MORE CLOCK CORE VS. MORE MEMORY

[justinj6]

I was looking at these two cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150229, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150260,
in search of good value for mid to low price card. I've been told that the key ingredients to look at regarding performance are clock core and memory. Having more of which presents the greater performance?

Midway in price between these two is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150258

I am budget conscious, so from the price side the 8600 GT XXX is the least in cost.

I'm in the process of putting together a new system. To date I have:
PSU OCZ|OCZ600SXS 600W RT and
OCZ 2GB ( 2 X 1GB ) Platinum PC2-6400 800MHz 240-pin DDR2 Memory.
I'm considering the following:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 (budget) or
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35
Intel Pentium E2200 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core (budget) or
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core.

For my video card what would be the best choice for this lineup?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[dingetje]

8600 gt cards may seem cheap but the performance/price ratio sux...

if you want cheap and still have a good price/performance ratio then you could buy an nvidia 8800GS with 384mb or an ati 3850 with 512mb. (whichever brand you prefer, the cards perform similarly nice for the buck)
whatever you do, i would not get an 8600 (any flavor) , also avoid any 256mb card, because the low amount of ram severly cripples the performance of the modern gpu's.

of course if you can spend just a bit more, get a 9600gt or 8800gt. they will give you great gaming power...

edit:
by the way read this thread about the awesomeness of the 8800gs-384mb
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2161111&enterthread=y

which reminded me, one more suggestion for ya:
get a card with variable fanspeed!! (or a non standard quiet fan which will be quiet at 100%)..the stock fans at 100% are just effing loud.

 

[Tbolo]

I agree with everything dinetje just wrote. Try to spend a little more and you will not regret it. Them 8600s do not perform well at all with any newer games out. You might as well buy a 7900 because they perform just as well and there is no way your going to be able to play a DX10 with an 8600 anyway.

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: Tbolo
I agree with everything dinetje just wrote. Try to spend a little more and you will not regret it. Them 8600s do not perform well at all with any newer games out. You might as well buy a 7900 because they perform just as well and there is no way your going to be able to play a DX10 with an 8600 anyway.

Thanks Dingetje and Tholo, for your input and I will weigh it carefully.

And I am still interested in better understanding how to determine the performance significance of clock core vs. memory.

Cheers,
Justin

 

[qbfx]

I'm not an expert on this but I think higher clock speeds should give you higher performance on any resolution, whereas more memory doesn't always mean faster card, it should give you higher performance on high resolutions and with more AA & AF if the card can really use the extra memory as it is limited by other things. Of course a 8800GT or a 3870 with 256MB is severely crippled and you wouldn't want to buy them if you play on anything higher than 12x10. For the moment 512MB is enough for the mainstream card and it will take better GPUs and architectures to fully utilize some extra vram. So, basically 2GB on a 9600GT is more of a marketing trick than a performance boost for the product.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: justinj6

Originally posted by: Tbolo
I agree with everything dinetje just wrote. Try to spend a little more and you will not regret it. Them 8600s do not perform well at all with any newer games out. You might as well buy a 7900 because they perform just as well and there is no way your going to be able to play a DX10 with an 8600 anyway.

Thanks Dingetje and Tholo, for your input and I will weigh it carefully.

And I am still interested in better understanding how to determine the performance significance of clock core vs. memory.

Cheers,
Justin

These 8600 doesn't have the power to play anything high resolutions. You might be able to get away with 1280x1024 in most games out so you don't really need a 512meg video card. I would go with higher memory speed and core clocks.

7900 are actually far worse for newer games than a 8600gt. Not that you can even find them cheaper than 8600gt.

 

[AzN]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127284

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143113

You might as well go with this 8600gts card. Faster than all those cards for about same price.

 

[qbfx]

Originally posted by: Azn
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127284

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143113

You might as well go with this 8600gts card. Faster than all those cards for about same price.

but then again we wouldn't count on MSI rebates, would we

 

[AzN]

Yeah I never got mine.

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: Azn
Yeah I never got mine.

I've been lucky with rebates so far. Got all that I applied for.

Thanks Azn and qbfx for the input. It helps. I am looking at June as a time when I will put this together so can wait a bit. I'm trying to picks things up as good deals appear.

Justin

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: justinj6

Originally posted by: Azn
Yeah I never got mine.

I've been lucky with rebates so far. Got all that I applied for.

Thanks Azn and qbfx for the input. It helps. I am looking at June as a time when I will put this together so can wait a bit. I'm trying to picks things up as good deals appear.

Justin

By June, the landscape probably will have changed a bit. By then, you can probably get a 9600GT as a decent price. What resolution is your monitor?

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: kmmatney

Originally posted by: justinj6

Originally posted by: Azn
Yeah I never got mine.

I've been lucky with rebates so far. Got all that I applied for.

Thanks Azn and qbfx for the input. It helps. I am looking at June as a time when I will put this together so can wait a bit. I'm trying to picks things up as good deals appear.

Justin

By June, the landscape probably will have changed a bit. By then, you can probably get a 9600GT as a decent price. What resolution is your monitor?

The current monitor is a Dell 2007WFP with 1680 x 1050 resolution.

 

[firewolfsm]

Once you have 512MB, the rest is just core speed.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: justinj6
The current monitor is a Dell 2007WFP with 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Then you should forget about the 8600's. 1280x1024 is pretty much their limit, although I hear that they'll only do that decently if not using any AA.

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: justinj6
The current monitor is a Dell 2007WFP with 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Then you should forget about the 8600's. 1280x1024 is pretty much their limit, although I hear that they'll only do that decently if not using any AA.

I guess what I will have to look at is the next level up which appears to be 8800gs, 3850 or 9600gt.

I was trying to order another piece of the puzzle by Mar. 21 so I can take advantage of a $50 discount at Buy.com for a first time buy, and thought the card might be it.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the input. Keep it coming.

 

[TheWrongTree]

I have an HD3850 512MB card. It's pretty good, but if you can find an 8800GT for similar price, I'd suggest that route, I think.

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: TheWrongTree
I have an HD3850 512MB card. It's pretty good, but if you can find an 8800GT for similar price, I'd suggest that route, I think.

My original intention was to keep it under $100 and thus the appeal of 8600gt. I want to stay close to that target. I'm trying to get the best value for the dollar.

All suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[bryanW1995]

if the build is in june then your best bet on video cards is to wait. the high end 9xxx series will be out in a few weeks, and r700 might even be out by then!

 

[justinj6]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
if the build is in june then your best bet on video cards is to wait. the high end 9xxx series will be out in a few weeks, and r700 might even be out by then!

Yeah, it seems at the moment it is better to wait it out on the card and hope the competition intensifies and the prices drop.

 

[Tbolo]

Originally posted by: justinj6

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: justinj6
The current monitor is a Dell 2007WFP with 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Then you should forget about the 8600's. 1280x1024 is pretty much their limit, although I hear that they'll only do that decently if not using any AA.

I guess what I will have to look at is the next level up which appears to be 8800gs, 3850 or 9600gt.

I was trying to order another piece of the puzzle by Mar. 21 so I can take advantage of a $50 discount at Buy.com for a first time buy, and thought the card might be it.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the input. Keep it coming.

Spend the extra 60 bucks and get a 9600. You will not regret it.