8800 GTS 320 MB: Futureproof?

blackstar4

Junior Member
Mar 20, 2007
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Hey, I was wondering which video card I should get: 8800 gts 320mb or 640mb version

Thing is, I will be playing games at or under 1920x1200 res. and the 320 mb versiom performs very similar to the 640 mb version.

Question is, for future games like Crysis and the upcoming Unreal game, etc. will the extra memory (640 mb version) be benefited instead of the 320 mb version (will their be a big drop off perf.?).
 

JustaGeek

Platinum Member
Jan 27, 2007
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However anyone might disagree, 640MB is the only kinda futureproof option from the two.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
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If you plan to keep your card for longer than 1 year and you plan on cranking 4AA, 640mb is definately worth the extra $$. I have the 320mb version and at 1920x1080 in Dirt racing with 4AA the framerates are 1-3 making it worse than a slideshow :) Plays OK without 4AA. I am confident it's the memory limitation since without 4AA the performance is very reasonable. The problem with the 320mb version is that drivers are poorly optimized and in some games even those that don't exceed 320mb, the card tanks. For 1600x1200 I'd have no problems recommending the 320mb version.

However, really with graphics cards it's hard to futureproof since every year performance doubles so sooner or later even 8800GTX will be twice as slow as the top card...and the cycle continues.
 

Cheex

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2006
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I have the 8800GTS 320MB and I'm more or less in the same boat here. I will however, wait to see some reviews of the new offerings before deciding on an upgrade. I hope to upgrade my monitor to at least 19", maybe as high as 20" or 22".

Anyway...maximum resolution I'm looking at is 1680x1050. I know that the 320MB is NOT future-proof.
I will just be waiting on some concrete specifications and such from Nvidia.