Within Budget -=video card shopping=-

[MadKoiFish]

Ok, I dont see the hdw forum anymore so here it goes.

Ok, here it is spring/summer and I am looking at GFX cards. bleah.
I am looking for VIEW PORT performance not gaming, SO I dont care about fancy shaders just raw poly pushing ability.

Either way price is a issue I have enough for a entry level 9800 but not sure if that is worth while since these would be intro level cards with 512mb only of ram. but double the stream processors, I am not sure if those will make a diffrence in VIEWPORTS in relation to POLYCOUNT.
The 8000series is out too many issues or lack of things. Sticking the 7950 is out as well so is ATI.

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

EVGA 01G-P3-N869-AR GeForce 9600GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

basically one is 1gig ram other is 512mb ram.

So the QUESTION is will an extra 512mb of ram make a diffrence on the same card in Vieport performance or would spending over double the diffrence for only 512mb ram but double the stream processors be a better expendature?
300$ usd is the absolue limit to spending cash on a video card for me. Even at that level it seems ludicrous to me.

MKF-