effect of increasing gpu ram

[exist2inspire]

hello to all! i wanna kno how much does Vram actullay affect ur gaming performance. is it justified spendin lets say $50 more on gettin 512 vram instead of like 256? specifically, apart frm helpin at higher resolutions, does more gpu ram only help in increasing texture quality (the details on surfaces of objects), keeping everythin else constant? for eg in games like crysis n nfs prostreet, wat is the impact of havin a 640mb gts instead of 320mb gts, or a gcard wid 512mb instead of 256? if the resolution is the same, is it possible to increase other settings like aa n shaders n lighting effects or does more vram only mean the ability to store more textures n reduce stuttering without providin any other image quality enhancements, provided the clock speeds n other variables of the gcard remain the same? would appreciate any helpful replies!

 

[Geoff]

It really depends on what card your talking about. For instance, it's not worth getting a 512MB 7600GS over a 256MB, however it's worth it to get a 512MB 8800GT vs 256MB.

The size of the memory determines how many textures can be held, if you are trying to run a game on maxed out settings with only say 256MB of memory (if the card supports it), it would bog down and/or lower the texture settings. Because higher quality textures take up more video memory.