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    512 mb of Memory on a 128-bit interface, Overkill?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by garrett92, Jun 12, 2006.

  1. garrett92

    garrett92 Notebook Guru

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    I've heard that having 512Mb of memory on a video card that operates on a 128-bit interface (nVidia Geforce Go 7600) is overkill. I've heard its more of a marketing gimmick than any real performance enhancer.

    Can anyone explain this is in a little more detail?
     
    garrett92, Jun 12, 2006
    #1
  2. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    The video card is not physically fast enough to use all the memory it has - it is limited by fill rate, how much it can put on the screen. A crude example would be a water container. A hole in that water container can only output so much at one time - if you double the size of the container, that does nothing to increase the flow of water.

    Crude example and not 100% accurate, but it gets the point across.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Jun 12, 2006
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  3. zicky

    zicky Notebook Evangelist

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    Well, that's for two reasons:
    1. First, I'm not sure if this is the case, but the 512 MB version of the x1600 (which is to what this one compares to) is 256 dedicated / 256 shared from main memory and
    2. It doesn't have enough power to use them fully if it's 512 dedicated.
     
    zicky, Jun 12, 2006
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