmarks anywhere for the 256 meg version of this card. Does anyone have any insight if it helps this card much? I mainly play enemy territory still (which s/b no prob even for this budget card) but wouldn't mind games like doom3, hl2, splinter cell ct working at somewhat acceptable frame rates. I don't even mind 640x480 with med details as long as the fps are at least 30s. Btw, this is the agp version which obviously limits my options. And neither of these cards are of the turbo cache variety which I've read is even worse.

Here are the two cards I'm referring to:

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis...ails.jspa?productConfigurationId=79772

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis...tails.jspa?productConfigurationId=1087

 

[Munky]

Bigger memory size only makes a difference at high res/settings, and when the gpu itself is fast enough to run the game smoothly at those settings. On a 6200 it would make no difference at all going from 128 to 256 MB.

 

[mcquaidster]

Thx for the reply. Reading a little more about 6200's I've read on some versions you can unlock an additional 4 pipes. From what I've read I know the turbo cache variety can't, but looking at the same site of the above two cards listed, they also listed this asus 6200 128 meg for 54 bucks. I'm wondering if its worth getting this asus one for 54 vs the xfx for 47 if it can have 4 pipes unlocked.

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=7&l3=155&model=484&modelmenu=1

Btw, I've been using pc's for years but I've never been into overclocking. I know with a lot of hardware you can get away with it, I've just prefered not to. So I'm wondering if one of these cards can have the pipes unlocked, how safe would this be? Like are early 6200's failed 6600s?

Or if anyone knows a list of 6200s that can unlock the pipes that would be good. Just curious as to why this store sells the asus 128 for almost the same price as the xfx 256 meg. If none can unlock I guess I'll go for the cheapest xfx unless there is some difference I'm not aware of. Also I use linux a lot is it possible to have the pipes unlocked in linux as well?