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Performance gain between X1900XT 512mb v 256mb?

easyrider said:
If buying the x1900 now I would go for the 512mb version just to have the edge in future titles like crysis etc...

This will be enough to carry over to DX 10 once this becomes the norm.

You might regret not spending the extra for the 512mb version.Fot the sake of a few quid.

The thing is, it's not just a few quid... it's more like £70 or an extra ~40%.

The whole argument about whether to get cards with more memory has been raging for years, with people often saying that it's best to get a card with more RAM for future-proofing. Take the whole 64meg/128meg geforce4 debate for example.

However, in my experience by the time the cards with more memory really start coming into their own (i.e. more than say 5% difference in speed), it's usually time to upgrade anyway. I mean the OP says he does yearly upgrades, and I can't see the 512meg being massively faster in any games during that timespan - at least at playable levels.

The way I see it, the x1900xt-256 is a fantastic midrange card, whereas anyone looking to spend £250+ on a card might as well be looking at the x1900xt / 7950gx2 instead which would offer a genuine improvement over it.
 
Does anyone know of the power requirements of the x1900xt 256mb version, would it run on a 430watt Seasonic?
 
AdamEW said:
Does anyone know of the power requirements of the x1900xt 256mb version, would it run on a 430watt Seasonic?

Yes.

@ op, id go for the 512mb vers just for that extra bit of futurish proofing, thats my argument anyways :p
 
Cyber-Mav said:
the way i see it, if it costs 40% more, then it better perform 40% better.


But we all now that does hold up in terms of pc hardware.

The 7900 GTX costs so much more than the 7900 GT but its not 40% faster.

That does not mean that the 7900 GTX or GX2 are not worth the outlay.

When does technology move that fast where we get a 40% boost in performance for our money?

Never,

We are drip fed new advances all the time.

Thats not until conroe hit the scene and we see massive boost in perfromance with a 120 quid 6300.
 
The thing is though, the 7900gtx is actually a fair bit faster than the 7900gt, we're talking +200mhz on the core and +280mhz on the memory. That makes it genuinely faster, compared to just having an extra 256meg of RAM.

I wasn't suggesting that a 40% increase in spend should equate to a 40% increase in performance, but a measly 5% at best is pretty poor.
 
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