I wanna buy this

[jesus]

Re: I wanna buy this

When you guys say "Don't get the 320mb version if you're going to be playing at high resolutions" what do you consider "high" and "low" resolutions?

1280x1024 = low? high? mid?

[TheSpark29]

Re: I wanna buy this

When you guys say "Don't get the 320mb version if you're going to be playing at high resolutions" what do you consider "high" and "low" resolutions?

1280x1024 = low? high? mid?

When dealing with the 8800GTS 320, I consider 1280x1024 to be a low resolution. So imo, the 8800GTS is overkill for this resolution. A X1950Pro is all you need to play maxed out settings. Something like 1680x1050 (22in monitor) would be a middle resolution and 1920x1200 and above is high resolution. (imo)

[jesus]

Re: I wanna buy this

When dealing with the 8800GTS 320, I consider 1280x1024 to be a low resolution. So imo, the 8800GTS is overkill for this resolution. A X1950Pro is all you need to play maxed out settings. Something like 1680x1050 (22in monitor) would be a middle resolution and 1920x1200 and above is high resolution. (imo)

Ok, then I guess it just depends on the size of your monitor. I've got a 19" monitor, so to me, that means 1280x1024 is high, and 800x600 is low.
I could hook my computer up to my 53" TV, but I don't think my 8600GT 256mb could support that

[camper.]

Re: I wanna buy this

When you guys say "Don't get the 320mb version if you're going to be playing at high resolutions" what do you consider "high" and "low" resolutions?

1280x1024 = low? high? mid?

At 1600x1200, 16xAF, 4xAA, you more or less max out 320MB. Assuming it's proportional, you'll max out a 256MB card at 1280x1024,32bpp, 4xMSAA, 16xAF (for BF2 only). BF2 isn't really as heavy as games like Armed Assault and Oblivion though.

1280x1024 on a 19" monitor (17" viewing on a CRT, or 19" LCD) is quite low, I can see the individual pixels quite easily, and it really shows when playing BF2. The difference between 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 will depend on your monitor (smaller monitors are less affected), but it's quite a large difference for a small jump.

Ok, point taken. I'm wrong.

Can you help me understand what's going on with my card? I'm using ATI Tray Tools, and I've enabled the on-screen-display thing so I can see all this info when I play. It shows three options for memory: FVM, FTM, and SMU. They stand for Free Video Memory, Free Texture Memory and System Memory Used (by process). On the BF2 home screen, FVM=266, FTM=512, and SMU=117. Actually playing the game gets : FVM=0, FTM=232, SMU=850. Everything makes sense except for the Free Texture Memory. There is only 256MB on my graphics card so how can I have 512mb free? Is this texture memory coming from my system memory? (I would assume so....) And is this texture memory included in the SMU or not?

Thanks for any help and for not flaming me for my ignorance.

I would imagine because "Process Memory" is the amount of address space assigned to the process ONLY, whereas graphics cards also have a section of the virtual address space, and presumably it overlaps with system memory, in other words, the GFX card addresses system RAM but you won't see it from task manager. It *might* show if you look at overall system RAM taken (the other tab in task manager) but I'm not sure.