640MB vs 320MB 8800GTS; big difference?

[mkln]

hi, ive seen the benchmarks which show little to no difference performance wise when both are clocked at the same speed. what if the 320MB version were clocked significantly higher? i currently have an eVGA 8800GTS Superclocked 320MB card clocked at 648/1512/2100 and was wondering if it is worth $80 to get the this 640MB version from BFG.

if anyone was in the same situation as me who actually upgraded to the 640MB version, is there a noticeable difference in performance? if yes, what games at what resolutions and settings?

system is on bottom with a 22" WS monitor

thanks in advance

 

[Rike]

If you already have a 8800 GTS 320, I wouldn't bother going to a 640. The differences are minor at best in most games. If you have $80 to through away, send it my way for this excellent advice.

 

[Cheex]

I agree with Rike.

I guess he and I can split the money...LOL...

 

[Keysplayr]

320 and 640 GTS's have identical cores (disregarding any vendor o/c'ing). The performance is nearly identical between the two. The only place you will notice an advantage with a 640GTS is when playing at very high resolutions or when greater than 320 MB of buffer is required for a given game. Other than that, you should be just dandy with your 320. Enjoy.

 

[mkln]

haha thanks for the enlightening replies .

i suppose it would be better, at this point and in my situation anyways, to wait for the next gen of cards.

thanks again

 

[mkln]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
320 and 640 GTS's have identical cores (disregarding any vendor o/c'ing). The performance is nearly identical between the two. The only place you will notice an advantage with a 640GTS is when playing at very high resolutions or when greater than 320 MB of buffer is required for a given game. Other than that, you should be just dandy with your 320. Enjoy.

is there a way to measure how much vRAM a game uses?

thanks again

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: mkln
is there a way to measure how much vRAM a game uses?

thanks again

Try Rivatuner.

I've noticed that a lot of more recent games, like Company of Heroes, use far more than 320MB of vRAM on high settings and AA levels (at least from readings in Rivatuner). In fact games like Company of Heroes sometimes exceed 512MB of vRAM. And that's running at 1680x1050 with only 2xAA, it only gets worse at higher resolutions (I tried running COH with 4xAA and Ultra texture settings and it used up over 700 MB of vRAM at points)

 

[BFG10K]

Even a three year old game like Doom 3 can easily exceed 320 MB VRAM. But yeah, don't bother upgrading if all you're doing is moving to a 640 MB card.

 

[cytoSiN]

The difference right now (on the egg) between the 8800GTS 320 (500 clock) and the 8800GTS 640 (576 clock) is about $110 AR.

Is there any reason to spend the extra $110 for the extra ram and the extra core speed, assuming a desire to play Oblivion and the like on high settings (with a Q6600 and 4GB Patriot Extreme pc26400)?

Thanks.

 

[aka1nas]

Oblivion will happily exceed 320MB(or even 512MB to be honest) of vRAM with AA enabled, especially if you use any of the higher resolution texture packs like QTP3. 1680x1050 is sort of the borderline resolution where the GTS 320MB can run without taking any major performance hits compared to the 640MB version. Some games will be fine, while others will take a huge hit, especially with AA enabled.

 

[sthaznpride17]

Really depends on the game. I play Lord of the Rings Online, and I cannot run the High Resolution textures because of the VRAM limitations. I run it at a relatively low resolution of 1280 x 1024 also. Some people say that newer games like Crysis will make use of more VRAM for the larger textures, and already we see that Oblivion requires more memory for the texture packs, and that game is a year old too.

The best thing to do right now is either deal with using lower textures and no AA like I do, or you wait till the next releases from nVidia/ATi and opt for the version with 512 or 1GB VRAM. It isn't worth it upgrading now.

HardOCP's review of the MIS 8800GTS 320MB should offer more insight on the matter.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[cytoSiN]

Agree with others saying to wait for the newer boards, but there's also the eVGA stepup option, which I'm looking very seriously at. Only problem is that we don't know the exact November release date of the 9800s. If I knew the date (so that I could calculate the 90-day limit and buy on or after that day), I would buy the OC'ed 640MB card and then just pay the difference (prolly about 200 or so based on newegg's price for the 640 version) in November.

Anyone have any info on November release dates?

edit: hit enter too soon

 

[Rike]

Careful with the setup option; read the fine print carefully. I remember someone saying that setup is only available on non-OCed cards. I'm not sure about it, but do read carefully before committing.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: Rike
Careful with the setup option; read the fine print carefully. I remember someone saying that setup is only available on non-OCed cards. I'm not sure about it, but do read carefully before committing.

Nope, step up is available for OC cards as well.

 

[mkln]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Originally posted by: Rike
Careful with the setup option; read the fine print carefully. I remember someone saying that setup is only available on non-OCed cards. I'm not sure about it, but do read carefully before committing.

Nope, step up is available for OC cards as well.

true, but iirc, you can only step up to a reference card; not the OCed version.

 

[MarcVenice]

I dunno man, I just went from a 1024*786 lcd to a 1680*1050 lcd, and Lost Planet runs all the same on my 8800gts 320mb, with AA x4.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: mkln

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Originally posted by: Rike
Careful with the setup option; read the fine print carefully. I remember someone saying that setup is only available on non-OCed cards. I'm not sure about it, but do read carefully before committing.

Nope, step up is available for OC cards as well.

true, but iirc, you can only step up to a reference card; not the OCed version.

I was curious about the details of step up program, so I looked it up. I should have done this to begin with.
EVGA Step-Up Program Terms and Conditions

Any EVGA Vid card purchased through normal retail channels can be used in Step-Up within 90 days of purchase.

Originally posted by: EVGA Step-Up Program Terms and Conditions

What products will EVGA make available to the Step-Up Program?

* EVGA will only release EGS (EVGA Genuine Spec) versions of its products, NVIDIA reference spec and clock, to the step-up program.
* Products that have been pre-configured with higher clock speeds will be released based on yield rates and in limited quantities and on a first come first ship bases.
* Products known to have limited availability will not be made available to the Step-Up Program. (Limited availability determined by EVGA production.)

In other words, you know you'll get a stock card, you might be able to get an OCed card, and you won't be able to get a hard to find card.

 

[Modelworks]

I would only buy cards now that are 512MB or greater.
A lot of the upcoming games are using large textures.
Bioshock released the recommended spec of 512MB ram on the card.
When I was playing World in Conflict beta I noticed that if I pushed the options to the max that I ran out of vram with a 256MB card.
I imagine that its only going to continue with future games.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i have an 8800gts 320 and will be holding onto it until there is really something worthwhile to upgrade to around 300 bucks, and sell this lil gem i got for whatever fair market value is.

im figuring xmas time one should be able to pick up an 8800gtx for that price