1GB DDR3 worth it?

[Okasa]

Its my understanding that no games really utilize more than the 512mb that's standard on most cards these days. However, I run two 1920x1200 displays, would the system then benefit from a video card with a gig? There's nothing in between 512 and 1gb (generally speaking), so its one or the other. The price difference isnt too large, so its not that big of a jump price wise.

Thoughts?

 

[ghost recon88]

Think of it this way. A 1280x1024 screenshot vs. a 1920x1200 screenshot, which is a larger file size? So on that track, which would need a higher RAM buffer?

 

[Jax Omen]

For non-3D work, any modern GPU should be quite capable of driving two 19x12 monitors simultaneously.

 

[Okasa]

...obviously higher pixel count requires more of the vid ram...thats not what im asking. im wondering if having 2x 1920x1200 is enough to top 512mb, making the jump worth it.

edit: so then does the video ram only use that to store the current pixel information, and therefore so long as the card has a buffer that can handle your total resolution, no possible gain could be seen by upgrading the onboard ram. Or does it use it for all buffers, including vertex calculations in games, meaning it would use more ram during crysis or cod4 etc?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: Okasa
...obviously higher pixel count requires more of the vid ram...thats not what im asking. im wondering if having 2x 1920x1200 is enough to top 512mb, making the jump worth it.

edit: so then does the video ram only use that to store the current pixel information, and therefore so long as the card has a buffer that can handle your total resolution, no possible gain could be seen by upgrading the onboard ram. Or does it use it for all buffers, including vertex calculations in games, meaning it would use more ram during crysis or cod4 etc?

It holds more than just the current pixel information.
It holds all the textures, etc as well.

For 2d applications, you'll never need more than # of pixels * # of bits per pixel of video ram.
A pair of 1920x1200 displays will have 4608000 pixels.
If you were using 24bpp, then that's 110592000 bits of data, or exactly 13,500KB.

If you are spanning your games across both monitors and you run everything in the monitors native resolution, then 1GB vs 512MB may make a big difference. That said, who in their right mind would play a first person shooter with 2 screens, effectivly putting the crosshair and all your targeting right at the crease where the 2 monitors are next to each other.

Of course games like Supreme Commander and flight simulators could see some real nice benefits of 1GB of video ram...