New Graphics card, More RAM vs Faster RAM

jomuj · 14th Sep 2007, 02:42 PM

Well, I have decided to give my computer a bit of a boost and buy a new graphics card. The thing is, i'm still stuck with AGP... Which kind of limits the choice a bit.

I've been trawling ebay and come up with the following choices.

Sapphire ATi X1650 256mb GDDR3
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 7800GS 256mb GDDR3
Sapphire ATi x1650 512mb GDDR2
BFG Nvidia Geforce 7600gs 512mb GDDR2

Which basically boils down to, "More Memory Vs. Faster Memory". I have be thinking about this but have been unable to make a decision... Then to make things worse, Nvidia or Ati? It seems that most people think the 7600gs could "Eat the x1650 for breakfast" but i'm not so sure...

The 7800GS was a powerful card and I think that it might still be the king of the hill as far as these cards are concerned. But, for arguments sake, say I didn't get the 7800, which would then be best?

Would the increase in on-board memory be faster even though it's only DDR2?

Max_87 · 14th Sep 2007, 06:37 PM

Don't buy those 512MB ones. It's useless on those cards because they are not fast enough to utilize so much memory buffer anyway. I see that you already have a X1600 Pro, no point going for 7600GS/X1650Pro/XT already. If you are really looking for a speed boost, go for the 7800GS or above.

For AGP cards:
X1950 Pro > 7800GS > X1650XT > 7600GS >= X1650 Pro

ATI/NVIDIA will be releasing AGP based DX10 parts soon. You might want to wait and see what ATI/NVIDIA has to offer, or just simply skip this upgrade since you said that you will be buying a new PC.

PsYkHoTiK · 14th Sep 2007, 07:48 PM

Fleabay is expensive most of the time. A graphics card ram amount is never a definitive measure of performance. Its always always the GPU.

Example, my 8800gts is 'only' a 320mb card. But its way faster than the 512mb cards you listed. The only difference would be the 8800 could utilize more ram.

Max's recommendation is spot on (not suprisingly...

)

jomuj · 14th Sep 2007, 08:16 PM

Aha, ok. So there is not much point buying ones with 512mb of mem.

Quote:

ATI/NVIDIA will be releasing AGP based DX10 parts soon. You might want to wait and see what ATI/NVIDIA has to offer, or just simply skip this upgrade since you said that you will be buying a new PC.

Yeah that's true, that is exactly what I'm thinking. It's just that a friend offered to buy my x1600 from me, and for a bit more money I can get something better while I wait and see what AMD's 4 core turns out like. As well as a few other things! (I want my hybrid hard drive!)

Besides, in a few months the geforce 8XXX/ati hd2XXX series may have been superseded. Which means I will be able to get something better, or the current generation will be cheaper.

Anyway, it would seem that the 7800 is the one to look out for. You don't think the x1650 will make much of a difference? It has DDR3 where as mine is only DDR2.

Max_87 · 14th Sep 2007, 08:31 PM

No, it won't make much of a difference. If you really want to upgrade, get either the X1950 Pro or 7800GS. X1950 Pro is the fastest AGP card you can get right now.

jomuj · 14th Sep 2007, 08:40 PM

Yeah i seen a few of them on ebay, but their a bit expensive for what I want. The most I want to spend is about US$100. I sold mine for US$70, So I don't want to spend to much. Whats the point if I'm going to change my PC? It's just something to replace mine untill I get a new PC

6 days left to go on the 7800... Curse those long auctions.

PsYkHoTiK · 15th Sep 2007, 08:48 AM

By the way. Why fleabay?

Adrian Wong · 15th Sep 2007, 09:02 AM

Yeah, you can always check elsewhere. Even Pricegrabber.

The_YongGrand · 15th Sep 2007, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomuj

Well, I have decided to give my computer a bit of a boost and buy a new graphics card. The thing is, i'm still stuck with AGP... Which kind of limits the choice a bit.

I've been trawling ebay and come up with the following choices.

Sapphire ATi X1650 256mb GDDR3
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 7800GS 256mb GDDR3
Sapphire ATi x1650 512mb GDDR2
BFG Nvidia Geforce 7600gs 512mb GDDR2

Which basically boils down to, "More Memory Vs. Faster Memory". I have be thinking about this but have been unable to make a decision... Then to make things worse, Nvidia or Ati? It seems that most people think the 7600gs could "Eat the x1650 for breakfast" but i'm not so sure...

The 7800GS was a powerful card and I think that it might still be the king of the hill as far as these cards are concerned. But, for arguments sake, say I didn't get the 7800, which would then be best?

Would the increase in on-board memory be faster even though it's only DDR2?

Higher clockspeeds, number of features (pipelines and stuff like that) and RAM type (DDR2, DDR3) actually more important than the RAM size. If you have a slow GFX card, having 512 MB GFX memory isn't going to help too much at all.

j.m.h.o.

Max_87 · 15th Sep 2007, 09:18 AM

RAM type (DDR2/DDR3) doesn't really matter. What matters most is the overall bandwidth it has.

14th Sep 2007, 02:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
jomuj Official BOG Supporter! Join Date: 30 Aug 2007 Location: The Restaurant At The End Of THe Universe Posts: 39 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	New Graphics card, More RAM vs Faster RAM Well, I have decided to give my computer a bit of a boost and buy a new graphics card. The thing is, i'm still stuck with AGP... Which kind of limits the choice a bit. I've been trawling ebay and come up with the following choices. Sapphire ATi X1650 256mb GDDR3 EVGA Nvidia Geforce 7800GS 256mb GDDR3 Sapphire ATi x1650 512mb GDDR2 BFG Nvidia Geforce 7600gs 512mb GDDR2 Which basically boils down to, "More Memory Vs. Faster Memory". I have be thinking about this but have been unable to make a decision... Then to make things worse, Nvidia or Ati? It seems that most people think the 7600gs could "Eat the x1650 for breakfast" but i'm not so sure... The 7800GS was a powerful card and I think that it might still be the king of the hill as far as these cards are concerned. But, for arguments sake, say I didn't get the 7800, which would then be best? Would the increase in on-board memory be faster even though it's only DDR2? __________________ Coolermaster Wavemaster Case - Asus A8V-Deluxe - PC P&C Silencer 610w - AMD Athlon 3500+ @2.51ghz - Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler(Lapped) - 2gb Crappy Generic DDR-RAM - Sapphire ATi Radeon x1950 Pro 512mb @ 661/756 - Audigy X-Fi Platinum - 19" Viewsonic VX922 - 1 x Western Digital Raptor, 2 x Maxtor 200gb HDD & My Trusty Razer Copperhead Computer upgrade at the end of the Year Hopefully

14th Sep 2007, 06:37 PM	#2 (permalink)
Max_87 h@x! Join Date: 11 Aug 2003 Location: the land of bandwidth cap Posts: 11,430 Reputation: 2090 Rep Power: 38	Don't buy those 512MB ones. It's useless on those cards because they are not fast enough to utilize so much memory buffer anyway. I see that you already have a X1600 Pro, no point going for 7600GS/X1650Pro/XT already. If you are really looking for a speed boost, go for the 7800GS or above. For AGP cards: X1950 Pro > 7800GS > X1650XT > 7600GS >= X1650 Pro ATI/NVIDIA will be releasing AGP based DX10 parts soon. You might want to wait and see what ATI/NVIDIA has to offer, or just simply skip this upgrade since you said that you will be buying a new PC. __________________ Max_87 Tech ARP http://www.techarp.com Dell Studio 15 / P7350 / 3GB DDR2 / Radeon HD 3450 / 250GB 7200RPM / 15" @ 1920x1200 E8600 @ 4.4GHz 1.36v / Asus P5E3 Deluxe / 2x2GB DDR3 / Radeon X1800 / Barracuda 7200.9 120GB / 7200.10 320GB x2 / Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS / WD6400AAKS x2 / Dell 2007FP x2 / Silverstone ST56F

14th Sep 2007, 07:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
PsYkHoTiK "Little" Devil Join Date: 8 Apr 2004 Location: On the "throne" Posts: 14,661 Reputation: 4442 Rep Power: 64	Fleabay is expensive most of the time. A graphics card ram amount is never a definitive measure of performance. Its always always the GPU. Example, my 8800gts is 'only' a 320mb card. But its way faster than the 512mb cards you listed. The only difference would be the 8800 could utilize more ram. Max's recommendation is spot on (not suprisingly... ) __________________ Intel SLAPL 4.3GHz @ 1.35v : 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 : Asus P5K Premium : WD RE3 250GB x2 RAID 0 : 3ware 9650SE-2LP : G92 8800GTS 512mb 820MHz Core : XFi Platinum : Silverstone OP650 : Silverstone TJ-07 : Dtek FuZion CPU : Swiftech MCW60 : MCP655 : Thermochill PA120.3 w Scythe Ultra Kaze CPU-Z: SLAPL : SLA9U : FX-55 : DDR 600 : VX www.techarp.com PsYkHoTiK's Meanderings

14th Sep 2007, 08:31 PM	#5 (permalink)
Max_87 h@x! Join Date: 11 Aug 2003 Location: the land of bandwidth cap Posts: 11,430 Reputation: 2090 Rep Power: 38	No, it won't make much of a difference. If you really want to upgrade, get either the X1950 Pro or 7800GS. X1950 Pro is the fastest AGP card you can get right now. __________________ Max_87 Tech ARP http://www.techarp.com Dell Studio 15 / P7350 / 3GB DDR2 / Radeon HD 3450 / 250GB 7200RPM / 15" @ 1920x1200 E8600 @ 4.4GHz 1.36v / Asus P5E3 Deluxe / 2x2GB DDR3 / Radeon X1800 / Barracuda 7200.9 120GB / 7200.10 320GB x2 / Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS / WD6400AAKS x2 / Dell 2007FP x2 / Silverstone ST56F

14th Sep 2007, 08:40 PM	#6 (permalink)
jomuj Official BOG Supporter! Join Date: 30 Aug 2007 Location: The Restaurant At The End Of THe Universe Posts: 39 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	Yeah i seen a few of them on ebay, but their a bit expensive for what I want. The most I want to spend is about US$100. I sold mine for US$70, So I don't want to spend to much. Whats the point if I'm going to change my PC? It's just something to replace mine untill I get a new PC 6 days left to go on the 7800... Curse those long auctions. __________________ Coolermaster Wavemaster Case - Asus A8V-Deluxe - PC P&C Silencer 610w - AMD Athlon 3500+ @2.51ghz - Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler(Lapped) - 2gb Crappy Generic DDR-RAM - Sapphire ATi Radeon x1950 Pro 512mb @ 661/756 - Audigy X-Fi Platinum - 19" Viewsonic VX922 - 1 x Western Digital Raptor, 2 x Maxtor 200gb HDD & My Trusty Razer Copperhead Computer upgrade at the end of the Year Hopefully

15th Sep 2007, 08:48 AM	#7 (permalink)
PsYkHoTiK "Little" Devil Join Date: 8 Apr 2004 Location: On the "throne" Posts: 14,661 Reputation: 4442 Rep Power: 64	By the way. Why fleabay? __________________ Intel SLAPL 4.3GHz @ 1.35v : 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 : Asus P5K Premium : WD RE3 250GB x2 RAID 0 : 3ware 9650SE-2LP : G92 8800GTS 512mb 820MHz Core : XFi Platinum : Silverstone OP650 : Silverstone TJ-07 : Dtek FuZion CPU : Swiftech MCW60 : MCP655 : Thermochill PA120.3 w Scythe Ultra Kaze CPU-Z: SLAPL : SLA9U : FX-55 : DDR 600 : VX www.techarp.com PsYkHoTiK's Meanderings

15th Sep 2007, 09:02 AM	#8 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 32,299 Reputation: 3574 Rep Power: 75	Yeah, you can always check elsewhere. Even Pricegrabber. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

15th Sep 2007, 09:18 AM	#10 (permalink)
Max_87 h@x! Join Date: 11 Aug 2003 Location: the land of bandwidth cap Posts: 11,430 Reputation: 2090 Rep Power: 38	RAM type (DDR2/DDR3) doesn't really matter. What matters most is the overall bandwidth it has. __________________ Max_87 Tech ARP http://www.techarp.com Dell Studio 15 / P7350 / 3GB DDR2 / Radeon HD 3450 / 250GB 7200RPM / 15" @ 1920x1200 E8600 @ 4.4GHz 1.36v / Asus P5E3 Deluxe / 2x2GB DDR3 / Radeon X1800 / Barracuda 7200.9 120GB / 7200.10 320GB x2 / Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS / WD6400AAKS x2 / Dell 2007FP x2 / Silverstone ST56F