x1950pro question

[TheMagnificentCheese]

Getting ready to finally pull the trigger on my new budget gaming PC and have one final issue to resolve. I've decided to heed the advice and recommendation of many people on this forum and go with the ATI Radeon X1950PRO.

My final question before purchasing involves the memory size on the card. Should I go for the 512mb memory model or the 256mb model? I know that it should be a no-brainer, but I've heard of some cards in past benchmarks actually performing better with less on-board memory. Not to mention there is a price issue. I can save close to 50 dollars in buying the 256mb model rather than the 512.

Any facts? Opinions? Ideas? Or rants anyone has to share?

Thanks.

Edit: Not planning on playing Crysis or utilizing DX10 for another year or so, so that's not an issue. I'm mainly going to be playing Bioshock, HL2 Orange Box, Oblivion, Hellgate: London, and some of the newer RPG/Adventure/RTS/FPS offerings.

 

[Stumps]

there isn't much difference in performance between a 256mb and 512mb X1950Pro, any increase in performance is mainly at high resolutions.

But with that said if you can afford it go for 512mb, every little bit helps.

 

[RussianSensation]

$50 is significant savings. If you are going to add $50 to step up from 256mb to 512mb of x1950Pro you might want to get 8800GT 256mb instead or HD 3850 card (nnless X1950Pro 256mb is really cheap).

I am willing to bet that the videocard in a budget rig will likely be the most limiting component for games. Certainly Core 2 Duo 4500 or 6400 will be good enough for the games you listed. If you can, try to save some $ on ram or motherboard and get 8800GT 512mb Budget rigs also don't need 500 watt power supplies.