Memory or speed

T

tasburath

n00b
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Nov 13, 2003
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Hey guys,

I'm trying to decide between a pair of EVGA 8800GT Akimbo Superclocked 512 MB cards running at 720MHz Core clock and 2000 MHz memory clock, or picking up a pair of the new EVGA 8800GT Akimbo 1GB cards that run at 600MHz core and 1800MHz memory clock.

My question is, will I notice a bigger performance gain from having the faster processors or having 2GB of video RAM vs 1GB?

I'm not an overclocker as I don't want to void warranties, so I would run these at their stock speeds. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks
 
I'm not sure either would be huge.
From Hard articles I've seen, having 1GB RAM does virtually nothing for you.
Having higher clocks, might net some gameplay performance improvements, but it's not substantial.

What resolution are you going to be running? 1920+? I would get the 1GB cards, seems like with SLI you may have the gpu power to get some benefit from that extra memory. *shrug*
 
Right now I am running at 1600x1200.

Eventually I'll be upgrading my monitor to a widescreen, so It'll be the 1920 resolution.

I currently have a single 8800GT SSC 700MHz that I will be replacing with the akimbos.

I'm hoping that with SLI, I'll be able to crank graphics all the way up on games like EQ2 and Vanguard. I can almost do it now, so I am assuming either cards I go with will work. Just want to make sure I get the most bang for the buck. I don't know all the technical details on how these graphics cards work, so didn't know if I would have memory sitting idle on the 1GB card because they aren't being addressed (think XP and 4 GB RAM)
 
I would say you would get better performance at higher speeds and 'only' 512MB cards. 1GB per card would do nothing for you.
 
tasburath said:
Right now I am running at 1600x1200.

Eventually I'll be upgrading my monitor to a widescreen, so It'll be the 1920 resolution.

I currently have a single 8800GT SSC 700MHz that I will be replacing with the akimbos.

I'm hoping that with SLI, I'll be able to crank graphics all the way up on games like EQ2 and Vanguard. I can almost do it now, so I am assuming either cards I go with will work. Just want to make sure I get the most bang for the buck. I don't know all the technical details on how these graphics cards work, so didn't know if I would have memory sitting idle on the 1GB card because they aren't being addressed (think XP and 4 GB RAM)
Click to expand...
XP and 4GB of RAM is a completely different scenario.

You will be running 64bit windows if you do this 2GB graphics card thing right? Because Video memory gets factored into the 32bit 4GB limit. I don't know for fact, but I could see you getting knocked down to around 1.8GB RAM if you don't.

I was under the impression you could use different brands, different clock speeds for SLI, and the drivers would lower them to the least speed and SLI them. So get that single 720MHz 8800GT, SLI with your 700 MHz one. And now you've got your SLI setup for WAY less money.
 
Honestly I'd definitely choose those 512MB OC'd cards over the 1GB cards any day. Most games hardly use the Xtra 512MB per card, if @ all(mainly cuze of the bandwidth for the 256-bit mem compared to the 384-bit mem on a 88GTX), but higher clocks(680+ core/1900+ mem) can be 5+ Xtra FPS depending on the game compared to stock clocks and/or 1GB mem.
 
My current 8800 is pre-Akimbo, and even with the latest firmware I have to manually go in and turn up the fan on it to keep it cool. If I don't, it jumps up to 80or 81 celcius. When you manually set the fan to 60%, it stays at about 60 celcius under load. I have a friend who has the same card I do and he's buying it from me for his SLI.
 
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