Video Card V.S. Ram

[mwmorph]

what is faster in general for gaming,
1gb ram and a 9800pro
or 512mb ram and a 6600gt

i have an AMD64 3300+(2.4ghz,256kL2)
Asus mATX mb.

i plan to play GTA:SA, BF2, Quake4(kills 9800 ) and HL2

i have 2 optical, no pci cards , 1 hdd, 1 case fan, obviously a cpu fan, a cpu and nothing else installed.14A on the +12v rail, 25A on +5V and 27A on +3.3V rails. voltage is pretty decent.

Will my PS handle a 6600gt or 6800nu?

 

[penceman]

I dont know which is faster, but if it were me I'd get the 6600GT and the 512MB of ram.

 

[eXx08]

1gig ram 9800pro, get that, it will be alot better. In my opinion the 9800pro is better than the 6600gt. Plus I have a 9600se with 512mb ram, it's ok, will be upgrading soon. For now hadles any thing i throw at it. Once i get my x800xl and 2gig ram i will be alot happier

 

[mwmorph]

well at this point im leaning toward a 6600gt new or 6800nu used now and 512mb ram next month. i just want to know if a 6600gt or 6800nu will run under my power supply as posted in post #1. i believe a slightly oced 6800 will draw 49w but i have no idea how much power a 6600gt will draw.

 

[Oyeve]

I think you'd be better off with more memory than that video card. The 9800 Pro actually beats or is on par with that card.

 

[cubby1223]

I'd go with the 6600GT myself - while they're similar in speed, the 6600GT has more features and functionality than the 9800

 

[mwmorph]

asnyone know about the power? i am pretty much at max for my power sicne it is SFF and i believe 270w or so is max for sff and i already have a 240w ps.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I forsee real problems trying to play BF2 with only 512 mb of memory.

That said, I think the 6600GT is a much better card than the 9800pro. I'm not sure what some others are talking about, but in the benches I've seen the only times the 9800pro even comes close to the 6600GT is in extremely high resolutions where the radeon can take advantage of it's 256 bit memory interface.

This is a review of the 6600GT done by anandtech a while back.

 

[penceman]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
I forsee real problems trying to play BF2 with only 512 mb of memory.

That said, I think the 6600GT is a much better card than the 9800pro. I'm not sure what some others are talking about, but in the benches I've seen the only times the 9800pro even comes close to the 6600GT is in extremely high resolutions where the radeon can take advantage of it's 256 bit memory access.

I play BF2 with only 512MB ram and it works fine

 

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: penceman

I play BF2 with only 512MB ram and it works fine

What video settings do you play at?

Edit: I get a few slight hitches even with 1024mb and a 6600GT. When I turn the texture quality to the max they get even worse. My guess is that you're having to turn texture quality down considerably for smooth play.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
1gig ram 9800pro, get that, it will be alot better. In my opinion the 9800pro is better than the 6600gt. Plus I have a 9600se with 512mb ram, it's ok, will be upgrading soon. For now hadles any thing i throw at it. Once i get my x800xl and 2gig ram i will be alot happier

well your opinion is wrong. the 6600gt is a better card in almost every way.

 

[mwmorph]

i dont really need max texture quality and i never play with AA.(played on a rage pro 8mb and then a geforce2 ultra up till now. all i hope for is 10x7 or 12x10 med-high in most games.

edit: does the pci-e and agp versions of the 6600gt have the same latency ram? i noticed agp is clocked 100mhz lower on the memory but do they actually use different memory chips?

edit2: what is the power draw for a 6600gt?

 

[aatf510]

9800pro with 1GB would probably give you smoother gameplay,
but I would personally go with 1 stick of 512MB and 6600GT, and pop-in another 512mb when possible.
On the other hand, upgrading a video card is much harder.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: penceman
I dont know which is faster, but if it were me I'd get the 6600GT and the 512MB of ram.

i wouldnt

 

[angstsoldat]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
1gig ram 9800pro, get that, it will be alot better. In my opinion the 9800pro is better than the 6600gt. Plus I have a 9600se with 512mb ram, it's ok, will be upgrading soon. For now hadles any thing i throw at it. Once i get my x800xl and 2gig ram i will be alot happier

Me too. You getting an Abit x800XL?

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
edit: does the pci-e and agp versions of the 6600gt have the same latency ram? i noticed agp is clocked 100mhz lower on the memory but do they actually use different memory chips?

edit2: what is the power draw for a 6600gt?

the versions don't have different memory speeds, its just the way the manufacturers clock the cards.

what kind of PSU do you have?

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
what is faster in general for gaming,
1gb ram and a 9800pro
or 512mb ram and a 6600gt

If by "faster" you mean fps, the extra ram will have little or no effect on fps. It will, however, help with loading times and general smoothness/speed when navigating around in-game menu's etc.


Fern

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: shoRunner

the versions don't have different memory speeds, its just the way the manufacturers clock the cards.

what kind of PSU do you have?

240w SFF psu. 14A on +12 25A on +5 and 27A on +3.3 rails.

Originally posted by: Fern
If by "faster" you mean fps, the extra ram will have little or no effect on fps. It will, however, help with loading times and general smoothness/speed when navigating around in-game menu's etc.


Fern

it was always my understanding that with more rma, your fps wont dip as low so it would be smoother.

 

[SonicIce]

6600 GT beats 9800 Pro every single time, theres no doubt about that. Anyone who argues has never seen the benchmarks. 6600 GT is on par with 9800 XT. But 1GB RAM is so much better in most games than 512MB. Get 6600 GT and 512MB and upgrade to 1GB later.

Quote from Anandtech article:
"Across the board, the 6600GT is a better buy than the 9800 Pro. There is no question that the performance is better across the board, and only gets better at higher resolutions. Add to that the fact that the feature set is a year newer, and there really isn't a debate."

 

[dguy6789]

A 9800 Pro and 1GB of ram would COMPLETELY CRUSH a 6600GT and 512MB of ram. 512MB of ram doesn't come EVEN CLOSE to being enough for the settings you would play BF2 at with either card.

Yes a 6600GT is a faster card than a 9800 Pro, that is a fact. But BF2 is a memory hog. 512MB of ram and a 7800GTX SLI system would run BF2 slower than 1GB and a 9800 Pro.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I would definately upgrade the PS, you can get a pretty beffy PS for less than $100. Rosewill makes a 500w model with 35a on the 12v for about $75 at the Egg.

6600GT>9800pro

 

[mwmorph]

i understand that. i am set on ether a 6600gt or 6800nu and a 512mb of memory next month(all i have is $141 disposable income this month) so either way, im going to buy used. i just want to know how much ti will stress my system power wise. please remember, my ps is a Small Form Factor since my case is SFF and thus i cant use the big ATX ps. i must use the samll form factor ps which pretty much top out at 270w or so. my 240w is already up there in power.

 

[SlitheryDee]

In some cases there's less than a $20 dollar difference between the 2 cards. Why not get the 6600GT AND 1gb of RAM?

Edit: oh nevermind just saw the post above.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Opps, didn't see the matx
But I really think you will run into problems with a higher powered GPU


Athena Power 450w micro ATX 19a 12v $70.50

And Athena Power makes goods PS's

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
I would definately upgrade the PS, you can get a pretty beffy PS for less than $100. Rosewill makes a 500w model with 35a on the 12v for about $75 at the Egg.

6600GT>9800pro

Or wait and get a 500w Antec smartpower on sale for $50 (17a 12v1 19a 12v2)

-spike

Oh, and I would get the 6600GT and 512mb. When you can get a decent stick of 512mb for ~$60-80 why not get the better card and just get the ram after the next few paychecks