- Joined
- Sep 15, 2004
- Location
- A state full of alcoholics.
Hey OCForum readers. This is my first post, so pretend to be nice to the new guy, would you?
In looking for a couple of new video cards (around the $175 each range) for myself and my girl, I've come across something I can't get around. In that price range, it seems that the biggest choice is between having a 256-bit bandwidth and a 128-meg memory, or vice versa.
I have no idea which would be better. I'm looking for the cards to last around 3-4 years (ex. mine's in my sig - I can't bear to type it again - and my girl's is a gF-4 420 PCI card).
While we're at it, if someone could tell me how each would affect actual gameplay/different types of games, that would be great. To give an idea, current games include Neverwinter, Morrowind, Counterstrike, things like that. No business graphics-processing or video-encoding, and I'm guessing smooth movie playback is no longer an issue (watching the Lord of the Rings DVDs on my comp is just painful).
Also curious if the core differences between, say, the gF 5700 U and the gF 5900 are so great; it seems a bit confusing, as the 5700 has core/mem speeds of 475/950 and the 5900 of 390/700.
As well address this right off: I've only ever dealt with nVidia cards before, so while ATI isn't out of the running, I'm more comfortable with the nVidias.
Please don't get into the ATI vs. nVidia thing here ... unless it factors into the equation, in which case, feel free. Err... what I think I'm trying to say is facts, please, not opinions and conjecture.
Okay, I think that's it. Thanks in advance, and much love. In a year-and-a-half I've gone from someone who laughed at a friend for buying a case with a window in the side, to assembling (storebought, admittedly) show-cases for friends. I blame all of you, for giving me that computer-tinkering bug...
In looking for a couple of new video cards (around the $175 each range) for myself and my girl, I've come across something I can't get around. In that price range, it seems that the biggest choice is between having a 256-bit bandwidth and a 128-meg memory, or vice versa.
I have no idea which would be better. I'm looking for the cards to last around 3-4 years (ex. mine's in my sig - I can't bear to type it again - and my girl's is a gF-4 420 PCI card).
While we're at it, if someone could tell me how each would affect actual gameplay/different types of games, that would be great. To give an idea, current games include Neverwinter, Morrowind, Counterstrike, things like that. No business graphics-processing or video-encoding, and I'm guessing smooth movie playback is no longer an issue (watching the Lord of the Rings DVDs on my comp is just painful).
Also curious if the core differences between, say, the gF 5700 U and the gF 5900 are so great; it seems a bit confusing, as the 5700 has core/mem speeds of 475/950 and the 5900 of 390/700.
As well address this right off: I've only ever dealt with nVidia cards before, so while ATI isn't out of the running, I'm more comfortable with the nVidias.
Please don't get into the ATI vs. nVidia thing here ... unless it factors into the equation, in which case, feel free. Err... what I think I'm trying to say is facts, please, not opinions and conjecture.
Okay, I think that's it. Thanks in advance, and much love. In a year-and-a-half I've gone from someone who laughed at a friend for buying a case with a window in the side, to assembling (storebought, admittedly) show-cases for friends. I blame all of you, for giving me that computer-tinkering bug...