a friend of mine is going to send me a vid car he has laying around. GeForce FX5500 (256 MB) i wanted to know if i would bebetter to stick with my card that i have right now (ati radeo 9500/9700) ot would the nvidia be a better choice? thank you
Okay, the amount of onboard RAM does make a difference, BUT only to a certain extent. The Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 cards are all superior to the GeForce 5500. More RAM allows for more texture maps to be loaded and helps with higher resolutions and eye candy. Again, there's a limit on how effective this is vs what video chip you're using. Comparing a 128MB 5500 to a 256MB 5500, the 256MB is going to pull ahead. It's like comparing my Z24 Cavalier to a regular one. I've got a 2.4L engine vs. the stock 2.2L in the standard Cav. Under normal circumstances, I can beat the standard Cav. If I'd try to race even a stock Impala or Monte Carlo, I'd loose.
well that was a great way of putting it. thx for the info i guess it wouldnt hurt to try the card out. since this card i have now i have no idea if i am using the proper drivers now because the guy who sold it to me told me not use the new drivers from ati.com he said use older omega drivers for the card... i play half life 2 death match alot and i run 4 servers and im a founder in our clan. sometimes when i load maps i am missing textures and some maps i cannot even see, but for the most part i am ok. I heard that directx 10 was coming out. i dont think either of these cards will support it? thank you
Yeah like BB said the vram quantity isn't really a valid argument when you're compairing a lesser card to a higher end one with less vram. I don't know of any circumstances when a easily lower-end card with more ram beats a higher-end one with less. The 5500 simply doesn't have enough processing power to make use of the extra ram. Even in Doom3 the 9600 would do better. If you have any ATI product I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to use their drivers but then again many people find the Omega drivers to be superior anyway. So if you're going to update I guess you might as well go with a newer Omega version. Yeah DX10 is coming out but currently no card will support it so it's not really something to worry about.
