128 worksation vs 256 gaming

  • Thread starter Thread starter lakehaze
  • Start date Start date
L

lakehaze

I'm in the market for a cheap video card upgrade. I'm running a 64
geforce2, and trying to model in Maya 4.5. The card just doesn't cu
it. I've read that both Alias and Nvidia do not recomend the geforce
for Maya. Hence the upgrade. I'm looking at workstation cards, bu
I'm getting into Game Design as well and it would be nice if the car
could run both maya and halflife2. Although the priority is on maya
I'm looking at the 128m ATI FireGL 8800 workstation card. I'v
read reviews that report that the card handles both tasks moderatel
well, as it is built directly off of the Radeon chipset, and th
price isn't too bad at $67. But I've noticed that there is anothe
option, just get a faster gaming card. The same sit
(computergeeks.com) offers a 256m GeForce FX 5200 Video Card for onl
$47. I don't really care about the price difference, I just want th
best card. There are two questions. Will the 128 ATI run halflife
at all? And more importantly, Will the 256m 5200 Gaming Card run may
better than the 128m 8800 worksation ATI

It seems to me that it would be obvious that the 256 would slaughte
any 128 in all categories. But I've had bad experiences with th
geforce cards. My last 'upgrade' was from a 32 ATI to the 64 Nvidia
Maya ran slower and honestly, GTA3 didn't seem to improve all tha
much... So I'm throwing number crunching convention out the windo
and hoping somebody can shed some light before I commit
Thanks in advance, Lake
 
Thanks for the quick reply,

'little or no difference'?

Really? Then I grossly overestimate the power of next gen cards. I
guess my noob status shows through here. Why do people pay $$ to
upgrade thier video cards if there is 'little or no difference'? Or
is the 128/256m number just marketing hype and the meat is somewhere
else, perhaps in the 8800/5200? If I can't use the MB number to rate
cards, how can I?

And I will just assume that you are implying that the 128 worksation
card is more suited for maya/gaming?
 
lakehaze said:
'little or no difference'?

Really? Then I grossly overestimate the power of next gen cards. I
guess my noob status shows through here. Why do people pay $$ to
upgrade thier video cards if there is 'little or no difference'?
Click to expand...

Who says they do?
Or is the 128/256m number just marketing hype and the meat is somewhere
else, perhaps in the 8800/5200? If I can't use the MB number to rate
cards, how can I?
Click to expand...

128MB of memory is enough for gaming. What's more important for
performance (compared to the difference between 128MB and 256MB) is
the "newness" of the GPU chip, and how wide and fast is the memory
bus. More-modern GPU's have greater internal processing power, and
the SPEED of the memory interface is also VERY important.
 
lakehaze said:
Thanks for the quick reply,

'little or no difference'?

Really? Then I grossly overestimate the power of next gen cards.
Click to expand...

These are hardly "next-gen" cards you're discussing, more like
yesterday's news.
 
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