128mb graphics card or 1GB ram?

[marq]

hi

i'm almost decided to buy an MSI fx5700 ultra 128mb graphics card to replace my onboard gfx420(64mb shared memory) one. But i could also get 1 GB of ram for the same price instead, so i would have 1.5 GB.

I'm not sure which one of the options is going to speed up the overall workflow with max5.1, vray and photoshop more. I mean , i need faster viewport redraws and better navigation , but also need the benefits of 1 GB of ram.


What would you choose?
1 -fx5700 ultra 128mb graphics card + 512 ram
2 -onboard gfx420 64mb shared + 1.5GB ram

my system:
amd barton 2500
mobo albatron km18g pro 333
512mb pc3200 ram ocz premier
hd maxtor 40gb
psu 400w

thanks for the help

[jujubee]

Always- safe with more system ram IMHO.

The graphics card is a step up for you but if you're going that route, I'd sprint aven higher on pricewatch for a Radeon 9800 XT with 256 on board. I'm a nividia loyalist but I have to give it to Radeon on their latest 9800 series cards. Think it's around $250 US. I wouldn't settle for a 'lesser' card cause Doom III and HL2 are around the corner and than you're going to really want to upgrade...

So my opinion is to stick with upgrading system RAM first and get a newer card a little ways down the road if you can wait.

[MaxCarnage]

On board Card are S*+#T!

U can try this

-> -fx5700 ultra 128mb graphics card + 512 ram (512 ram is not so bad..)

OR fx5600/fx5700 128mb +1gig ram..

..

U can buy 1.5 gb of ram faster rendering, but when u have a SLOW wievport is bad!..


Bye

[kbalage]

If I were you I'd buy a geforce4 ti4x00 for about 100 $ and as much ram as possible It'd be a hughe increase of performance after the integrated graphics, and if you aren't aware of a little tweaking, then turn the gef4 to a quadro4. And tadaaaam, cool performance for little money

[jujubee]

Solder away if you're willing to possibly throw away some cash. I have a TI 4600 series card and absolutely love it (and have been tempted to turn it into a quadro but haven't out of fear)- however the newer cards are 8x AGP (usually not too big of an increase over 4x), some use DDR2, and have 256 megs on board RAM. Plus the biggest thing is that they utilize DirectX 9 through hardware optimization. This means HDRI in realtime for the next series of games. You're not going to get that through the TI 4x00 series cards. So if you're really looking forward to the upcoming games and want the best graphics performance for them, I'd hold off a little while.

[marq]

well, couldn't help it and went for the video card, 5700 ultra, also because it gives me other features like dual monitor. despite the 512 ram, there is a huge performance gain anyway, in max and photoshop.

i would have bought a geforce 4*00 (and 512 extra ram), that combo would have been the best deal, but could't find any here at the moment .so i guess i'll wait for the ram.

[kbalage]

You can try also the softquadro trick with that card, but it's not "officially" supported in rivatuner. Look at this thread for more details: quadro fx

[jujubee]

I've seen that soft trick posted. What benefits do you really get out of it? I never understood some of the features you can turn on/off. Plus I gather you are losing the added memory of a quadro...

[kbalage]

The most important you get is the driver optimized for opengl. Basically the gamer and pro cards are the same (except for ex. hardware antialiased lines, they're much faster on pro cards), so after the trick you get much better performance in 3d applications. Max and Maya gets bigger increase, Lightwave have less. You can measure it with Specviewpref, it's a benchmark for 3d programs. I don't really tweak the driver options, just enjoy that turning a million-poly shape in the viewport doesn't freeze the system The real quadro cards have more memory you're right, but achieving the 80-90% performance of a real quadro for 20% of the quadro's price is a good deal for me