GeForce 6600 vs GeForce 7300GS

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:06 am

My motherboard has packed in so it's time to upgrade. I'm choosing between two ASUS boards, both of which require a PCI-e graphics card. Since my A8V Deluxe takes AGP, it's time for a new video card as well.

The two passively-cooled ones available from my preferred vendor are these:

AOpen GeForce 6600 128 MB â€“ Â£79

Gainward 7883 GeForce 7300GS 256 MB â€“ Â£55

I don't play games so don't really need to worry about fps or anything like that. I do overclock the bus, so might that be an issue to consider? Do PCI-e cards need to be frequency locked in the same way as PCI cards do?

Is AOpen a more reliable cardmaker than Gainward? I ask as I'm curious as to what makes a 256 MB card cheaper than a 128 MB one.

Thanks
Cams

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:45 am

usually the reason why larger ram versions of the same card are less expensive for the same model, is because when they use more ram they use slower ram. so the 128mb is probably using the faster (more expensive) ram, while the 256mb variant is using slower, older, cheeper ram.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:15 am

The 7300GS is a newer generation of budget card, the 6600 is an older generation of mid-range card. The 6600 is a faster GPU, and will be running faster memory; the 7300GS will be cooler running, and if you really don't game at all, you might as well get that one.
For complete non-gamers, a motherboard with integrated graphics would be the best choice, such as the Asus A8N-VM micro-ATX board at the same site.