Best bet? GTX 780 FTW 3G or 780 SC 6G?

[EJSLP]

I wanted to ask which of these two i would be better off with for 1080p gaming on a single monitor?
a evga gtx780 super-clocked with 6G of Vram or a 780 FTW with 3G of vram?
I keep reading how games are starting to require more Vram even at 1080p
games like watch dogs for instance.
So i kind of really wanted the evga 780 FTW for it faster clock speeds but for $40 more i can get a extra 4g's of vram with a slightly lower clock speed?
I prefer not to OC it myself which is why i was going for the faster factory clock version
Ps, there is a watch dogs thread here that made me decide to post this question.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2384738
From reading that thread it seems that newer gen games will require more Vram even at 1080p on a single monitor for max texture settings without any stutter?
I am real big on eye candy with gaming.

 

[BrightCandle]

Two ways to look at it and they either both be true:
1) Watch dogs is representative of games coming and many games will require higher VRAM than any standard card Nvidia sells.
2) Game markers are going to make games for the hardware available on the market so they can sell games. If they make games that only run on AMD hardware then they are limiting to about a third of the market, if they require even 3GB they are limiting to a much smaller market than that so they wont do so they will appeal to a market that exists and is a big bigger to a very small niche.

Historically developers have tended towards the lowest common capabilities of both manufacturers cards. Doesn't mean that will continue of course, this could mark a genuine change in that history. I just don't know.

 

[lehtv]

For 1080p, 6GB is just pointless. You'll be fine with 3GB. >90% of current games don't even hit 2GB.

 

[EJSLP]

Two ways to look at it and they either both be true:
1) Watch dogs is representative of games coming and many games will require higher VRAM than any standard card Nvidia sells.
2) Game markers are going to make games for the hardware available on the market so they can sell games. If they make games that only run on AMD hardware then they are limiting to about a third of the market, if they require even 3GB they are limiting to a much smaller market than that so they wont do so they will appeal to a market that exists and is a big bigger to a very small niche.

Historically developers have tended towards the lowest common capabilities of both manufacturers cards. Doesn't mean that will continue of course, this could mark a genuine change in that history. I just don't know.

yeah i see what you are saying. let me ask this am i about 75% safe with going with a 3g vram card for games like watch dogs say 2 years from now?
I know no one can predict the future but watch dogs has me concerned about more than 3G's of vram now?
Many are saying that to max the textures on it you need a little over 3g's?
if Nvidia was offering a 780 with 4g i would not even had posted this question but i dont want to buy a $530 gtx780 3g version only to find that in the next two years i dont have enough Vram?

 

[EJSLP]

For 1080p, 6GB is just pointless. You'll be fine with 3GB. >90% of current games don't even hit 2GB.

Yeah maybe but i am thinking of the next few years, watch dogs is a good example of 3G's possibly not being enough for max textures and such?
one thing is for sure, i will not be gaming above 1080p since i am using a 50" HD TV as my monitor (could never go back to 27" or even 29" now) and all the 4K tv's and monitors are way too much $$$ for me.
so 1920x1080 will be my gaming res over the next few years unless prices on those higher res TV's come down in price a good bit!

 

[IEC]

Are you planning on upgrading your monitor any time in the next two years to 1440p+? Then 6GB might make more sense. Otherwise, at 1080p you're very unlikely to hit limits at 3GB.

 

[EJSLP]

Are you planning on upgrading your monitor any time in the next two years to 1440p+? Then 6GB might make more sense. Otherwise, at 1080p you're very unlikely to hit limits at 3GB.

No as i edited that info in on my last post after you asked this, i will be at 1080 single monitor for several years from now.
Plus i am thinking that this extra Vram is only $40 more?
if it were say $100-150 more i would care but $40 not so much

 

[Attic]

At 1080P running WatchDogs with Ultra textures and 4xMSAA i'm seeing 3.8gb usage from MSI afterburner.

Definitely an outlier, but it doesn't stutter like other users are reporting who have 3gb cards. 3gb honestly seems like overkill for 1080P, but it's ridiculous to buy a high end card ($400+) today and only get 3gb card given the trends we are seeing in VRAM usage. Even at 1080P.

At $400+ for a GPU purchase you are going to want maximum graphics detail at 1080P. 3gb today is tommorow's 2gb and today 2gb is not going to cut it. If buying for the future i'd highly reccomend 4gb or greater card if plunking down serious cash for a GPU, even at 1080P.

 

[EJSLP]

At 1080P running WatchDogs with Ultra textures and 4xMSAA i'm seeing 3.8gb usage from MSI afterburner.

Definitely an outlier, but it doesn't stutter like other users are reporting who have 3gb cards. 3gb honestly seems like overkill for 1080P, but it's ridiculous to buy a high end card ($400+) today and only get 3gb card given the trends we are seeing in VRAM usage. Even at 1080P.

At $400+ for a GPU purchase you are going to want maximum graphics detail at 1080P. 3gb today is tommorow's 2gb and today 2gb is not going to cut it. If buying for the future i'd highly reccomend 4gb or greater card if plunking down serious cash for a GPU, even at 1080P.

This is my thinking with my luck i would buy the 3g only to find out in a year that i now need 4G or more.
I am buying the 6G version for the mere $40 more.
better to be safe than sorry when spending $500+ for a Gpu right.

 

[BrightCandle]

We don't really know what is coming down the pipeline from either manufacturer. In 2 years will a 780 be able to play modern games? Of course it will be able to. It likely wont be able to play them at top settings however, because there isn't a card released today that can do that simply because the hardware isn't available yet. You can't buy hardware to be "future proof", its physically impossible. If your goal is to be playing ultra in the future I am afraid it can't be done. Upgrading in minor ways one of today's GPUs isn't going to change that fact.

A little appreciated fact of software is that it has to run on hardware you can buy. Its a reality of the market that you can't sell software that people can't run and games are no exception. No developer is going to so strongly favour AMD cards and its higher VRAM cards make a game inaccessible to high end Nvidia cards or those that didn't buy the additional VRAM. By all accounts Nvidia out sells AMD 2 cards to 1, and it does not sell these 4GB/6GB variants in any great volume. It would be commercial suicide to try and sell software targeted at a very very small niche market. Ubisoft likes committing commercial suicide with a lot of games and its online DRM of course but the grand majority of games do not look as bad and require so much hardware as this one does.

I can't predict the future, I don't know what Nvidia and AMD have up their sleeves at 20nm, will it have more VRAM? I would bet good money that they will. Will 6GB make a 780 play games one or two settings above in the grand majority of games over the next 2 years? No idea, I can't tell if Watch dogs is using its VRAM well or not and whether it marks a trend in games or a one off. Titanfall also needed more than 2GB in Beta but it got patched out by production and we have another game as well which the name of escapes me. Could very well be a trend that we will see a lot of >2GB VRAM games this year for the ultra texture settings and highest AA. But its also an odd time in history, 20nm is probably a year late if not more and the refresh cards from both manufacturers come with more VRAM than the cards they refreshed. Its inevitable at some point 2/3GB will be exceeded, I just don't know when that will be and if its now or not. Still most games are being released in the 1-1.5GB usage area, for most of the life of the 7970/280 the owners have been wasting about half the VRAM on the card, its just been sitting there idle having been paid for. Does one texture setting make up for it now? Will it extend the life of the card? Not much I suspect.

 

[lehtv]

I'd rather pocket the $40. You won't be able to run Watchdogs smoothly at 1080p 4x MSAA with only one GTX 780, from what I can tell; and I doubt there's a noticeable different on 1080p between ultra and high texture quality. High settings with SMAA or 2x MSAA should yield good framerates while using less than 3GB.

If there's ever any problem with a game, just upgrade the card then. You're probably going to have to upgrade anyway in 2 years from a performance standpoint

 

[EJSLP]

I'd rather pocket the $40. You won't be able to run Watchdogs smoothly at 1080p 4x MSAA with only one GTX 780, from what I can tell; and I doubt there's a noticeable different on 1080p between ultra and high texture quality. High settings with SMAA or 2x MSAA should yield good framerates while using less than 3GB.

If there's ever any problem with a game, just upgrade the card then. You're probably going to have to upgrade anyway in 2 years from a performance standpoint

Unfortunately for me you guys are right, there is NO way to avoid future
hardware from having to be replaced.
I wanted to set my 780 like this guy did,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj0rmX_6BCA
he is using TXAA x4 and ultra texures on a 3g 780
My card will have a faster factory clock not sure if that matters or not?

 

[Kenmitch]

This is my thinking with my luck i would buy the 3g only to find out in a year that i now need 4G or more.
I am buying the 6G version for the mere $40 more.
better to be safe than sorry when spending $500+ for a Gpu right.

You would probably get the $40 back in resale value at a later date. It would hold more value at least for those who want to go sli rather than the latest and greatest next gen.

 

[EJSLP]

You would probably get the $40 back in resale value at a later date. It would hold more value at least for those who want to go sli rather than the latest and greatest next gen.

so the 3g is much more likely to re-sell than a 6G if need be for those wanting a second 780 for sli?

 

[Atreidin]

Apparently this whole "nicer textures need more memory" thing is a big deal, leading to much weeping and gnashing of teeth, as well as lots of pointless denial of RAM usage from the people who think their current hardware should play the highest quality settings forever.

If you want to use the highest quality textures in every game then you need more than 3GB. Nobody knows how many more games will "need" this for highest settings in the next year or two but the trend is only in one direction.

Also game studios have sliders on the video quality settings for a reason. They don't need to target a specific hardware configuration, they can make the game look as great as they can then have the user scale it down until it runs well on their computer.

 

[Atreidin]

so the 3g is much more likely to re-sell than a 6G if need be for those wanting a second 780 for sli?

There are so many variables affecting the impossible-to-predict market value that I would recommend just buying what makes you happy and leave it at that.

 

[lehtv]

so the 3g is much more likely to re-sell than a 6G if need be for those wanting a second 780 for sli?

He means the 6GB card can be resold for $40 more than the 3GB card. You are 100% likely to be able to sell it in either case, it's just a matter of how much you're willing to sell it for.

I don't really agree with him though. The extra gigs will certainly make the card worth more in the second hand market, but only as much as you'd expect proportionally based on brand new prices.

 

[Kenmitch]

so the 3g is much more likely to re-sell than a 6G if need be for those wanting a second 780 for sli?

That's not what I meant.

Using you as an example: You purchase the 6GB today to be somewhat future proof as far as memory requirements go at least. A year or two later you decide you don't have enough grunt to push the latest games. You'll have two options at that time. Get another 6GB card and go SLI or just get a new gpu. The 3GB card vs 6GB card resale value at that time would most likely recoup your $40 difference you pay today.

 

[toyota]

For 1080p, 6GB is just pointless. You'll be fine with 3GB. >90% of current games don't even hit 2GB.

how can you say something like that when in the last week we have had 2 games released that need more than 3gb on their highest settings which the 780 has the gpu power to use? when you buy a 780 and want to crank settings then whats the point in not spending 10% more and getting more vram at this point going forward?

and 90% of games dont even need a 780 or even 770 so using that logic he should get just a 760?

 

[EJSLP]

He means the 6GB card can be resold for $40 more than the 3GB card. You are 100% likely to be able to sell it in either case, it's just a matter of how much you're willing to sell it for.

I don't really agree with him though. The extra gigs will certainly make the card worth more in the second hand market, but only as much as you'd expect proportionally based on brand new prices.

I understand and from what i gathered here and elsewhere i am still feeling the 6Gb card is the better choice.
OK i agree i "may" never need more than 3g at 1080 but i keep thinking to myself for $40 more it is available if i ever should need it.
Who knows maybe i WILL get a higher res monitor in the next year or two?
since i seem to be getting spoiled by the eye candy of games like watch dogs and some others maybe i will find 1080 not good enough after a while?

 

[Kenmitch]

He means the 6GB card can be resold for $40 more than the 3GB card. You are 100% likely to be able to sell it in either case, it's just a matter of how much you're willing to sell it for.

I don't really agree with him though. The extra gigs will certainly make the card worth more in the second hand market, but only as much as you'd expect proportionally based on brand new prices.

Yep. Was typing while you were typing it looks like.

While I was typing my responses to the OP I was thinking the following:

If I was spending $500 plus on a gpu today....I'd be looking at a pair of used 290's. I just didn't want to go off topic is all.

 

[EJSLP]

Yep. Was typing while you were typing it looks like.

While I was typing my responses to the OP I was thinking the following:

If I was spending $500 plus on a gpu today....I'd be looking at a pair of used 290's. I just didn't want to go off topic is all.

I wont touch AMD but thanks for the suggestion,it is a good one for someone that uses AMD.
I pretty much made up my mind to get the evga 780 sc 6g but just trying to cover all bases before sending the $500+ to evga

 

[Jacky60]

I'm rocking GTA5 4k FXAA and vertical sync 60fps with all other variables maxed and being told I'm using 12GB video memory of a possible 16gb.

 

[BroHamBone]

I would get the 6GB and learn(not trying to sound rude) to OC the card.. I understand you dont want to mess with it, but OC gpu's have become extremely easy.

 

[stahlhart]

This thread is nearly a year old.
-- stahlhart