8800gt 256 / 512 difference?

[PhatEd]

Is there going to be a great deal of performance difference between the 256 and 512 8800gt cards?

 

[Pilky01]

Yes.

 

[memphisto]

well i have just been looking at reviews on these lol due to possibly buying one and it seems above 1680 by 1050 there is some but under that not a great deal.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Do not go with a 256mb card if you want to play current and upcoming titles with decent performance, 512mb minimum.

 

[PhatEd]

well i have just been looking at reviews on these lol due to possibly buying one and it seems above 1680 by 1050 there is some but under that not a great deal.

The review that I have just read after posting shows the 256mb card on par on most test games and resolutions up to 1680 x 1050 too. Above that there seems to be a small gap appearing with the 512mb card being favourite.

I'm beginning to wonder whether one of these would be a viable purchase instead of the 4670 512mb?

 

[reflux]

The early 8800GT 256mb had slower clocks and were considerably worse in games than the 512mb ones. Newer 256mb cards have the same clocks, but the RAM is still a bit too low.

 

[memphisto]

but seeing as though you can pick them up for sub £60 new are they good value at that pricepoint ?

 

[PhatEd]

This is the point. From what I have read, the performance that you get for the price is brilliant and far exeeds the 4670 512mb.

 

[Rroff]

256Mb isn't really enough to play even current titles above medium detail - while the 8800GT with 512Mb is enough to handle them on high - and with 256Mb you have 0 future proofing.

 

[memphisto]

I do see your pooint but as my gaming revolves around the likes of command and conquer, dawn of war, supreme commander, is it necessary to have 512 ? the reason i ask is its literally 30-40 quid more expensive to do so.

 

[Lightnix]

Depends heavily on the game. GRID, GTA:4, Crysis, and Far Cry 2 are likely to see a noticeable performance hit.

That said, I'm the owner of an 8800 GTS 320MB. If anybody knows the limitations of memory slowing down an otherwise fine card then it's me. (quite sad to see even a 150MHz core overclock (500->650MHz) not really bringing any subjective performance to the table because of low minimum framerates and lag spikes induced by the graphics card trying to sort its memory subsystem).

 

[phil675]

I've got a 8800GT 256MB, and I wish I'd gone for the 512MB version, but didn't really research properly and went for the cheaper option. Its fine for some games, but very new games really strain it if you have high quality textures. If you don't mind lower textures and lower resolutions then its fine, although it really depends on the game your playing. It overclocks rather badly also. I plan to upgrade to something in the £150 - £200 region when something really good comes out