DDR3 vs RAM

[smckay]

Ok looking at getting a new card and am curious - which is the best factor to consider, the ram on the card or if it is ddr3??

i.e 256mb ddr3 or 512 ddr2???

Ta

 

[gurusan]

Which card(s) in particular? DDR3 most likely anyway

 

[Streeteh]

The quantity of ram, if there were two cards that were identical aside from one having 512mb of ddr2 ram and the other 256mb of ddr3, the 512 card would be better.

Thats my opinion at least.

 

[gurusan]

Well memory bandwidth on DDR2 would be major crapola.

 

[waterproofbob]

kinda need considerably more information, as it very much depends on the architecture of the card and many other things that I cba to list. more memory isn't necessarily a sign that it is a better card.

 

[Andrew G]

Would have to consider data through put surely? Since the bandwidth of the two technologies would differ?

 

[Biohazard]

DDr3 vs ram is a very odd thread title no?

 

[gurusan]

DDr3 vs ram is a very odd thread title no?

confused me

 

[Skeeter]

Dont all new graphics cards have GDDR3 or GDDR4? So a GDDR2 board is likely to be old anyway...

 

[gurusan]

Some new budget cards have gDDR2 like the 8500GT.

 

[Phemo]

Graphics card RAM alone isn't the way to decide which card you get, although it usually works together. For example, the budget cards will have GDDR2 whereas most of the high end cards have GDDR3. Examples of where this doesn't apply are the recent ATI cards - they have GDDR4 but the GeForce 8800 series with GDDR3 is often faster.

So, RAM type/quantity on its own is useless for deciding which card to get. It's all about the GPU - to a point that decides what RAM the card will have.

 

[pegasus1]

The 8600gt 512 with ddr2 is slower than the 8600gt 256 with ddr3.
Lets not forget the FX 5200 with 512 mem that was acyually too slow ro be used as a door stop.

 

[smckay]

sorry if I wasnt clear - but I think pegasus1 has cleared it up.

It was the 8600 I was looking at so the GDDR3 256 looks like the pick!

 

[Tute]

Yeah, where possible you want to be getting GDDR3 or GDDR4. Any video card with (G)DDR2 is going to be severely hampered by it.

 

[pegasus1]

sorry if I wasnt clear - but I think pegasus1 has cleared it up.

It was the 8600 I was looking at so the GDDR3 256 looks like the pick!

The machine im typing this on has an OCUK 8600GT with 256 GDDR3 Ram, its running at 671 core/811 Mem/1458 shader totally stable, idles at 42C and hasnt gone above 80C.