Hey ppl, so i've picked out 2 video cards that i want to get for my pc. 1Gb xfx geforce 9500 and 512Mb xfx geforce 9600...im wondering, would the 9600 still be a better buy than the 9500, because of a faster core clock rate? would the 9600 out perform it although it has less memory?
thanks

The clock speed will make quite a difference.

For an example. Some time back I had an ATI 9550 256meg. I tried out a 9600 128meg and it was a lot quicker because of it's higher clock speed.

One thing though, make sure your PSU is up to it.

Hey i almost forgot to take that into consideration as well...Thanks...one more thing...if an item is labeled as recertified, what does that mean?

That will depend on what it is.

Also, remember that 1 GB graphics card will top slice 1GB from your usable RAM. This, in turn, might (probably would) increase paging/swapping with noticeable lag on games that demand a high frame rate.

IMHO, 1GB cards should be used in an 8GB system RAM envuironment under 64 bit Windows.

GF9500 has 32 stream processor and 128-bit memory bandwidth, while GF9600GT has 64 sp and 256-bit memory bandwidth and GF9600GSO has 96 sp and 192-bit memory bandwidth. So bigger RAM doesn't always mean higher performance, if you compare GF9500 with GF9600GT.

GF9500 has 32 stream processor and 128-bit memory bandwidth, while GF9600GT has 64 sp and 256-bit memory bandwidth and GF9600GSO has 96 sp and 192-bit memory bandwidth. So bigger RAM doesn't always mean higher performance, if you compare GF9500 with GF9600GT.

The issue to which I'm referring is the top-slicing of RAM according to Video RAM size and the knock-on effects that result in other areas of PC performance.

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