24mb...enough?

[+BoomerFZ1]

Could someone give me a good example of what 24mb of storage would hold regarding maps. I love the idea of the 60cs but I'm thinkin' the Vista C might just do the trick. I live in the DC area and pretty much do all my hiking, biking and caching in the DC/MD/N. Va area (little in the 'Burgh area but I can always switch maps when I make the trek that way). I love the size of the Vista C and I can honestly say I've never seen or read a bad remark about this unit.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

20 years ago I thought 20 MB would be all I ever needed for my Commodore 64. Now 20MB isn't very much.

 

However, for a GPS, 20 MB is a good amount. The Garmin Legend only has 8MB and I've found hundreds of caches with it. I only recently started using mapsource to put topo maps on it. I'd like to upgrade my GPSr in the near future to the 76C which has somewhere around 115MB of memory (not to mention the color screen and other features). Do I really need 115MB? Maybe, but it would be nice to have more than what's on my Legend.

 

So, 20MB is enough depending on your needs.

[+BoomerFZ1]

Well, I know that 20mb would hold about 4 mp3's at a good bitrate, which isn't nearly enough. It'll hold a buttload of word documents which would definitely be enough. But since I have absolutly no idea of how much map area it'll hold, I have no idea if it's going to be enough for me. That's what I'm trying to determine.

Edited August 23, 2005 by BoomerFZ1

[+webscouter.]

Part of the reason that you don't get an answer is that it varies so wildly depending on the number of roads and such that you load.

 

For the DC area all the maps in red will load into a 60C GPS.

 

You would get more in the Vista but the Vista has a limitation on number of waypoints you can put in. I prefer the 999 waypoints available in the 60CS vs the 499 available in the Vista.

 

[+BoomerFZ1]

Thanks so much...that makes this allot easier...I can kinda judge what I'd be looking at now with the Vista considering it has less than half the memory of the 60c.

[Neo_Geo]

For the DC area all the maps in red will load into a 60C GPS.

 

The area in pink ABOVE is 23.4MB* and will load into the VistaC.

 

The area in pink BELOW is 55.9MB* and will fit into the 60C/S:

 

 

* Based on using City Select North America version 5 maps.

Edited August 24, 2005 by Neo_Geo

[wildstar]

I think you can never have enough memory. I sure wish the Garmin 60 or 76 had a removable flash memory card so I could "load up" on maps when I travel. I hate to bring my lap top with me, especially when I travel abroad. I kind of wish I could dump all of Europe onto a couple of SD cards and travel anywhere I wish for a month without any planning.

[tttedzeins]

I got a 512MB card which holds the whole of Australia to street level and has some space left for tracks, waypoints etc. I think the maps take up about 350 - 400MB. It is really handy not having to upload maps every time I go somewhere else.

[tubemonkey]

For hiking, the Vista C is more than adequate. I have an old b&w Legend that only has 8mb of memory and it serves my hiking needs quite well. The only thing stopping me from upgrading to a Legend C, is Garmin's refusal to add an SD card slot or 2gb of flash memory. You need over 1gb of available memory to load the entire country and their response is to make units with 24mb or 56mb. Wow! Like I'm so impressed that I can load half a state.

 

I've given up on the idea of one handheld to use for hiking and cross-country trips. Since hiking is my primary use, I see no need to upgrade my Legend at this time. It holds more maps than I could hike anyway. As for car navigation, I'll continue to use AAA paper maps. So until they get realistic with memory, they can keep their new machines. Too much money for such limited functionality.

[Delaypat]

ok say you fill the 56mb on the 60CS, does that include waypoints also?!?! just wanted to know...I have all of nor cal loaded in(well most) and some of NV, I think a total of 48mb...Not sure, I havent loaded anymore since I don't travel too much....Thanks all!

 

Delay

[+briansnat]

ok say you fill the 56mb on the 60CS, does that include waypoints also?!?!

Waypoint memory is not the same as map memory.

[+briansnat]

I love the idea of the 60cs but I'm thinkin' the Vista C might just do the trick. I live in the DC area and pretty much do all my hiking, biking and caching in the DC/MD/N. Va area

 

If you're using your unit for hiking and biking you probably want to use Mapsource Topo. If auto routing is not important to you, you could get away with just Topo and your coverage area will expand significantly. In major metro areas like DC Topo takes up far less memory. I don't have the MS Topo software with me to verify, but I'm sure you could get all of the DC area, MD, Del and a good portion of VA and PA into a Vista C with just Topo..

 

If you're like me and want both Topo for hiking and City Select for road navigation and its business and services database on your unit, you're better off with the 60CS or the 76CS.

 

.

Edited August 24, 2005 by briansnat

[AWGD8]

60C/CS is better than VISTA C/LEGEND C memory wise. Remember mapsource METROGUIDE/CITYSELECT/TOPO are being updated every year and data for each region could increase. I used to have Metroguide version 3.0 installed to my emap with entire city of chicago AND N, NW, W suburbs and few part of wisconsin fitted to a 16MB. Now with City select V7 I could only fit Chicago, and few suburbs.

 

Eventhough I have a new 60c , I`m still longing for larger memory. I should have bought the 70c but seems to bulky for me. I should have gotten Magellan GPS with removable memory card, but their software update comes once in a blue moon.

[eggman7360]

I have the entire MD state loaded in my vista c with about half of the memory to spare. (I used mapsouce topo)... actually alot of WV and VA is covered too.

[Delaypat]

ok say you fill the 56mb on the 60CS, does that include waypoints also?!?!

Waypoint memory is not the same as map memory.

Thanks much, Now I know!

[+scottjl]

i had a vista for 5 years or so and the memory was more than enough. unless you're trekking from one end of a large state to another it really doesn't matter. if you're settled in for the night just load up new maps for where you'll be the next day.

 

map sizes vary drastically by the type of map (topo, city select, metro, water). when you start mixing and matching (i load city select and topo together) your space gets used up differently. add in routing information (it's a checkbox in mapsource) and the values inflate some more.

 

so to answer your question, 24m is a good amount of memory and easily enough for a day of hiking, but not a day of cross-country driving. bring a laptop and your cable to transfer new maps if you're doing that.

[evetsno1]

Hello I currently own a etrex vista with 24 megs of internal memory and I also have map source topo usa. I have downloaded the entire state of michigan (lower) into the gps and some of the upper not to mention the map boundries are not perfect with the state boundries so thier are parts of Ohio and Indiana, etc. So 24 megs is a lot of memory for a gps and downloadable maps.

[+Miragee]

It definitely depends on how many roads there are in an area, but on a recent trip, I loaded all the maps in San Diego County (a huge county with lots of streets and roads) plus all the maps up I-15 and Hwy 395 all the way to Reno, several hundred miles away.

 

24MB can cover a lot of distance . . .

[Neo_Geo]

Hello I currently own a etrex vista with 24 megs of internal memory and I also have map source topo usa. I have downloaded the entire state of michigan (lower) into the gps and some of the upper not to mention the map boundries are not perfect with the state boundries so thier are parts of Ohio and Indiana, etc. So 24 megs is a lot of memory for a gps and downloadable maps.

 

It definitely depends on how many roads there are in an area, but on a recent trip, I loaded all the maps in San Diego County (a huge county with lots of streets and roads) plus all the maps up I-15 and Hwy 395 all the way to Reno, several hundred miles away.

 

24MB can cover a lot of distance . . . 

 

Bear in mind that these are Topo maps. If they were talking about City Select maps, they would NOT think that 24MB is such a generous amount of memory. City Select contains address information, routing information, and information on individual businesses such as restaurants, stores, hotels, gas stations, etc. All that information takes up a lot of valuable memory.

 

But yes, if using Topo maps, these things will hold enough maps to cover a wide area.

Edited August 28, 2005 by Neo_Geo

[+briansnat]

Here's 23.9 megs of coverage using Mapsource Topo: