Gigabyte 9800GTX+ 1GB DDR3... any good?? wats the diff???

found this card...by gigabyte.... n was wonderin if the 1gb version makes any diff??(usually its the 512 version).... because i read in a few places that theres no difference as related to sumthin abt it bein a 256bit..... but there are few claiming that it does make a diff... kinda confusin me.... so waddaya guys n gals think???true or false??

if you guys could explain it, it would help me out alot!!! thanx!!!

The 9800gtx has a 256-bit memory bus, which limits the amount of memory bandwidth that the gpu can use. Basically, if you compare a card with 896mb of ram and a 448-bit bus (gtx 260) to a card with 1gb of ram on a 256-bit bus, the card with the wider memory bus will get you more memory bandwidth throughput. The G92 gpu used in the 9800gtx wasn't really designed to use a full 1gb of memory, nor was the 256-bit bus. Remember, they've been using the 256-bit bus since the Geforce FX line or earlier, so it's not designed to handle that much memory.

Bottom line: 1gb of ram on a card with a 256-bit bus is mostly a waste. Go with a gtx 260 if you can afford the extra few bucks, or go with a 512mb version of the 9800gtx. My current card is a 9800gtx equivalent with my overclock, and I'm pretty happy with it for my gaming at 1680x1050 resolution. If you're going to run a higher res than that, go with with a gtx 260 or better. Your anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering will be limited a little bit by the 256-bit bus in high-end games like Crysis, Far Cry 2, etc..

phew!!!!!thanx for clearing that up!!! helped me out alot!!!! couldve wasted ma money there....

btw, just so you dont skip over the current ATI cards because they use a 256bit bus, the 4870 + cards use GDDR5, which allows for bandwidth speeds which are twice as fast as GDDR3 at the same clock speed and bus width

eg, GDDR 5 @ 1800ghz @ 256bit has twice the bandwidth of GDDR3 @ 1800nhz @ 256bit bus.

phew!!!!!thanx for clearing that up!!! helped me out alot!!!! couldve wasted ma money there....

f_aizat

The larger memory size could help with larger textures and higher resolution depending on the game you may see little or no difference between the 512mb card and the 1GB card. GTAIV may be able to make use of the larger memory of the graphics card to power higher texture settings.