New Graphics Card

[ccowan2126]

Just received a few fathers day gifts (CASH !) and am thinking about upgrading my graphics card. Currently have an MSI GT610 1GB and am looking at the GTX650. Question is, I find a 1GB MSI card for $79.00 and a 2GB EVGA card for $142.00. Is the 2GB card necessarily FASTER/BETTER at giving smoother frame rates and overall performance to justify spending nearly twice as much money?

Thanks.

 

[LNERlover5]

Really the 650 should be avoided and the Radeon 7770 chosen instead if that's possible. I may have a 650 and can say it performs very well but the 7770 is roughly 10% faster at the same price. As far as the RAM question is concerned the extra memory will help in high resolution scenarios where a large amount of frame buffer is required. For 1080P at least 1GB is recommended but 2GB is more suitable.

 

[ccowan2126]

Thanks, for the input.

 

[tomurban]

FYI I am using an MSI 7770/1GB/DDR5 video card with excellent results. No lag whatsoever and the cooling fans barely run.

 

[ccowan2126]

Thank you, sir.

 

[bunkerrattmk2]

you also need to look at memory bus speed 128 vs. 256

 

[LNERlover5]

To clarify, memory speed is dictated by the frequency of the memory, the spec of the memory (For example, GDDR5) and the bit width of the memory interface (128bit for example). In my case, I have 1GB of GDDR5 set to 1530Mhz. On a 128 bit bus GPUz reports that the overall memory bandwidth is 97.9GB/s. Now having less vRAM at a higher bandwidth is better on a single display depending on the resolution, however as you go beyond say 1920x1080 you start to need larger quantities of faster vRAM to avoid framerate drops.

 

[lewisner]

Have you added the amount you can make by selling your 610 to amount you plan to spend? This chart is an indicator of Performance VS Price http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

Also have you considered buying a good used card from a reputable seller on Ebay?