“More recently, we’ve seen a much smaller but not less absurd memory myth take hold in the graphics card industry. Budget cards equipped with ridiculous amounts of memory are the culprit here. For enthusiasts, a gig of memory on a sub-$100 graphics card makes about as much sense as putting a spoiler on a Yugo. Budget GPUs lack the horsepower necessary to run games at the kinds of resolutions and detail levels that would require such a copious amount of video memory. But what about the latest crop of mid-range graphics cards? Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT has considerable pixel-pushing power on its own, and when teamed in SLI, that power is effectively doubled. Perhaps a gigabyte of memory on this class of card isn’t so unreasonable.Conveniently, derivatives of the GeForce 8800 GT are available with 256MB, 512MB, or 1GB of memory, making it easy for us to probe the impact of graphics memory size on performance. We’ve tested a collection of single cards and SLI configurations in a selection of new games, across multiple resolutions, to see where memory size matters, if it does at all. Keep reading for the enlightening results.”
Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- ASUS Extreme N9600GT @ Legion Hardware
- GeForce 9600 GT 512MB SLI review (with Inno3D OC edition) @ Guru3D
- Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT Review @ OCC
- XFX GeForce 8800GTS 512MB @ InsideHW
- XFX 8800GTS vs. Gainward 8800GT 1024MB Review @ Metku
- GeForce 8800 GT MAX with 1024 MB @ Guru3D
- Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GT ZL 512MB @ Tweaktown
- Palit GeForce 8800GT Super+1GB @ Techgage
- Galaxy 9600 GT 512MB OC Video Card Review @ Madshrimps
- Palit 9600GT Sonic 512MB Geforce 9600GT Videocard Review @ PCSTATS
- EVGA e-GeForce 9600GT SSC Edition @ Gamepyre
- Gigabyte HD3870 @ Neoseeker
- AMD ATI Catalyst v8.3 Sneak Peek @ HotHardware
Playing tricks on your memory
The Tech Report grabbed 3 GeForce 8800 GTs representing the three different models, the 256MB, 512MB and the 1GB. If you’ve ever wondered just why so many people snigger at those who paid extra for the 1GB model, read on and all will be revealed.