8800GTS (G92) 512MB vs. HD2900XT 1GB

[JimiP]

Hello all,

I am currently using a Sapphire Radeon HD2900XT 1GB. I play Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3, and a few other games. For Christmas, my parents got me a very nice monitor. The LG L226WTQ. Basically I want to know if my 1GB of VRAM is doing a whole lot of good for me. I game in 1680x1050 resolution in all games. I heard that more VRAM allows you to game at higher resolutions with more ease. Now, will I notice any difference switching from 1GB to 512MB? I also heard that 1GB is just plain ridiculous, that no game really uses that much anyway.

Now for the main question. Will I notice a good difference switching from my Sapphire HD2900XT 1GB to a MSI 8800GTS 512MB (G92)? Reason I'm asking is because the ATI HD2900XT does not handle anti-aliasing very well and that's a luxury that I am very fond with. I have noticed that my good friend with an EVGA 8800GTX can handle 4x AA in COD4 and still achieve the same amount of FPS that I do when I have AA off. Also, I am using an ASUS P5N32-E SLI. I purchased this motherboard when I had thoughts of getting an 8800Ultra. My boss cut me a killer deal on the HD2900XT so I took that instead. Anyways, I would really appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

Final question. Should I pull the trigger, sell my HD2900XT 1GB and put the money made towards a 8800GTS purchase? Or should I wait until the GeForce 9 series cards are out? I have a feeling that I will be waiting for the better card to come out.

 

[angry hampster]

You oughtta be able to sell your 2900 and even come out on top a little bit after buying an EVGA G92 GTS. If the next generation card comes out within a few months, use EVGA's step up system and upgrade to the 9-series.

 

[JimiP]

What kind of increase in performance will I notice?

 

[Borealis7]

the 8800GTS would pull down the 2900's pants, tell everyone to look at it, kick it in the nads, laugh as it twitches in pain and finally spit on it.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: Borealis7
the 8800GTS would pull down the 2900's pants, tell everyone to look at it, kick it in the nads, laugh as it twitches in pain and finally spit on it.

Basically. Just the GT version spanks the 2900 -- at half the cost. THis is especially true with AA/AF on.

 

[adlep]

Originally posted by: Borealis7
the 8800GTS would pull down the 2900's pants, tell everyone to look at it, kick it in the nads, laugh as it twitches in pain and finally spit on it.

Hahahahaha...
Thanks for the laugh...

 

[Overgloc]

We got almost identical system and im gaming @ 1600x1200 with 4aa and everything run above 70FPS in COD4. What FPS are you getting in COD4?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Overgloc
We got almost identical system and im gaming @ 1600x1200 with 4aa and everything run above 70FPS in COD4. What FPS are you getting in COD4?

I run 1920x1200 @ 2xaa 16xAF in CoD4 and average between 30-40fps.

 

[JimiP]

@ Overgloc - When I turn everything up including AA, I get on average about 50-85FPS depending on the map and the location. I game at 1680x1050. I am using CCC 7.12.

 

[evolucion8]

You will see performance gains, but also remember that the 2900XT performance lies between the GTS 640 and the GTX, and that the 8800GTS is closer to the GTX than to the GTS 640, so unless if you can get a nice amount of money for your current card, the money spent doesn't worth the difference in performance (Unless if you have money to burn).

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: JimiP
What kind of increase in performance will I notice?

You should see an improvement, how much depends on which game you're playing. If you can sell the 2900XT 1GB for the same or very close to the price of the GTS (within $20-$30), I would definitely do the swap. Also as angry hampster suggested, you could always get the EVGA GTS and then step-up later to the 9 series or whatever code numbers they're using now and you won't be out any money other than shipping . Also keep in mind that if you just wait for the 9 series to appear, you'll likely get less money for the 2900XT when you go to sell it. I Ebayed my 2900XT 512MB the day before the 8800GT's appeared and I know if I had sold it a month earlier, I could have gotten more money for it. Still didn't do too badly though, had to pay about $20 out of pocket for the GT. Good luck.

 

[Tempered81]

jeez my 4300 & 8800gt 512 runs cod4 at 1024x768 w/ 4xaa & 16x AF at over 90fps steady

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
jeez my 4300 & 8800gt 512 runs cod4 at 1024x768 w/ 4xaa & 16x AF at over 90fps steady

However, you are running at a much lower resolution than I am. So you would be getting a little more FPS than I am at that resolution. I will run COD4 at 1024x768 with AA turned on when I get home tonight and see how I fair. I believe I will get almost as much as you do. Perhaps a little less.

It just seems strange to me how my 1GB, 512-bit memory interface card doesn't perform better with anti-aliasing. It just strikes me as being odd. I thought those were the two major factors for AA performance...

I have come to the conclusion that I will either sell my HD2900XT now and try to get a good chunk of change out of it so I can purchase the GeForce 8800GTS (G92), or simply wait it out until nVidia releases their GeForce 9-series GPU's. If I had an Intel P35 chipset motherboard I would go crossfire with two HD3870's but since I have an nForce 680i chipset, I might as well use an nVidia GPU. LOL

 

[Tempered81]

well you could have 2gb of memory with a 512bit interface on a r300 gpu or 128mb of memory on a 64bit interface paired with a g92 D9E gpu and i'd bet the latter would perform better

aside from that ridiculous comparison i just made, i'll just say its in the gpu's architecture. The 8800gt 512 would outperform that 2900xt and you could actually save money buying it at the 210 dollar price point, and ebaying your radeon.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: Borealis7
the 8800GTS would pull down the 2900's pants, tell everyone to look at it, kick it in the nads, laugh as it twitches in pain and finally spit on it.

Man, I guess it's true what they say: "Video cards can be so cruel."

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
jeez my 4300 & 8800gt 512 runs cod4 at 1024x768 w/ 4xaa & 16x AF at over 90fps steady

geeze if I ran 1024x768 I'd get 90fps too :laugh:

lets see what you get with 4x aa at 1920x1080, likely more than me but negligable for this game where neither card is running unplayable with maxed details.

Also, I always run vsync and I'm sure others do too which would limit your fps at a high resolution like 1920x1200 to 60.

 

[taltamir]

if you are getting 50+ FPS on max everything you will NOT see a performance gain... Not with that game. You will get performance gains with other games that lag at higher quality.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: jaredpace
jeez my 4300 & 8800gt 512 runs cod4 at 1024x768 w/ 4xaa & 16x AF at over 90fps steady

geeze if I ran 1024x768 I'd get 90fps too :laugh:

lets see what you get with 4x aa at 1920x1080, likely more than me but negligable for this game where neither card is running unplayable with maxed details.

Also, I always run vsync and I'm sure others do too which would limit your fps at a high resolution like 1920x1200 to 60.

well i tried to go that high, but my monitor only supports 1280x1024 or my lcd tv does 1366x768

either way it was like 80-90fps the same, and even with Quality 8xAA on.

with v-sync its 72 steady

 

[Fadardo]

I'm pretty sure that the 2900XT cannot take advantage of the 1gb of memory just like the G80 8600GTS cannot take advatage of more than 256memory(making all the 512mb versions pretty much a waste of money).

Games that show a use for extra memory(eg.Oblivion with Full grass distance enabled) show that they take advantage of the extra memory(768mb) the 8800GTX as the grpahics don't go down to snails pace. The 512mb ATI 2900XT cannot be played with "full distance grass enabled", and with the 1GB 2900XT it still isn't able too as the memory bus still being 256bits wide bottlenecks the 2900XT.

 

[Sylvanas]

The 2900XT 1GB is usually just behind the GTX in most benches (does better at high rez, were talking 1920+) therefore if you were to swap it for a G92 based GTS your not going to see a night and day performance increase, it will be marginal at best, if I were you I'd keep the 2900 for now and wait until a new architecture is in our hands, only then would you see a massive increase to justify the price.

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: Fadardo
I'm pretty sure that the 2900XT cannot take advantage of the 1gb of memory just like the G80 8600GTS cannot take advatage of more than 256memory(making all the 512mb versions pretty much a waste of money).

Games that show a use for extra memory(eg.Oblivion with Full grass distance enabled) show that they take advantage of the extra memory(768mb) the 8800GTX as the grpahics don't go down to snails pace. The 512mb ATI 2900XT cannot be played with "full distance grass enabled", and with the 1GB 2900XT it still isn't able too as the memory bus still being 256bits wide bottlenecks the 2900XT.

The HD2900XT has a 512-bit memory bus...

@ Sylvanas, the thing I don't understand however is how the HD2900XT 1GB can trail the GeForce 8800GTX but get much lower FPS. It must be purely in numbers because I don't actually "see" or get to "appreciate" the performance that trails the 8800GTX.

 

[Tempered81]

jimi p - ebay that 2900, and get an 8800gt. You will save money and gain fps

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
jimi p - ebay that 2900, and get an 8800gt. You will save money and gain fps

That's definitely an idea. I just wish the 8800GT's came out only a few weeks before they did. I would have been able to purchase two 8800GT's for the same price of my HD2900XT 1GB. I've heard that the GT's have heat issues. I have an Antec 900 so airflow isn't a problem however.