NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS 64MB

Why 64 MB

By increasing the amount of memory that is present on a video card, card manufacturers are able to prevent the full usage of video memory which results in AGP texture swapping. By containing more storage space for the needed textures, additional memory prevents data from traveling the APG route. By eliminating this mode of texturing, additional memory results in data only having to travel on the "fast" video card memory bus, going along at 5.3 GB/s.

In the future, there is almost no question that the additional 32 MB of on card memory will aid in speed. The result should be similar to what we found in our 64 MB GeForce review, where, basically, Quake III Arena became unplayable at high color depth and resolutions when rendering complex scenes. Texture compression alleviated this for now, however future games should see AGP texturing pop up again in cards with even 32 MB of memory as scene and texture size outgrows memory size. So, we know that 64 MB of on card memory will no doubt help in future games to some extent, however we are left to wonder what the additional RAM does in the current generation of games. For this, we turn to tests, performed on our first 64 MB GeForce 2 GTS card, the Guillemot/Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB.