Posted: 11/20/2005 6:32:38 AM EDT
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All things being equal, which is the better video card-- one with a higher "model number" or one with more memory? For example: SAPPHIRE 100121L Radeon X700 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card vs SAPPHIRE 100119L-HS Radeon X550 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card The X700 would seem to be the more robust card, but the X550 has 2x the memory. Prices are equivalent at around $80. In this instance I will be using an AOpen XCCUBE EX761 AMD Socket 754 with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle 800MHz FSB. I'll also be using 1GB of Corsair system RAM. This is for the kids computer. They are playing Diablo and Warcraft and Sims--not much in the way of high spped/low drag graphics. What says the hive mind? |
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I'd say the higher model number over memory But it depends on the game and the quality settings it is running under. I think most games still don't need cards with 256 megs of ram for all the rendering data (textures, vectors, wireframe data). Of course you can run the Doom3 engine at highest detail and need a card with 512 megs of ram for it to run well. Idealy you want to have fit into the memory on the card all the data that must be rendered . If the data is larger than the memory on the card, the card software must swap said data from card memory to main memory. When that happenes it won't matter how fast the video card processor is because there won't be any data for it to process. |
I know what you mean about the game's individual needs--I'm going blind trying to decypher minimum requirements.  I'll take any and all suggestions for a video card under $100 (OK- I'm a cheap bastard, I know!) that is a good, relialbe workhorse and will run 90% of the games currently out there. Thanks! |
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Definately get the X700. The X700 right away has the advantage of 8 pixel pipelines, compared to the X550's 4 pipelines. That means that no matter what memory is on the card, the X700 is going to be able to produce twice as many pixels than the X550 can in any given second. The second advantage is the memory itself. The X700 uses GDDR3 Memory for the most part (all of the X700 cards that I have seen are running it), whereas the X550 is using DDR1. The speed and latency of the memory on a video card can really bottleneck the cards processor, and in this case, the X700 has the clear advantage. More memory is not always better, you gotta look at what kind of memory also. Is the memory on the X550 that you are looking at 64bit or 128bit? If it is 64bit memory, do not touch it with a 10ft pole if you want any sort of performance out of the system. The 128bit DDR 1 memory will be much better, but it still will not be able to compete with the 128bit GDDR3 memory on the X700 card. Hopefully that answered your question 
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The X600XT is a good card, but it is still a 4 pipeline card, whereas the x700 is an 8 pipe card. All the benchmarks and tests that I have seen put the X700 ahead of the X600XT. |
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Memory is a measurement of capacity. For video cards, this does not equal performance and dumping more memory on a low-end GPU won't help much at all as the lower GPU's will be maxed out before they reach their memory capacity. Definitely go with the higher-end GPU. Generally (at least currently) this means the higher model number. |
| Check this out on bestbuy's website. It's a 256mb x700pro with a $100 rebate. |
Thanks! I saw that in my local sale circular. The card advertised is an AGP card. I wanted a PCI Express x16 card. Found one on NewEgg (the Egg ROCKS!) for $102.00 --the X700 in 256MB-- without the rebate hassle. Man, I HATE rebates--just gimme the low price. 
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