Bartokomus Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 i have a gainward Gf4.4200 (older 128mb version w/ slower memory) and a PNY Gf4.4200 64mb (DDR). My system is a P4 2.8 o/c to 3.2. very stable. My issue is with all the mods i have, the screen is starting to pan much more awkardly, with some stutter. I have been using the 64mb version, and i am wondering with all the memory for textures, would i be smarter to go with the 128mb version. i run 1600x1200 on a 21" KDS @ 60mhz refresh. thank you 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 The 128Mb version might help, but I'm not sure. The best way to find out is to conduct a test yourself. Install CMBB and patch it to 1.01 in a different directory and attempt to run the same scenario. See if the stuttering is still as bad as you see with your currently moded CMBB install. The 128Mb version should allow you to store more textures onboard rather than swapping out to main memory to pull them up. However the stuttering may not be due to the 'texture swapping', but simply the number of textures and polygons that have to be moved while panning around the battlefield. Faster memory generally helps in this situation. So it's possible that the 128Mb version may help since you can store more/larger textures in it than the 64Mb version, thus avoiding the lag with 'texture swapping' between the card and main system memory. However the 128Mb may not make enough (if any) difference and you may see even more stuttering since its memory is slower. I'm not particularly aware of any texture limits that CM may place on video cards (this may be more of a factor with the video driver), so theoretically the 128Mb card should be better when it comes to more/larger textures. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrapin Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 More memory is ALWAYS better (assuming the app can use it, which CMBB can). Speed of the memory matters MUCH less. The difference in speed and latency of the memory on your cards is 15%. The difference in size is 100%. It's a no brainer. Put the 128MB card and you'll nearly double memory performance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easytarget Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 one other suggestion would be to bump your refresh rate up to like 75 or even 85 something that i believe will be easier to do at that rez with a 128mb card not positive about mb's and refresh but i do know that everything on my system whether it's the desktop or games looks a lot better at higher refresh rates i run everything at either 1280 or 1600 at 85hz refresh on a 21in and i'd never even think of trying to look at it running at 60hz 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartokomus Posted February 11, 2003 Author Share Posted February 11, 2003 Originally posted by easytarget: one other suggestion would be to bump your refresh rate up to like 75 or even 85 something that i believe will be easier to do at that rez with a 128mb card not positive about mb's and refresh but i do know that everything on my system whether it's the desktop or games looks a lot better at higher refresh rates i run everything at either 1280 or 1600 at 85hz refresh on a 21in and i'd never even think of trying to look at it running at 60hz it might be something to do with my eyes. when i bump up refresh to 85mhz (which the monitor can do)i find the flicker is unbearable. At 60mhz it's flicker free. odd isn't it? the other thing about that Gainward is that it comes with an o/c utility to push up into the realms of the 4400's. As a final thought, my other concern is that when i ran 3dmark benchmark, the 128mb version was notably slower. i will try the 128 in CMBB and see if there is a performance increase. thank you 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartokomus Posted February 11, 2003 Author Share Posted February 11, 2003 Originally posted by Terrapin: More memory is ALWAYS better (assuming the app can use it, which CMBB can). Speed of the memory matters MUCH less. The difference in speed and latency of the memory on your cards is 15%. The difference in size is 100%. It's a no brainer. Put the 128MB card and you'll nearly double memory performance. didn't read your post carefully enough the first tiem; the o/c app on the gainward should compensate for some of the memory difference as well, so the extra memory should come in handy. i'll give it a try 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartokomus Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 just to finish it up; i reinstalled the OS (spring cleaning!), popped in the 4200 128mb card and WOW!! it rocks, no more stutter and no more pauses as i pan the camera. so the slower but more plentiful memory easily beats the faster brand. as it was a gainward, i did o/c the card, but not enough to account for the exponential performance increase. just in case anyone was still wondering... now where were those mods... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 Of course on the other hand your 'spring cleaning' may be a possible reason for the performance increase rather than just the increase in display memory. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartokomus Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 i would expect a modest gain just from reinstalling the os and cleaning up the bloated registry, but not a substantial gain like i'm seeing. it is quite the difference, and i'm not one to be overly generous to HW. back a while i did some testing on these two Geforce 4's and an ATI Radeon 8500 64mb; i ran madonion 3dmark through a couple of passes on each and averaged the score. before i wiped on Saturday i ran 3dmark again and the score was near the same for the 64mb 4200 as it was before. last night i ran it again and the score for 128mb 4200 was again roughly the same. so... to me if the scores are the same, i'm deducing that CMBB is liking more memory for textures. a theory, but i'm happier. funny thing though: i swear it takes longer for the games to load the 3d graphics with this card. makes me wonder if the slower video memory is responsible for that. thank you for your help and thoughts 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Carr Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 I have two machines both of which have GForce Ti4600 cards. One is I think a Gainward card while the other is an EVGA card. I have found that bumping the refresh rate on the monitor does make a difference but it only made a difference on my NEC monitor and not my Sony Trinitron monitor. Both monitors are 19 inch monitors with similar specs. It definitely made a difference in how smoke appeared on the battlefield. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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