Radeon -- 32MB DDR or 64MB SDR?

[kamaboko]

Hello,

Looking at a Radeon card. Yeah, I know there's stuff out there that kicks its butt on gaming, but that's now why I'm buying this. I'm more interested in the 2D and DVD quality. In any case, which will offer better performance, the 32MB DDR or the 64MB SDR option? I'll be running this on the following:

Soyo Dragon Plus!
AMD 1700XP
512MB DDR

Also, what kind of issues am I looking at with WinXP Pro and Win2K Pro in terms of drivers?

Thanks in advance,
K

 

[Innoka]

Whereas the Geforce2 chip is capable of rendering with more memory bandwidth than can currently be provided, the Radeon chip doesn't contain as much pure rendering power and DDR shows less of a gain. I would count on the SDR being 75-80% of the old DDR Radeon. But if you go to look at the digitlife 3Digest benchmarks, the gap is very small.
So the gap is not large between the two, but the gap between that and the GF2 line on those graphs is huge.
The extra memory may allow you to toggle on higher detail options on some games. Whether you'd be happy running them on the Radeon I can't answer.

 

[BenAfk]

I had several problems with my Radeon 32mb DDR and Win XP. These issues were fixed with a "leaked" driver set that I downloaded from a link on this messageboard. You will definitely need this new driver rather than the ATI officially released driver. It fixes serrious problems with Open GL and a bug with Monitor refresh rate settings. (for non DDC monitors you could not refresh above 60hz).

I like my Radeon card. The DVD playback is very good, much better than a software decoder like WinDVD, which i used before getting the Radeon. I also play many 3d games with the card and it performs well with these new drivers.

I am only guessing but I do not think the extra 32mb of memory will make much difference for DVD playback. In any case, the 32mb card has excellent playback, I often watch DVD's on my 21" monitor.

Here is where can find the " Leaked Drivers

PS I am thinking of buying a Soyo Dragon Plus! and an AMD XP 2000 processor. I am interested in how your's is performing.

Todd

 

[Rand]

The 32MB DDR is faster then the 64MB SDR in the majority of situations.

 

[spanky]

the 64mb ddr card is quite affordable, isn't it?

 

[kamaboko]

Ben Afk,

Not that mine is setup yet, but a friend of mine has a Soyo Dragon Plus! with a 1600XP and loves it. He's had some driver issues, but those were with other perf's that he was using. I should have mine up by the end of the week. I'll drop a line and let you know how it's working. Also, thanks for the link to the drivers. I downloaded them and will try them soon.

K

 

[BFG10K]

The Radeon 32 MB DDR is faster than the Radeon 64 MB SDR.

 

[Bimmer318i]

<< The Radeon 32 MB DDR is faster than the Radeon 64 MB SDR >>

 

[eplebnista]

<< The Radeon 32 MB DDR is faster than the Radeon 64 MB SDR >>

MO is in sync with the statement above.



My$.02,
eplebnista