Maximum PC

Well heres my dilemma, I saved up the cash, now I'm spoiling myself with a top of the line video card... I've been eying the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 superclock... but, while looking at NewEgg I seen the same card, but with 3 ghz of ram, not over clocked.

What's the real difference between the two cards? Does the extra Ram worth the $80 price difference?

Just a side note, I have a modest rig, ASUS P7P55 LX motherboard, Core I5 3.3ghz, 8 ghz 1600 ram, 22 inch monitor, XFX ATI crossfire 5670 graphic cards (to be replaced with single 580 card)... and i won't be over clocking anything myself... just leaving it at stock settings.

The Cards in question.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814130590
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814130655

First off, its not GHz that's used when measuring the amount of VRAM in the cards, its GB or MB. GHz/MHz is the speed at which certain things are clocked at I do believe.

In all honesty, I don't think the doubling of the VRAM in the 580 is worth an extra $80. I could and probably am very wrong, but I just don't see it giving you a major performance boost. If you're looking to get a card for the amount of VRAM it has, while getting a guaranteed performance boost, you may as well go for a GTX590 (not that it's even in stock on Newegg right now).

The 1.5gb vs 3gb really doesn't help that much unless playing on huge resolution monitors. There's a bunch of reviews on the 2 diff cards and the 3gb only pulls about 2-5fps more at crazy res. It would be more worth your while to be a higher factory clocked card like the MSI Lightening III or saving a little more for a GTX590.