by tazdevl on Sat Oct 18, 2003 3:59 pm
First off, your third option is a total waste of money. 256MB buffer with a 9600 core yields no performance improvement over a 128MB buffer. The bus width and RAM speed limit the performance of the card. Won't matter even with games that have a significant increase in the amount of textures coming in the future either.
Regarding the other two. Actually reading the descriptions gives you all the information you need to make a decision. Or you could also go to
www.google.com, type in a search and come up with this link
http://www.sapphiretech.com/ that has more product descriptions.
The difference between the two 128MB cards is that the ultimate has a better software bundle (which is at the bottom of the product description) and has FANLESS cooling (which is at the top of the product page). Meaning it has a passive heatsink with heatpipes to cool the RAM and GPU. So no noise.
The second option has a fan with the heatsink and doesn't include any software other than a installation disc. It's a retail equivalent to a OEM/White Box version of the card.
RIG:
P4 2.6C, Thermalright SP94/Panaflo 92MM M1A, IC7 Max3, Swifty MCX159, 1GB Geil PC4000 Ultra Plat, Radeon 8500, Audigy 2, 2X WD Raptor RAID 0, WD 250GB SE, Plex 708A, 166SDVD, LianLi PC75, XP Pro.
