Quick Question GPU vs RAM

[Dancer]

Which will give me more bang for the £££ on a E6300 Conroe:

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz ->
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz @ £71 extra

OR

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT ->
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB

 

[Cyber-Mav]

dang it thats a tough one.

the x1800xt gfx card will make all games faster, yet some games like battlefield 2 will benefit more from the added ram.

also take into account that the ati card has a lot of bloat in its drivers and when i switched from nvidia to ati card my system boots up into windows and idles with around 80mb more ram consumption than what i had with the 7900gs card.

all round benefits i would say go with the ram. the 7600gt is still a capable card.

and come december there will be a lot of gfx cards going on sale in the members market thanks to G80's release.

 

[lay-z-boy]

x1800 and 2gb of ram tbh.

 

[Dancer]

It is tough yes.

Especially since the graphic card uppgrade is more affordable at only ~£45 (versus £71 for 1GB -> 2GB)

It's the wife's machine anyway and she plays games like WoW... so maybe neither uppgrade is actually needed.

Maybe uppgrading the RAM from 667MHz to 800 MHz is better. Argh.

 

[Dancer]

From Tomshardware VGA charts:

Half Life 1024x768, 32 bit, no AA
1800XT 134 FPS
7600GT 94 FPS

Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls 4 1024x768, 32 bit, no AA, 8x AF
1800XT 24 FPS
7600GT 9 FPS

This seems to suggest 1800XT is much better than 7600GT.

 

[man_from_uncle]

I'd want the extra ram. It'll give you better all round functionality it terms of running muliple applications and hopping in and out of games.

The X1800Xt is a big upgrade from a 7600gt, but the extra ram is bigger.

 

[Tetras]

snip [..]

But, frame rate benches don't take into account how smooth the actual game play is (and rarely minimum frames), so it is hard to judge whether they'd be more playable on an X1800 XT as it implies.

I'd say it depends on A: what settings you play your games at (resolution/detail levels), B: what other games you play and C: what other uses of your PC are.

For compatibilities sake I'd be tempted to say get the 2GB of RAM and get a new graphics card when you need it, since graphics are a more frequent cycle than memory (your 99% to never change the memory you buy and even if you upgrade it'll just be another 2GB kit) and even with an E6300 running at stock your guaranteed to get at least one more graphics generation out of it before it becomes obsolete.

 

[man_from_uncle]

Tetras makes a good point. Memory won't move on and what you spend now will be what you spend in 6-12 months. In terms of graphics you'll just keep getting a better deal for your money.

 

[Dancer]

Ok, thanks I was a bit blinded by those FPS scores on tomshardware... now I'm thinking maybe RAM is more important, although it's all very abstract... wish someone knew a link to a recent comparison of a 1GB systems versus a 2GB one...

 

[Tetras]

This page of the X-bit article nicely sums up why FPS benches don't tell the full story:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/2gb-ram_10.html

 

[Dancer]

Thanks Tetras, that link was just what I was after.

Ok I think I will see if I can afford the 2GB of ram then... but one more question first...

What about graphics quality? Will games look better with 1800XT or is there no difference?

 

[Tetras]

At stock (without image enhancement features enabled) not really no, it would be mostly subjective. But, ATI cards are generally regarded as allowing higher IQ settings at less of a performance hit than their nVidia equivalent(s) and an X1800 XT would allow you to use higher graphical settings in games themselves, which would all contribute to "better" image quality than the 7600 GT.

As far as the implementation of different features goes, again I'd say ATI have the edge but whether you'd notice the difference apart from looking at high res screenshots with a magnifying glass I don't know

 

[wannabedamned]

What resolutions do you run your games at, because to be honest, if it's 1024 by 768, I would definately recommend the RAM upgrade over the graphics card, because the performance difference between the cards at those resolutions isnt much to the naked eye. Especially on a game like WoW

 

[Dancer]

Well yes she plays mostly wow and she uses 1024 by 768 which is enough on a 19" TFT. So I'll go with the 7600 GT card for now, then as was mentioned I can get a new graphics card in 12 months time when pricedrops will have made it affordable to uppgrade...