GDDR2 or GDDR3 ?

[machinist]

I'm looking to buy one of the new 7300GT cards and cannot decide between a GDDR2 or GDDR3 based one.
What are the actual benefits of GDDR3 and would I even notice it ?

Thanks

 

[Dureth]

On a 7300 you wont notice any difference. But I notice you said 7300GT of which arn't listed on OCUK. Did you mean a 7600GT? The 7600GT would notice a difference.

GDDR3 is basically faster than GDDR2 in MOST cases.

 

[machinist]

Nope, I deffo mean 7300GT ......these babies are based on the same core as a 7600GT yet only have 8 pipelines. They clock like a good 'un too
Google for them and ye shall find

 

[Mul]

Grab the GT with GDDR3 if overclocking is your thing. the GDDR3 is likely to clock far higher.

Mul

 

[machinist]

OK, but at stock there'll be little to no difference right ?

 

[Mul]

If the memory speeds on both cards are the same, then no. Performance difference is negligible.

Mul

 

[pogo]

From what I have seen, 7300GT boards with GDDR2 stick close to the reference speeds of 350MHz for the core and ~667MHz for the memory whereas those with GDDR3 are pretty heavily overclocked.

The few that I know of are made by Biostar, Inno3D and XFX (info here and here (both in Chinese I think)), clocked at 500MHz/1000MHz, 500MHz/1400MHz and 550MHz/1600MHz respectively. The reviews of the latter two show that they are quite a bit faster that a 6600GT (I would estimate the performance of the GDDR2 versions to be around the same speed as the plain 6600 also with GDDR2).

So far I have only found the Inno3D version available in the UK, and at £55 for the 128MB variant and £68 for the 256MB variant (which I would recommend paying the little bit extra for), these cards seem to hit quite a sweetspot between price and performance (which is why one of them will be going in my new budget rig).

 

[Lanz]

its odd that these have a fan and the 7600GSs dont, its a shame as they seem ideal for HTPC.

 

[machinist]

its odd that these have a fan and the 7600GSs dont, its a shame as they seem ideal for HTPC.

That is exactly what I intend to use one for.......could the stock coolers be swapped for quieter ones ??

 

[Lanz]

Yeah, but thats like more money aint it, another £20 for a decent cooler, might as well buy a 7600GS.

 

[=assassin=]

I've seen Leadtek's 7300GT on their site and it looks like a passive 7600GS card - only difference is it has 1x DVI and 1x Analogue, rather than 2x DVI - I think it's also only DDR2 and reference clocks.

 

[Lanz]

I'd like to see a passive 7300GT/7600GS AGP version

 

[Indy500]

The DDR3 7300GT blitzes pretty much every game (bar Oblivion and Quake 4) at pretty good settings. This review also put in a Quake 3 test at 2048x1536 - the overclocked 7300GT manages well over 100fps at this setting, while the 6600GT cant break 40.