Graphics memory improvement effects?

Does anyone know how much extra graphics memory will help framerates? Specifically, I'm building a new computer and looking to see whether it's worth it to get a GeForce 8800 GTS with 640MB vs. one with 320MB. Reviews tend to say that they don't show enough difference to justify the $100 extra, but benchmarks and games don't really use as much graphics memory as something like Second Life.

I already know that SL will detect the 640MB as 512MB (unless I do hackerish things).

I use the exact card you are looking to purchase.

I am no techy but all I will say is that from what I read, SL does take up a lot of computer resources, more Ram and memory seem to be the common requirements for SL

I can only say that I have noticed a significant difference against my old setup but this card is on a complete new system.

Just one other point, I was originally looking to do what you are doing and just upgrade the card, after a little research it paid me to upgrade to a new computer.

So I ended up with more ram, good graphics card and dual core processor all for about 700$ more than the card.

Look around, you may be able to do the same if you have the budget.

Also, your motherboard needs a PCI Express slot for the 8800 and enough room to accomodate it as it is double the thickness of most cards cause of its own built in fan.

do consider the power supply as well.

the 800gts is a nice graphic card! and worth the price. But also take in account your CPU and as someone said your power supply. Keep in account CPU, Graphic card, and DDR2 all most sync togther to work well...... can most match! watts !

Where is my specs.

Second Life 1.18.0 (6) Jul 11 2007 11:18:55 (Second Life Release)

CPU: AMD (Unknown model) (3015 MHz) 6000+ AMD 125
Memory: 2048 MB + 2048 = 4 Giga
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Build 2600) Japanese
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 7900 GTX/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW! 675 watts 512mb
OpenGL Version: 2.0.3
LLMozLib Version: 1.1.0 (Mozilla GRE:1.8.0.12_0000000000)
Packets Lost: 0/23600 (0.0%)



As you can see I have buning alot of watts here But the POwer supply i have is 620 watts bar stats proof........No problem at all for me.......



I love to get a 8800 ??? series graphic card. But that will have to wait for my next computer build.

from my experience, it doesn’t matter which card or amount of RAM you have, as it won't make much difference unless your processor is up the task

hahha you better have more then 1 giga min if not atleast 2 giga for this game........ otehrwise forget it.

I brought the 320Mb but wish I had spent the extra because although it runs fine normally it doesn't run 1 or 2 alts simultaneously as good as my 7600 dis with 512MB onboard

The 8800 sucks more power too, first time I cranked it up hard playing CoH it tripped out my UPS and shutdown, had to take everything else off the UPS, but it runs SL np

Vid card ram helps if you run at high resolution,

exsample;
a 8800 / 320mb vs 640mb for exsample, up to 1400x1050 they pretty much have identical fps on any game/test, till you go over 1600x1200 - 2560x1600 then the 320mb will start dropping fps even tho they are the same card

fps gain is zero on having more vram, but you at high resolutions you want least 512+

System ram helps you alot more in SL ,
id easy recommend minimum of 2 gig ram for SL.

You'll need a good balance between processor, RAM and video board.

I can't speak for the 8800 because I never buy the latest and greatest because of the progressive price curve at the bleeding edge, but suffice to say that I am running SL with a 7600GS 512MB and have set the viewer mostly to just use 256MB of it because of the viewers internal design.

In my opinion, running any kind of video board with a setting of 512MB will require a computer with 2GB RAM and something upward of a 2GHz Core2Duo to make effective use of the extra video buffer.

To be clear, I *am* upgrading my whole computer - for stats see http://www.overclock.net/intel-build-logs/216923-first-build-future-proofing-1250-advice.html. I'll have 2GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo E6750 (3ish Ghz when overclocked).

To be clear, I *am* upgrading my whole computer - I'll have 2GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo E6750 (3ish Ghz when overclocked). Does that change things?

For stats see:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-build-logs/216923-first-build-future-proofing-1250-advice.html

Oh yea! Not bad at all!

I have the 8800 GTS 340 MB version.

I run all games at their highest graphics settings @ 1024x768 (text gets hard to read at higher resolutions).

Battlefield2, Battlefield2142, Elderscrollsblivion, Half-Life2, F.E.A.R., Quake Wars (beta), even SL. SL is the only one that has some lag at times, but my frame rates are really sweet!

Only thing I dont like about the video card- it runs a bit warm. Ok, its actually running hotter than my CPU. But its a monster of a card!! I cant imagine what the Ultra would be like?

Hmm, so about how many FPS do you get on SL?

that all depends on software, i have a gig and stomp tru SL like i own it

add in XP,
some norton crap to tell you that your have a virus (as your computer bluescreens)
yahoo
msn
quicktime
nvidia / ati menu thingies noone ever uses
that stupid little sound manager most computers have
automatic updates
remove/unplug thingie

and any other crap you might have installed and running then yea maby 2gb

thats becuase the first gb is already used

back to the op, performance wise theres not going to be difference, the deal is the more ram the more stuff you can put into it, default 128m draw distance the lower ram card should do just fine, with more ram you could turn that up without degrading your graphics quality (images fuzzing in and out ect) but you introduce a whole new level of stress on your computer, while its trying to draw all of that extra landscape

me personally i have a 128mb card and can go quite high on the draw distances without graphics issues, but my poor ol cpu starts to chug

Depends on location.

Abbotts or Ahern- about 25-30 fps

Someplace relatively empty such as Fortuna- between 50-112 fps

Lusk- sim center- 40-45 fps
Lusk- big tree where they all congregate (26 furries at the time) 19-22 fps.

If a sim hits 60+ people, it lags regardless.

Oooh, nice, thanks! Does anyone have a 640MB 8800 that'd be willing to compare?

memory will not do anything for FPS, thats a matter of your system (cpu power, amount and speed of system ram, RAW VIDEO CARD POWER, chip technologys ect)

the only benefit would be that you could load up more or larger images into video ram, and more geometry

ie if your in a hopping club with lots of flashy effects high res textures and gobs of av clothing and you experience textures fuzzing in and out your out of ram, now if your at that point (which i rarely experience on my 128mb card) you would notice a very slight improvement in fps just for the sheer fact that the video card isnt doing extra work swaping textures in and out of memory/rendered scene

a old example is when i went from a 64mb geforce2gts to a 128mb geforce 2 gts (long ago) there was absolutely no speed benefit, just didnt have textures fuzz in and out

or currently my 128mb geforce 6600GT and my 256mb geforce 7600GS, again ram didnt help abit, the 7600GS being 75mhz slower in raw speed got lower performance in SL (altho because it has technology's that SL does not use it is just a tad bit faster on other applications)

Hmmmm, it may also be dependant on the Speed of the RAM as well.

DDR 266/333/400 or DDR2 (many speeds). Plus the CAS (column access strobe,lower # is better)

I stick with DDR400 for now. My next build will be new processor, DDR2-800 RAM.

Decent RAM Prices: www.newegg.com

It's the first place I go. Havent had any issues with ordering from 'em.

Becareful what Ram you buy. because seeing failure with high end ram boards is nothing but a scary thought. Make sure they location you buy have a protection plan for memory failure. If it does not work corectly. Make sure the correct speed and types match. Again do your Rearch before you buy. because otherwise you landup wasting money.


Usagi

Get the 320MB version. Its a fast card and its price has come down a bit. Oddly enough, I have found that the 8800GTS was way faster than the 7800GT I upgraded from, but it actually uses less power. As long as you aren't running 1600x1200 or above, its a bargain. I do just fine at 1680x1050.

Osgeld Barmy: Being around furries a lot, I think I fall under the 'lots of high res textures' lot. I think the "fuzzing" thing was/is a bug...I thought swapping textures between graphics mem and RAM shouldn't be visible as anything other than an FPS drop?

Usagi Musashi: If you mean me... I already have my RAM and almost everything else - see
http://www.overclock.net/intel-build-logs/216923-first-build-future-proofing-1250-advice.html - but thanks! I think the first thing I'll do is run Memtest86 for a while, to make sure I didn't mess up during building.

Tod69 Talamasca: Hmmm, good point... I guess I should really be asking how bad of a performance *drop* does the 320MB suffer after SL starts trying to draw more than 320MB of textures? *googles for data* The bandwidth difference between 64GB/s (the GTS 8800) and 6.4GB/s (DDR2-800) seems like it'd hinder the card a ton, but I don't know whether the GPU can actually chew up 64GB/s...

Gaah, I'm thinking too hard about this... >.<

I might just get the 320 version and save up for a possible upgrade a few years from now if necessary - any deals?

[edit] Teeny Leviathan: Sorry, just saw your post. I'm getting closer to doing that; I doubt I'll reach that sort of display resolution before I'd have to replace the card.

Originally 08-07-2007 at 10:22 PM

Osgeld Barmy: Being around furries a lot, I think I fall under the 'lots of high res textures' lot. I think the "fuzzing" thing was/is a bug...I thought swapping textures between graphics mem and RAM shouldn't be visible as anything other than an FPS drop?

Usagi Musashi: If you mean me... I already have my RAM and almost everything else - see
http://www.overclock.net/intel-build-logs/216923-first-build-future-proofing-1250-advice.html - but thanks! I think the first thing I'll do is run Memtest86 for a while, to make sure I didn't mess up during building.

Tod69 Talamasca: Hmmm, good point... I guess I should really be asking how bad of a performance *drop* does the 320MB suffer after SL starts trying to draw more than 320MB of textures? *googles for data* The bandwidth difference between 64GB/s (the GTS 8800) and 6.4GB/s (DDR2-800) seems like it'd hinder the card a ton, but I don't know whether the GPU can actually chew up 64GB/s...

Gaah, I'm thinking too hard about this... >.<

I might just get the 320 version and save up for a possible upgrade a few years from now if necessary - any deals?

[edit, 08-07-2007 at 10:39 PM] Teeny Leviathan: Sorry, just saw your post. I'm getting closer to doing that; I doubt I'll reach that sort of display resolution before I'd have to replace the card.

[edit, 08-11-2007] Just got the 320MB version... thanks everyone!