abount to spring for a 8800gts 320.

[TanisHalfElven]

i am sick of playing game on my x800gt. i am about to order a 8800gtx 320 (i was wating for 8600 but i figure What the hell). i have a 17" lcd so no going over 1280x1028 for atleast 3 years.

i know its enough but i just wanna confirm will the 3200 mb hamper performance at that resolution. the first game i'll play is oblivion again with a ton of mods. thats a major one for me. so basically the question is will the 320 mb really badly affect it ?

 

[PingSpike]

All the stuff I've read showed no performance loss at that resolution, even with all the crap turned up versus the 640mb card. If you plan on keeping that monitor for 3 years, the 320mb card should serve you well.

 

[CaiNaM]

it will hamper the performance of some games, tho currently the majority are unaffected. while it should be reasonable to expect upcoming games would be mostly unaffected as well, no one can really be sure.. if you're really tight, go for the 320mb, but if your budget is a bit flexible, you can get a 640mb for about $339 + after MIR (newegg has an msi version for that price).

your other alternative is to go with an evga, and if you find any performance issues, you have 90 days to use their "step up" program to upgrade to a 640mb version, or even an 8900 should one be released in that time frame.

Originally posted by: PingSpike
All the stuff I've read showed no performance loss at that resolution, even with all the crap turned up versus the 640mb card. If you plan on keeping that monitor for 3 years, the 320mb card should serve you well.

i've heard of multiple people having problems with framerate drops in FEAR at that resolution. the only person i know for sure that resolved that problem was one who replaced it with a 640mb version - same OS, same drivers, etc. all he did is install a 640mb version and the issue went away completely.

 

[chizow]

The 320MB is perfect for that resolution. Any extra money would be better spent towards a higher resolution panel like a 1680x1050 20-22" widescreen which would allow you to enjoy your card more than an extra 320MB.

I'm still interested in seeing if the 320MB frame buffer penalty is affected by driver updates. Would be nice if some review sites updated their testing based on the 100-series drivers since there was no specific driver release for the 320MB launch. I'm sure we'll see comparisons soon though with the launch of R600 and the G84 parts.

 

[swtethan]

I am glad I bought the 640, everything runs soo smoothly 8xaa 16xaf

 

[Avalon]

1280x1024 would be perfect for the 320MB. No need to jump to the 640MB at that res.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Avalon
1280x1024 would be perfect for the 320MB. No need to jump to the 640MB at that res.

do you have one?

if so, have you encountered any issues w/ FEAR at that res?

how about CoD2? my 320mb GTS was 50% slower than my 640mb GTS @ 1280 4xaa/16xaf, averaging only about 30fps using 97.92 drivers under XP.

now i'm not saying the 320mb is a bad value; in fact, the opposite is true imo. however there are obviously some tradeoffs in today's games even if it's just with a few specific titles. will there be with some upcoming titles as well? it's certainly something that deserves some consideration.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

i am getting an evga. but only for the superb warranty. i will probably not upgrade for a few years (i did stay with the x800gt for this long). i don't mind reducing a few settings and not playing with 8xaa (lol, my screen is small enough for me to get by at 2xaa even).

Thanks guys i think i am going to get it.

 

[happy medium]

FEAR at 1280x1024 with 4x aa, 16x af should net you about 72/75 fps with the 320mb version with the latest drivers. The 640 mb version should give you 80 fps.

These cards are overclocked versions (but you can overclock too) so I took a few fps off.

Read this article

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/420/11/

Now you can pick up a EVGA 320mb for 279.00$-20.00$ rebate=259.00$ ...

HERE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...82&ATT=14-130-082&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: happy medium
FEAR at 1280x1024 with 4x aa, 16x af should net you about 72/75 fps with the 320mb version with the latest drivers. The 640 mb version should give you 80 fps.

These cards are overclocked versions (but you can overclock too) so I took a few fps off.

Read this article

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/420/11/

Now you can pick up a EVGA 320mb for 279.00$-20.00$ rebate=259.00$ ...

HERE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...82&ATT=14-130-082&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

yup thats what i am looking at. man i love it that i don't have to apy a premium for evga. i think i'll got fir ut.

ordered it.
sorry ATI/amd i would have loved to get the r600 variant but your too late. (probably not too little though hopefully).

i really hope i don't end up regretting this.
ps the drivers condition isn't too bad for Xp, right ?
and how do 8800 drivers perform in linux ?

 

[aldamon]

If you're going to keep the card for 3 years, you should get the 640MB model. That's a long time to keep a card and the price difference is negligible.

 

[swtethan]

I play 1280x1024, the benchmarks I saw for the 320 version really scared me into the 640 because of the performance scaling with aa and af.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: aldamon
If you're going to keep the card for 3 years, you should get the 640MB model. That's a long time to keep a card and the price difference is negligible.

The price difference is almost $100. I chose the 640mb version for myself, but with a 1680x1050 res monitor is was a tough choice.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: aldamon
If you're going to keep the card for 3 years, you should get the 640MB model. That's a long time to keep a card and the price difference is negligible.

i would to go for the 640 mb version. unfortunately the extra is not negligible for me. i am sure i'll love the 320 too.

ps i don't suppose 4xAA and 16xAF will take a massive hit. these cards do have a lost of bandwidth. right ?

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelveni would to go for the 640 mb version. unfortunately the extra is not negligible for me. i am sure i'll love the 320 too.

You're going to keep the card for 3 years. You're really going to miss $33 a year?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Avalon
1280x1024 would be perfect for the 320MB. No need to jump to the 640MB at that res.

But not for a few years Avalon. I don't think ANY graphics card is good for a few years without reducing IQ and res substantially as years go by. If you are an enthusiast, this will become intolerable, but then again, enthusiasts buy almost at every refresh and release.

But over the next few years?? I would say GTS 640 at minimum. 320 would suffer as new games emerge. IMHO

I personally wouldn't consider anything less than 512MB GDDR3 or GDDR4 for my next graphics card purchase, and nothing less than an 8800/8900.

 

[dug777]

Look forward mate

Honestly, the difference in price is negligible if you're a working adult. Just wait an extra day/week at the very most and kick some of your disposable income into the 640mb.

The 320mb takes an utter thrashing with AA enabled, and who buys a card for that money not to run AA?

 

[TanisHalfElven]

where is this AA info coming from

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evg...8800_gts_superclocked_320mb/page14.asp

that shows only a few fps hit with 8xMSAA

 

[darbius]

So I've been looking at a few things about the 320 versus the 640 and it seems that everyone says to get the 320 if you're only playing at 1280x1024. My only real question is that is seems like people are only considering the games out there now when they say that...right? I have a 128mb card that was supposed to last me a lot longer than it did, but I've had it for less than 2 years and I feel like it's already outdated. That being the case, I would be tempted to get the 640mb because my gut tells me there will be games in the next couple years that will require that much video memory to run smoothly, even at 1280x1024.

Am I making any faulty assumptions?

 

[superbooga]

Originally posted by: aldamon
If you're going to keep the card for 3 years, you should get the 640MB model. That's a long time to keep a card and the price difference is negligible.

The 640MB model isn't going to last any longer. It's still got the same core clock and 96 stream processors. By early next year, the 8800GTS isn't going to be enough to play at max details at 1280x1024. The GTX/Ultra will probably last until the middle of the year.

Games like Lost Planet, Company of Heroes, and Call of Juarez are already getting dangerously close to unplayable even at 1280x1024.

 

[Ryland]

I am currently still using my 256MB 7800GT that is in my profile but will jump to a 640MB 8800GTS once the price drops a bit further. I wouldn't go with the 320MB since you can usually get a 640 for just slightly more.

 

[darbius]

Originally posted by: superbooga
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: aldamon
If you're going to keep the card for 3 years, you should get the 640MB model. That's a long time to keep a card and the price difference is negligible.</end quote></div>

The 640MB model isn't going to last any longer. It's still got the same core clock and 96 stream processors. By early next year, the 8800GTS isn't going to be enough to play at max details at 1280x1024. The GTX/Ultra will probably last until the middle of the year.

Games like Lost Planet, Company of Heroes, and Call of Juarez are already getting dangerously close to unplayable even at 1280x1024.

That's actually really really depressing and makes me wonder whether I should be shelling out $350 for a video card any time soon.

 

[superbooga]

If you're just going to be playing DX9 games, or set the quality to medium/high instead of some uber-high setting, then the card will be able to last a lot longer, and 640MB model will last longer than the 320MB one.

 

[pcslookout]

Does it make a difference if you have a 2 or 4 GB of ram in your system when deciding between a Geforce 8 GTS 320 or 640 ?

 

[apoppin]

personally ... i don't think ANY current card will be considered playable with anything close to "full details" at 10x12 in three years ...
that is July 2010 ... by then the 2nd gen of DX10 games will be out and i think my HD2900xt will be like a 9700p is now with STALKER and Oblivion.

maybe if i get two for xfire ... but no way in heck will even an Ultra GTX be upper-midrange in mid2010

things are moving much faster now... get an xbox360 if you want to play the games in 3 years like now