Basic Video Card Questions

[jcwest]

I'm sorry if this question has been answered previously, I didn't know what to search for. Plus I'm a newb, so this might seem elementary (my dear Watson).

In terms of bang for the buck, is it better to spend money on memory size or memory bandwidth? Is a 512MB 256 bit card better than a 1GB 128 bit card (holding everything else equal). Or maybe easier to answer is for which applications do I need more memory, and which ones do I need more bandwidth? Keep in mind pretty much all I do is play World of Warcraft.

Thanks, and again sorry if this is a poorly posed question.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Every thing being equal, memory bandwidth is generally better than higher amount of memory.

If you can tell us at what resolution you play, what is the rest of you system configuration (CPU, RAM, PSU, motherboard), your budget and what cards you've been looking at, we can give you a better answer.

EDIT: Although, and I'm not a WoW player, I believe WoW is quite CPU bound instead of GPU bound, so something like a 4850/GTS250 should be able play it fine with max settings. Maybe a 4870 1GB or a GTX260 core 216 if you play at higher than 1680x1050 and want huge obscene amounts of AA.

 

[BenSkywalker]

If all you do is play WoW, memory amount will likely help you more then bandwidth, particularly when you are in Dal or raids. This comment applies to WoW, and pretty much only WoW(not exactly, but that is the best way to think of it). Sadly game sites that do show benches show numbers like someone running through the Barrens by themselves in the middle of the day.... like that's a good indicator. Show me heroic 3D Sarth with all the adds up during full AOE mode running @30FPS and I'd be psyched, but no, we get ~200FPS Barrens numbers.... meh.

Oh yeah, GPU choice is still the most important factor, by a ton too. Just if forced to chose between bandwidth and memory amount- for WoW- I would chose RAM amount.