GPU memory and extra hardware categories

I think about this on and off.....

IMO, there are too many new GPU categories set up just because a GPU was released with different volumes of RAM.

How many situations are there where RAM volume completely changes the scoring of the card?

How many of these extra categories could just be merged into the "main" category for that card?

E.G..... 8800GT 256MB, 512MB, 1GB.

All 3 can have memory that will stop at 1GHz. Two of them can have memory that will do 1152MHz.

All 3 can appear on the same PCB (Palit/Gainward)

I think there are quite a lot of categories that can be merged.

Anyone got an opinion?

On some cards like 8800 GT and HD3850 memory volume makes "some" score difference running at same clocks, but on many others it doesn't and is sometimes annoying, so I agree, those could be merged. But then again, all depends on hwbot's database policy for separating categories.

Typical scenario: Popular card A comes with x Mb memory by default (reference design, say). But one day some vendor decides to release an noob-popular model with 2*x RAM, but to keep the price low, they use the crappier chips. When it's other type (GDDR2 vs GDDR3, say) then I won't argue - it needs a separate category. But when it's same type but with higher latency - is it really necessary?

It's like those "special olympics", only with competitors being deliberately crippled by individual makers.

kenny, we don't add cards with all their diffrent sizes anmyore. those which are there were added before we decided to not add them anymore.

those will not be merged tough.

No problem

Ebay trawling continues!