256 or 512 7900GT?

[KWJay]

Hi people!! I;m currently reviewing my choices of a pair of 7900GT's to replace the dodgy pair i bought from another etailer having now received a refund for them. I'm looking at the Gainward cards which, from my past experience with the company, seem pretty good. Thing is, with the setup i have i was wondering how much difference the 512mb cards will make. I mainly game in 3d shooters, and 3rd person games like TR Legends. Am running the NEC 20wgx2 which gives a resolution of 1680x1050, Opty 146 at 2.9Ghz and 2gig of ram. Would the extra memory and guaranteed OC of the GS or GLH cards justify the extra cost over a pair of regular GT's? Anyones thoughts here would be helpful. I;m leaning towards the GS as its in This Week Only....

 

[no_1_dave]

If I were buying right now i'd get the Gold Sample cards from "This Week Only"

 

[KWJay]

Yeah thats what i'm seriously leaning towards, however there are other cards that are clocked slighlty lower on the core, slightly higher on the mem available else where for about £60 less on a pair. Think they were xfx ones at 520 core and 1500 mem which probably will clock to the same speeds and £60 is £60!! Gonna have to think on this one! but really all i wanted to know is if the 512 will be much benefit for me now and until DX10 stuff comes out which is probably when i'd next change them...

 

[turbotoaster]

Yeah thats what i'm seriously leaning towards, however there are other cards that are clocked slighlty lower on the core, slightly higher on the mem available else where for about £60 less on a pair. Think they were xfx ones at 520 core and 1500 mem which probably will clock to the same speeds and £60 is £60!! Gonna have to think on this one! but really all i wanted to know is if the 512 will be much benefit for me now and until DX10 stuff comes out which is probably when i'd next change them...

depends really on ya monitor, 512mb will help if your running big resolution ie 1600x1200+, if ya are on little monitor then go for 256mb, remember though that i heard that the xfx versions dont overclock that well past what they are, i maybe wrong but i would have a look on the 7900 overclocking thread and see what is clocking the highest

 

[KWJay]

cool, thanks mate, i haven't had the time to trawl through that monster thread as yet! What was tempting me about the Gainwards was the little bits in brackets... (great overclocking potential...) which if put there by OCUK there must be some truth to it! I'm intending to run everything i can in 1680x1050 as this monitor is so damn nice at that res, TRL looked awesome til my GT's went wobbly!