BF3 & Crysis 2 use more than 1gb Vid Ram @ Ultra settings!

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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Hey all, i've been playing BF3 & Crysis 2 with the newest version of GPU-Z (the one that shows you the amount of Video Ram being used) because a friend told me these games use more than 1gb of ram @ their highest settings. He said the stuttering that occurs in these games is not so much a weak video card, it's just that there's not enough video ram for the game to use. People with 1.5gb of vid ram & 2gb of vid ram confirmed that they do indeed use anywhere from 1.3gb-1.5gb of video ram @ the ultra settings @ 1920x 1080 & up for these games! just wow!:0

Try it yourself, the newest version of GPU-z is here (version 0.5.5 & up shows vid ram):

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

look under "Dedicated Ram" to show u vid Ram.
 

jacktesterson

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
5,493
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wow!

lol :)

On side note, can you see a difference between High/Ultra? Most cannot unless side by side and are looking for it.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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OP , what happened when you ran these games at ultra settings, with your 5870.
My bet is they ran just as fast as they should have ,unless you used the high resolution texture pack with Crysis 2.

wow! just wow!
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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No I'm afraid I sometimes got stuttering as well.:( if I turn AA off the vid ram usage drops to 950mb & I'm safe. The 5870 can handle it, but it needs more than 1gb of ram for the textures.

Personally I can notice a diff between high & ultra in BF3, especially with shadows & Lighting. The game still looks gorgeous on high, but on ultra its almost photorealistic.:)

Sent from my Motorola Atrix using Tapatalk
 

skipsneeky2

Diamond Member
May 21, 2011
5,035
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msi afterburner has the same function i know some settings on high 1600x1200 in BF3 can eat all available vram as well on a 1gb card.

I would be content on a 1.25gb gtx570 with me running high..i may be wrong but i don't think a single gpu out right now is capable of ultra in BF3.
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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The 2gb 6950 runs it fine from what I saw. The more powerful cards also do it no probs as long as they have 1.5gb vid ram.:)

Sent from my Motorola Atrix using Tapatalk
 

Gryz

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2010
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Thanks for linking GPU-Z.
Always wondered how I could have a better look at my videocard behaviour.

I'm playing Skyrim. On a GTX260. Which has 896MB of videomemory.
The general complaint is that Skyrim does not make proper use of the capabilities of newer videocards.
I'm running in Ultra mode (with 4xAA). On a E8500 and GTX260. Fps is 25-60 most of the time.
I just checked my memory usage. It's over 700MB outdoors. And in Whiterun (one of the most taxing places), it's over 800MB. Cool ! It seems that Bethesda at least makes good use of our videomemory. The downsize is: I think I won't be able to use texture-packs, unless I upgrade my videocard first.
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
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I wish it was that easy. But it can also mean the gpu doesn't have the horsepower to get thru that data quick enough to clear out some ram for new data so it sort of bottlenecks. I can assure you 1Gb of Vram or 2gb it won't make a difference on a 5870 with Crysis 2.

This is a good example
SURROUND-MEM-29.jpg


As you can see Crysis 2 the 570 doesn't have the horsepower to utilize the more Vram in Crysis 2. What chance does the 5870 have

But the 580 on the other hand does
SURROUND-MEM-28.jpg
 
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toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
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lol, even Batman Arkham City needs more than 1gb of vram on settings even a gtx560Ti could otherwise run. I was using nearly all of my 1.25 gb at times at 1920x1080, very high DX9 settings, physx on normal, vsync on and 8x MSAA.


in fact right before this spot it seemed to need even more than 1.25 gb as the framerate went from 60 down to unplayable and then recovered a bit before I took this screenshot.


image upload
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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seemed to need

it seemed to need? seriously now. That could be a cpu hiccup , poor driver ,anything.

Right before this spot ha? lol

8xmsaa? How does that look compard to say 4xmsaa?
Are Batmans painted toenails a little more shiny? :)
 
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toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
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it seemed to need? seriously now.
yes it seemed to go right over 1.2 gb right before that spot so that whats your beef with that? there are even higher AA settings than 8x MSAA available in the game than that so again whats your problem with that? even at 4X MSAA it would use over 1gb of vram so whats your point in even saying that. heck there are even higher games settings I could choose to. this is a thread about two big games going over 1gb of vram so I thought I would show Batman would too. again these are settings a gtx560Ti could easily handle from a gpu power standpoint.
 
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Destiny

Platinum Member
Jul 6, 2010
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it seemed to need? seriously now. That could be a cpu hiccup , poor driver ,anything.

Right before this spot ha? lol

8xmsaa? How does that look compard to say 4xmsaa?
Are Batmans painted toenails a little more shiny? :)

I dunno about painted toenails a little more shiny... but it seems like little batman is more prominently bluging out due to the higher graphics settings in that screen shot...
 

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
5,649
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My 6950 regularly sees about 1.5GB of usage across all multiplayer maps, and occasionally goes up to around 1.8GB.

This is based on what Afterburner graphs tell me.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
yes it seemed to go right over 1.2 gb right before that spot so that whats your beef with that? there are even higher AA settings than 8x MSAA available in the game than that so again whats your problem with that? even at 4X MSAA it would use over 1gb of vram so whats your point in even saying that. heck there are even higher games settings I could choose to. this is a thread about two big games going over 1gb of vram so I thought I would show Batman would too. again these are settings a gtx560Ti could easily handle from a gpu power standpoint.

Do you think its possible that I could make it go over my 2gb of memory.
SHould I buy the game, is it any good?
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
2,284
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My 6950 regularly sees about 1.5GB of usage across all multiplayer maps, and occasionally goes up to around 1.8GB.

This is based on what Afterburner graphs tell me.

wow, so the 7XXX radeons might actually need more than 2gb of Vram to be futureproof? if a game in 2011 can gobble up 1.8gb Vram, than 3GB of vid ram would be ideal if u buy a 7950?
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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bumpity bump. I'm curious what others have to say about this.

We have the GTX 670 & GTX 680 hampered and shackled by 2gb of Vram.:( How future proof does that make them? While the GPUs are extemely powerful & workhorses in every sense, the 2gb of VRAM totally cripples em. Why would Nvidia do that? Any thoughts?
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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Try the browsers (such as Opera) let you experiment with WebGL that renders whole pages with GPU. ~100 MB per tab. ^^
 

WiseUp216

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2012
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www.heatware.com
bumpity bump. I'm curious what others have to say about this.

We have the GTX 670 & GTX 680 hampered and shackled by 2gb of Vram.:( How future proof does that make them? While the GPUs are extemely powerful & workhorses in every sense, the 2gb of VRAM totally cripples em. Why would Nvidia do that? Any thoughts?

1. The 670/680 cards are not "hampered and shackled" with any game that I know of. They even seem to get higher FPS than a lot of 3GB cards.

2. No such thing as a future proof video card.

3. They're not crippled. They are great cards for today's gaming. Down the road, they'll go the way of the 580, 480, etc. No card will stay high-end forever.

4. Most people game @ 1080P or LESS (where 2GB is plenty) and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. So what good does it do to charge more $$$ for cards with massive geebees?
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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1. ofcourse not now, but in ~2 years they'll still be plenty powerful GPUs but only 2gb of RAM. Those of us thinking of going SLI in the future and getting a 2nd GTX 670 in 2014 (for ultra cheap) will be left out in the cold cause with only 2gb of Vram it'll be pointless.:(

2. ofcourse there is! just SLI/Crossfire it, but that's pointless if u don't have the extra Vram. If i add another 5870 to my rig it'll EASILY last another 1-2 years making its entire service period almost 5 years from the time i purchased it! (October 2009) but unfortunetly with only 1gb of Vram it won't handle all the textures that well.:(

3. not crippled now, for SLI in the future they will be. Video cards and graphics have slowed considerably compard to 5+ years ago. You buy a high end card and it'll easily last you 2-3 years (my 5870 is a testament to that).

4. Have you read all the other posts in this thread?? in december of 2011 there were games that could push 2gb of VRAM (Skyrim with mods, Shogun2 with thousands of units on screen). how will that bode 1 year from now?
 

WiseUp216

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Mar 12, 2012
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1. ofcourse not now, but in ~2 years they'll still be plenty powerful GPUs but only 2gb of RAM. Those of us thinking of going SLI in the future and getting a 2nd GTX 670 in 2014 (for ultra cheap) will be left out in the cold cause with only 2gb of Vram it'll be pointless.:(

2. ofcourse there is! just SLI/Crossfire it, but that's pointless if u don't have the extra Vram. If i add another 5870 to my rig it'll EASILY last another 1-2 years making its entire service period almost 5 years from the time i purchased it! (October 2009) but unfortunetly with only 1gb of Vram it won't handle all the textures that well.:(

3. not crippled now, for SLI in the future they will be. Video cards and graphics have slowed considerably compard to 5+ years ago. You buy a high end card and it'll easily last you 2-3 years (my 5870 is a testament to that).

4. Have you read all the other posts in this thread?? in december of 2011 there were games that could push 2gb of VRAM (Skyrim with mods, Shogun2 with thousands of units on screen). how will that bode 1 year from now?


Do me a favor, go to Steam and look at the hardware survey results. The VAST majority of people are gaming with obsolete (to us enthusiasts) hardware. If I remember correctly (at work, can't look) like 85% of Steam users are on pre-Fermi cards. Correct if I am wrong, as I could be.

Any game company that wants to make money needs to be able to sell games to these people. Games will not be getting too intensive for 2GB anytime soon. If the lowest common denominator can't run the game, then sales will suffer.

Obviously, you can find specific examples of 2GB (or more) VRAM usage. In that case, you would have to turn down your settings. Big deal.

I have no intention of 670 SLI. I like single GPU setups and I'll just buy whatever the flavor of month is when my 670 has trouble keeping up.
 

lehtv

Elite Member
Dec 8, 2010
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@ poohbear, even now GTX 670 2GB SLI is fine, VRAM doesn't max out in the vast majority of games at 2560x1600. And it doesn't max out in any game at at 1080p/3D or 1080p/120hz. So it's not crippled SLI-wise. Even if it was, the simple solution to that would be to sell your card on and buying a better single GPU. If you plan ahead that way, you can save money on your PSU and motherboard purchases
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
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Do me a favor, go to Steam and look at the hardware survey results. The VAST majority of people are gaming with obsolete (to us enthusiasts) hardware. If I remember correctly (at work, can't look) like 85% of Steam users are on pre-Fermi cards. Correct if I am wrong, as I could be.

Any game company that wants to make money needs to be able to sell games to these people. Games will not be getting too intensive for 2GB anytime soon. If the lowest common denominator can't run the game, then sales will suffer.

Obviously, you can find specific examples of 2GB (or more) VRAM usage. In that case, you would have to turn down your settings. Big deal.

I have no intention of 670 SLI. I like single GPU setups and I'll just buy whatever the flavor of month is when my 670 has trouble keeping up.

ppl on steam are playing indie games on laptops that don't even need mid range gpus, what's your point exactly?


i NEVER said it'll happen soon. Stop putting words in my mouth.

In 2 years time, a GTX 670 gpu will still kickass, and when i want to go the SLI route it'll be pointless because 2gb of Vram won't be enough in 2 years. If they released 3-4gb GTX 670s then SLI in 2-3 years time will be an actual option. I'm just saying i'm facing this dilemma now with my 5870, its still an awesome card, and if i go Crossfire it'll no doubt extend the life by another year at minimum (saw 5870s being sold used for $130). But the big problem is my card has only 1gb of ram.:(

What exactly is so hard to comprehend about that?
 

lehtv

Elite Member
Dec 8, 2010
11,900
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To be fair, he didn't put any words in your mouth.

and when i want to go the SLI route it'll be pointless because 2gb of Vram won't be enough in 2 years
That's not true. Even if the VRAM was maxed out in games, you'd still get a huge increase to framerates
I'm just saying i'm facing this dilemma now with my 5870
So how much VRAM is your 5870 using and what framerates are you getting in the game where you think its performance is lacking?
 
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