7900 GT BFG or XFX

Doom 3 on ultra settings uses 512mb of vram....so theres a practical use for them. its not like have 4 gigs of system ram. It is a marketing ploy to have low end cards with high memory storage, thats just bullshit, who needs a 7300 or whatever with 512memory. However a high end card with 512 RAM will definitely come in handy. Would there be a difference in lets say an old game like CS:source between 512 and 256? probably not as the max settings don't require it. But in a game where 512 is definitely used (Doom 3, Quake 4) you would see a huge difference. All dem textures eventually add up. Everything is a factor in performance. If ram didn't matter, then high end cards would come with 32mb of Gddr3 ram. As for buying now, hell yeah Vol7ron, wait till directx comes out and either buy one of those GPUs or buy whatever you had your eye on now cuz it'll be cheaper. Just look at the 6xxx line of gfx cards now. As he (vol7ron) said, it comes in cycles. and yes...Exfoliate does bring up good points.

 

Ok, well i can see where you're coming at in saying that the price will drop (like always) but im building my computer now so unfortunately i cant just wait for dx10. However, when are dx10 cards even coming out and when will games start taking advantage of the card? Also, what happens to dx9 cards? Will the game even run? I'm not very familliar with what is supposed to happen in dx10.

 

The first DX 10 cards are supposed to arrive as early as September. That is if there are no delays which there very well may be. As for the games, well Early 2007 should mark the date that we'll actually see games take advantage of DX 10, at least for it to be worth it. Don't worry DX 9 cards will still be fine. DX 10 games will be backwards compatable with Dx 9 hardware. It'll still run the games, just not quite as fast just to optimization issues and without some newer bells and whistles. Besides you need Windows Vista to actually use a DX 10 card with DX 10 games and the earliest we'll see this perpetually delayed OS is 2k7 as well so in the end I guess there's no real hurry. Enjoy blazing fast DX 9 gaming performance for another half year and then maybe concider upgrading if you happen to have some good cash to throw around.
beretta9m2f, you're right on with a lot of those points. But oddly enough people with much more modest hardware can actually max Doom 3. I for one only have 128Mb's of vram but can still run Doom 3 on Ultra over 30fps (usually aroud 50-60) consistently so it's playable for sure. It just shows how a bit of nVidia optimization can go a long way. It's just a good engine. So long as you have a gig of ram it's apparently possible for the game to siphon out a bit of system memory along the way and still keep things playable, hard to belive but I guess it works. But yeah I don't think we'll be seeing Unreal Tournament 2007 totally maxed and playable on higher res's with a 256Mb card.
And btw thanks for the compliment beretta9m2f I could say the same for you too.

 

Ok, cool. Thanks for the info! I actually found an breand new XFX 7900 GTX EE 512mb on ebay that i won for cheaper than any store could sell it to me for + saving on tax...so that was a good deal. Anyways, ill considering upgrading in 6 months or so if i feel its worth it then.

 

I'm sure it's cheap on Ebay but it's not really the place I'd buy hardware. When we're talking spending hundreds of dollars paying a bit more for all the extra insurance you get with buying from a reputable online store is definately worth it in my book. Most of us have been ripped off through ebay it's just not worth the risk with expensive hardware that could easily be ruined in transit.
UnSeEn for instance bought (what he thought was) a 6800GS on ebay. The dude had a good rating and that's what it was advertised as. He got it and it turned out it was a 6800 (the plain version) which is easily inferior. He got the right card in the end but the lesson is even those that seem totally trustworthy slip up now and then. It's something to keep in mind.
But otherwise it's a great card and I could really see going for it as 6 months is quite a while and I belive you'll really see that 512 come into play with some big name titles, namely those with the Unreal 3 engine.

 

Go with the XFX one. Really, 512MB of VRAM for a 7900 GT isn't really necessary.