Video Cards - VRAM vs. the Architecture

[pcfitness]

Could one of you smarty pants help clear this up for me. I've heard contradicting things about VRAM vs. the overall architecture of the video card. I heard the more VRAM your video card has the higher resolutions you can play you games in? Then other's have said, the more VRAM the card has the faster your games will run?

For instance, let's say nvidia actually made a 64mb geforce 6800 Ultra, which would be faster and overall better for todays games and why, the 64mb geforce 6800 Ultra or 256mb geforce 6600?

Thx,
-pcfitness

 

[pcfitness]

And which would a gamer actually prefer and would that depend on the games he or she was playing?

 

[V00D00]

More video memory just helps where there are a lot of textures and stuff like that to load. Most games aren't efficiently made to use a ton of memory though, because not everyone has a 256mb card, so the performance gain is quite negligible. You won't see a big jumpin performance from a 128mb 6800 and a 256mb 6800... as far as I know.

Performance is mainly based on the GPU.

 

[SVT Cobra]

plus, with the lower amount of memory, you get a better latency

Its like buying a 5200 256mb vid card when the 128mb version would get better performance in less demanding vram games.....

 

[LiekOMG]

Unless the game you are playing is using more texture memory than VRAM you have available, having more VRAM will make no difference at all in terms of speed. That is why a 256mb Geforce 5200FX is completely dominated by a 128mb Radeon 9800. Or hell, even a 64mb Geforce 4 Ti.

 

[SVT Cobra]

umm it should be dominated by a 9800...correct me if im wrong but you skipped even the mid range series(when it first was new) by comparing the 5200 to a 9800.....lol

 

[LiekOMG]

Originally posted by: Son of a N00b
umm it should be dominated by a 9800...correct me if im wrong but you skipped even the mid range series(when it first was new) by comparing the 5200 to a 9800.....lol

I know that. The only reason I made that comparison is because an alarming number of consumers seem to think that more memory = more speed. Thus believing that the 256mb Geforce 5200FX they are purchasing is a gaming powerhouse, when we all know its the complete opposite.

 

[SVT Cobra]

oic

 

[pcfitness]

Ok, so 256 VRAM is better than 128 VRAM for resolutions above 1024x768 ??

-pc

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: pcfitness
Ok, so 256 VRAM is better than 128 VRAM for resolutions above 1024x768 ??

-pc

No, not really. If my math is right here, for 1600x1200, your frame buffer is only going to be 1600x1200x32bitsx2buffers=~16MB, so on a 128MB card, you still have 112MB of VRAM to utilize for texture map storage. We have so much VRAM these days that at normal desktop resolutions the amount used for the frame buffer is insignificant. The only time more VRAM is useful is when you have textures to put in it, and few games use more than 128MB of VRAM at the moment(though that will change with Doom3, UnrealEngine3, and Source based games).

 

[pcfitness]

Riiiight!

Well, I run doom3, hl2, farcry, painkiller, ut2004, wolfenstien etc and my setup that you see below runs them all on a scale from 1-10 I would say a 7.5 maybe an 8. I'm also a picky bastard..lol I like my graphics to be perfectly smooth so my eyes won't tire out on me.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Wow. I actually learned something. Thanks ViRGE. It's already changed with D3 here.

 

[pcfitness]

I'm sorry, what do you mean it's already changed with 3D there?

-pc

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: pcfitness
Riiiight!

Well, I run doom3, hl2, farcry, painkiller, ut2004, wolfenstien etc and my setup that you see below runs them all on a scale from 1-10 I would say a 7.5 maybe an 8. I'm also a picky bastard..lol I like my graphics to be perfectly smooth so my eyes won't tire out on me.

Well then, if you're complaining about game performance, why do you have a P4 and a 6600GT? An optimial setup would be an A64 and a 256MB 6800GT of some sort. 256MB of VRAM on a 6600GT is a waste anyhow, as using 256MB of textures will effectively halve performance when you're not doing great in the first place. The only time you should ever get a card with a maximum memory configuration is if it's a high-end card, or if it's priced about the same as the version of the card with less memory.

Oh, and Kensai means that it's changed with Doom3 because Doom3's texture set exceeds 256MB at ultra-high quality at times.

 

[pcfitness]

At the time I made the purchase I was in serious need of a computer. I usually build them "IF I have the time". I was originally interested in an HP desktop w/AMD 4000+ cpu 6800 Ultra etc. But when I went to HP's site to make the purchase they had already removed it...:-/ So that's how I ended up with the Sony. Besides, that was the best work / gaming desktop available. That's why I have a P4 w/geforce 256vram 6600, not the GT, just the plain vanilla 6600. Besides, the liquid cooled desktop sounded pretty cool. Not to mention it is virtually silent which I absolutely love. When you use a computer as much as we do them dam fans "white noise" can become annoying.

 

[pcfitness]

Yello?