DDR Video card works better on DDR MB or SDR MB ?

[Jump4aDeal]

Just wondering,

Will a Radeon 8500LE 128MB DDR AGP video card or any DDR video card work better with a DDR Mobo or a SDR mobo?

 

[merlocka]

Basically, the memory system of a video card is independent of the mainboard.

That is, all things equal, a DDR video card will perform the same on a system using SDRAM or DDR SDRAM.

In the real world however, most applications are not limited by only the performance of the video card so that same video card on a DDR system will perform better because it's in a faster computer.

It's kinda like asking will a DDR video card work better on a 1GHz P3 or a 2Ghz P4 computer. It will work fine in both but the overall system speed will be faster with the P4.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: merlocka
Basically, the memory system of a video card is independent of the mainboard.

That is, all things equal, a DDR video card will perform the same on a system using SDRAM or DDR SDRAM.

In the real world however, most applications are not limited by only the performance of the video card so that same video card on a DDR system will perform better because it's in a faster computer.

It's kinda like asking will a DDR video card work better on a 1GHz P3 or a 2Ghz P4 computer. It will work fine in both but the overall system speed will be faster with the P4.

Since AGP is used to share system memory with the graphics adapter a DDR based system will perform better when data transfer is required.

I don't think you'll see a lot of a speed increase if you don't run out of card memory.

 

[merlocka]

Since AGP is used to share system memory with the graphics adapter a DDR based system will perform better when data transfer is required.

I would guess that 99% of the time all of the textures are stored locally (on the video adapter memory), so this is a mute point. If not, there would be a greater improvement in AGP4x vs 2x and 8x vs 4x.

Having more available BW on the system bus improves performace of games when the system is not bottlenecked by fillrate or video bandwidth limitations though, that was my point above.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: merlocka
Since AGP is used to share system memory with the graphics adapter a DDR based system will perform better when data transfer is required.

I would guess that 99% of the time all of the textures are stored locally (on the video adapter memory), so this is a mute point. If not, there would be a greater improvement in AGP4x vs 2x and 8x vs 4x.

Having more available BW on the system bus improves performace of games when the system is not bottlenecked by fillrate or video bandwidth limitations though, that was my point above.

2x/4x/8x doesn't matter if the memory can't keep up with the transer rate. Moving from SDR to DDR shows a real improvement in 3DMark scores. It isn't as big of a deal in modern games, but it does make a difference.

 

[merlocka]

Moving from SDR to DDR shows a real improvement in 3DMark scores. It isn't as big of a deal in modern games, but it does make a difference.

Of course it does. That's why I posted my original comment.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well it's cool everybody is agreeing. The type of RAM used on the gfx card has no bearing on the mobo RAM, pretty much the only diff will be the usual 10%ish speed advantage that DDR has over SDR, SDR+GF4TI will esily smoke a DDR+GF4MX.

 

[BFG10K]

The memory on the video card is not related to the memory on the motherboard except in the implicit sense where your total performance is usually the highest when both are using DDR.

 

[AnAndAustin]

It is a much better idea to have DDR on your gfx card, look at the perf diff between a GF2MX400 64MB (200/166) and a GF2GTS 64MB (200/333), the only diff is that GTS uses DDR, so 166x2=333mhz. DDR on your mobo boosts actual gaming perf by about 10%, DDR on your gfx card boosts perf by 50%+. Ideally you want both, but if you currently have SDR an your mobo and SDR on your gfx card, I would get a DDR gfx card before mobo DDR personally.