512 dd2 video card ram vs 256 ddr3 video ram

[Guest QF744]

Hi, Presently i am running a nvidia 7600gs 512 dd2 RAM and am looking to upgrade to a 8600gt 256mg ddr3.Is this a good upgrade from my previous card? Is 256mg DDR3 memory faster than 512 DDR2 ram.Also i have a 430W PSU,Is that good enough for the 8600gt 256DDR3 card? Thanks for any help, Simon.

[Guest wayupthere]

Hello Simon,First of what resolutions are you running??, while going from a 7600 to 8600 already has its benefits, there are a few things you need to consider.Thise it the official stats from Nvidia regarding power-consumption:Geforce 8600 GTS: 350 wattsGeforce 8600 GTS SLI: 450 wattsGeforce 8600 GT: 300 wattsGeforce 8600 GT SLI: 350 watts Ofcourse the heavier your systems is, ea. alot of HDs, Optical-drives you might need to up your psu DO-NOT skip out and gamble on a psu.As to GDDR2 vs. GDDR3, with a more simplified design process, reduced power consumption (less heat inside your case) and loosing some unnecessary DRAM protocols, getting GDDR3 over GDDR2 without going into details is an easy and good choice.With that said, here's the other two issues you need to take into consideration:Again at what resolution are you going to run your display, and are you planning to run multiple montiors.. because thats where the AMMOUNT of GDDR comes into play. And secondly, do a search online and familiarize yourself with the upcoming DX10.1. Theres also a post here on the board regarding that made by Phil Taylor from ACES. Key decision whether its worth it for you to buy a DX10.0 card at the moment.

[Guest Mike707]

Thanks for the information. It is good to know that the amount of GDDR matters when a person is running multiple monitors. That is one thing that I am planning to do and I think you helped me to decide to get a higher DDR card. So basically, the more pixels, the more GDDR. Is that correct?

[Guest wayupthere]

Hi Mike,Well basically, lets say you run a single monitor at a reasonable resolution upto 1600x1200 then for example 320MB GDDR will/should suffice, sometimes even upto 1920x1200 but that depends on the application.Just keep in mind the higher the resolution you are going to run, will ask more of your GPU, also the higher the res, mostly in newer games like FSX, the higher the size of textures. So more VRAM will in many cases reduce loading times,thus increasing performance.Have a read-through here, because there are some points to take into consideration:http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/dis...e8-roundup.htmlIts deals with the amount of VRAM vs Performance. in this case that of the 8800series.

[Guest Mike707]

Thanks for the link. From all of the game FPS comparisons, it looks like the 8800GTS 320 and 8800GTS 640 have nearly identical frames per second. To me that means that the two real choices on the high end Nvidia scene are either the 8800GTS 320 or the 8800GTX 768. Interesting stuff.

[Guest QF744]

Thanks for your response, I am running FS9 with resolution of 1024x768x32 on a single monitor. CPU is Core 2 Duo E6400,PSU 430W,2GB of onboard DDR2 667 RAM(1x 1GB stick and 2x 512MB sticks).I usually fly PMDG 744,PSS 777,or Level D 767 and use alot of complex airports such as Aerosofts EGLL 2008 and EDDF,Simmersky,s RJAA,and Cloud 9,s KLAX and Fly Tampa,s airports.I stay at about 50% AI with AIA,FSP,Evolve AI models primarily. Recently i have been having problems with frequent texture reloading particularly of AI aircraft textures and pausing when i pan sideways as AI textures load.Last week i added a 1GB stick of ram to the 2 512 MB i already had and it improved the reloading situation quite alot,but it still happens. In your opinion,if i can only do one thing,which would be more likely to solve this reloading problem:- 1- Buy 8600GT GDDR3 256 card and stay with same ammount of system RAM(Is the memmory on this card enough?). 2- Increase my system RAM to 3GB and stay with the 7600GS GDDR2 512 card i have now. Thanks for your help. Simon.

[Guest wayupthere]

Personally, looking at tech standings right now...looking at you system... add 1GB of ram, and wait it out a bit longer GPU-wise and see what DX10.1 will do.. Tweak your system, because you can get pretty good performance with what you already have as long you don't slide everything to the right.