Building a gaming PC

[greenmedic88]

ultima said:

CatFangs806 said:

ameratsu said:

2GB is overkill. I don't see how 2gb would provide any benefit over a 1gb card.

It's a 4870, and those are already going for under $120 after MIR for the 512mb. Spending $200 makes no sense when you can get a 512mb or 1gb for $120-$150.

The graphics load faster with 2 gigs of video ram rather than 1.

Bandwidth, not the size, of memory dictates load times. Increasing from 1 to 2 won't make graphics load faster.

It's unfortunate that some will just look at the newest/biggest specs and assume it's best for all set ups.

1GB of VRAM is enough for virtually any game at up to 1920x1200.

The main advantage of more VRAM comes with higher resolutions (2x 1680x1050, 2560x1600 for example) when the additional VRAM can actually become a requirement with texture heavy games at those resolutions.

More VRAM just means more texture data can be buffered and loaded. As you said, it's the bandwidth of that memory that determines the speed at which texture data is buffered and loaded.