Whats more important, cooling or RAM?

517 Views 14 Replies 13 Participants Last post by gerikoh, Mar 14, 2009

dralb

Discussion Starter · Mar 13, 2009

OK, I have been back and forth with GFX cards and finally made a choice this morning. Shortly after making that choice, I found another card and made that choice too

These are the cards I have coming to me from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121288

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125256

Now, I was happy with the ASUS at that price. I just figured if I could get a 1gb for the same price (roughly), why not? My question to you is this: Would you pick the ASUS for the better cooling or the Gigabyte for the larger RAM?

My biggest issue is the 2 wire fan on the gigabyte. I was thinking I could wire in some sort of a switch or a resistor to adjust fan speed. I also may just get an aftermarket cooler at some point.

I still think the 1gb is worth it at the same price, just looking for some more input before I have to decide which one to send back.

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Mmansueto

· #2 · Mar 13, 2009

Ram for sure. Turn up the fan speed on the other and you are fine.

TeenAgeReneGade2316

· #3 · Mar 13, 2009

well think about it, you can always upgrade cooling. can you exactly increase the memory on the GPU? ( well im sure you could but that would be lets just say....difficult ) but point being is that you can add cooling so i would go for the 1 gig.

good luck!

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br3nd064

· #4 · Mar 13, 2009

The ram matters more imo.

macsbeach98

· #5 · Mar 13, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mmansueto

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Ram for sure. Turn up the fan speed on the other and you are fine.

I totally agree cooling will keep you there but without ram you aint going to get there

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Scud

· #6 · Mar 13, 2009

Ram, you can always add your own cooling

Puscifer

· #7 · Mar 13, 2009

It depends on how you look at it. If you are gonna spend no more money on a GPU then I'd go for the one with the better cooling. Better cooling = higher overclock, which will in turn give alot more performance than the extra RAM will. If you wanna spend a bit more money for aftermarket cooling system then you might as well go for the 1gb version if its the same price. To be perfectly honest though the performance gain you'll see from 512mb to 1gb will be completely negligable, especially on a 22" monitor.

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KamuiRSX

· #8 · Mar 13, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by dralb

View Post

OK, I have been back and forth with GFX cards and finally made a choice this morning. Shortly after making that choice, I found another card and made that choice too

These are the cards I have coming to me from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121288

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125256

Now, I was happy with the ASUS at that price. I just figured if I could get a 1gb for the same price (roughly), why not? My question to you is this: Would you pick the ASUS for the better cooling or the Gigabyte for the larger RAM?

My biggest issue is the 2 wire fan on the gigabyte. I was thinking I could wire in some sort of a switch or a resistor to adjust fan speed. I also may just get an aftermarket cooler at some point.

I still think the 1gb is worth it at the same price, just looking for some more input before I have to decide which one to send back.

The larger RAM is cool just make sure your card has a decently recent serial number because Gigabyte only does warranty based on the manufacture date of the cards and not the purchase date.

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dragosmp

· #9 · Mar 13, 2009

I'd get the 1GB (since the 4870 can actually use it), and an Accelero S1 rev.2. Last time I checked it was 17$, and it can hold my 3850 @1.35V and 800MHz while passive at around 55-60Â°C after hours of play. I most certainly wouldn't pick ASUS's cooling, since it seems they have a high dath rate with the hot air staying inside the case.

stevenma188

· #10 · Mar 13, 2009

RAM! This is a summary of the performance with 1GB instead of 512

dralb

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 13, 2009

Thanks for the replies. That is generall what I figured. the only reason I was questioning it was my resolution. (as puscifer pointed out) I really don't think that 1680*1050 will use it all, but I suppose I may eventually get a larger screen.

stevenma188

· #12 · Mar 13, 2009

more ram allows u to turn up eyecandy (ie AntiAliasing)

Kamikaze127

· #13 · Mar 13, 2009

I'd get the Sapphire HD4870 1Gb.

It's cheaper than both the Asus and Gigabyte and has better cooling. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102801

EDIT: Nvm, I didn't understand the first post. Anyways, I'd keep the Gigabyte model because it's raw performance is better.

Taiketo

· #14 · Mar 14, 2009

You won't need 1GB of VRAM at 1680x1050, except maybe with Crysis with 4x AA, which a 4870 can't do anyway...

gerikoh

· #15 · Mar 14, 2009

+1 vote for 1gb

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