Can we get to the bottom of 1900x1080 4xAA and video ram usage?

[Elfear]

1080p is 1920x1080 not 1920x1200. and we were talking plain 4x AA.

Work with me here Happy. I'm aware that 1920x1200 =/ 1080p but apparently not many people who game at 1080p like to post about their vram usage. Just subtract 10% from the numbers you see in the links and you'll have an approximation of 1080p. Come on, it's not that hard.

Good point about the 4xAA though. I was thinking of another thread with the same discussion where a specific AA sampling size wasn't asked for. Point still holds though that some games are going to exceed 1GB of vram at 1080p.

 

[happy medium]

I would say right around 1024mb with no mods and AA below 8x will let you play anything but GTA 4 at 1920x1080 maxed without vram issues. 1280mb is certainly the best bet with a powerful card and I dont see anyway of going over that anytime soon.

Thanks buddy, I thought so. I thought it was funny that the ram issue was never really a problem @ 1920x1080 till now. I just got sick of people saying that 2gb is faster @ 1080p and no one saying anything. Hey mabe by the end of the year it will be a problem, but by that time the next generation cards will be out hopefully.

Now sit back ,grab some popcorn and enjoy the BS.

 

[Phynaz]

1300mb? yea with 16xaa

You realize that's MSAA...Doesn't take up much VRAM.

 

[endlessmike133]

Work with me here Happy. I'm aware that 1920x1200 =/ 1080p but apparently not many people who game at 1080p like to post about their vram usage. Just subtract 10% from the numbers you see in the links and you'll have an approximation of 1080p. Come on, it's not that hard.

Good point about the 4xAA though. I was thinking of another thread with the same discussion where a specific AA sampling size wasn't asked for. Point still holds though that some games are going to exceed 1GB of vram at 1080p.

And the point still holds that those games are still going to run great at 1080p, as long as you have a decent enough card.

 

[happy medium]

Work with me here Happy

Sure buddy no problem.

Riddle me this batman.
Why is this subject even being discussed now, why not 3 weeks ago? Most of the games being discussed are OLD or getting there. Suddenly it's important to have more then 1gb of ram @ 1080p with the same games as before? Why do you suppose this theory is suddenly being discussed?

I brought it up because to many people were tossing around the idea that a mid range card(gtx560/6950) with 2gb or ram is going to be faster then a 1gb card @1080p. I thought wait a minute a 5870 saw no benifit from 2gb except @ 2500x1600, what the hell are they talking about?

Edit: I've read through dozens of reviews in the past 4 months and none of them mention a vram limitation at 1080p. Mabe the framerate was so low at those higher setting that they don't even bother to bench the mid range cards? Why? It's not playable, not because of vram size but because the gpu is too slow.

So you tell me , what good is a card with 2gb of ram that gets 20fps anyway in said game at these ultra high details?
To me it's good for the 5% of us that use crossfire/sli and surround/eyefinity.

What do you think?

 

[Elfear]

Sure buddy no problem.

Riddle me this batman.
Why is this subject even being discussed now, why not 3 weeks ago? Most of the games being discussed are OLD or getting there. Suddenly it's important to have more then 1gb of ram @ 1080p with the same games as before? Why do you suppose this theory is suddenly being discussed?

I brought it up because to many people were tossing around the idea that a mid range card(gtx560/6950) with 2gb or ram is going to be faster then a 1gb card @1080p. I thought wait a minute a 5870 saw no benifit from 2gb except @ 2500x1600, what the hell are they talking about?

What do you think?

I tend to agree with you actually. There are VERY few games that are going to need >1GB of vram at 1080p and even then you can just turn the settings down a bit. More vram would be pretty far down my list of priorities at 1080p. IMO, 2GB of vram is great for 1600p and above. I saw a massive difference going from a 1GB 5850 to the cards in my sig. A difference that isn't wholly accounted for by just having more powerful cards. But 1080p is a different story.

Not really sure why some people are saying you have to have more than 1GB for 1080p.

And the point still holds that those games are still going to run great at 1080p, as long as you have a decent enough card.

In general I agree that >1GB is unnecessary for 1080p but you are technically wrong with your statement. If a game requires more vram than your card has, you are going to get thrashing and it will be an unpleasant experience. It may run at 60fps 95% of the time and only hit system memory every so often but it would still be extremely annoying when frames tank.

"Decent enough card" in my mind means sufficient vram to avoid accessing system memory.

 

[GaiaHunter]

1GB is enough for 1080p unless you are using weird texture mods for the large majority of the games available and hopefully for future games with the promised memory savings by tessellation that haven't shown up yet.

I'd say that for CF @2560x1600 it might not be - the 5970 and 5870 CF suffered a bit on the minimum department vs the NVIDIA offerings with more memory.

On the other hand getting 6850/6870 CF reviews with minimums framerate @2560x1600 seems to not be an easy task, so the 5870 and 5970 could have been fixed by the beefier CF of the 6800 series.

The GTX460SLI seems to do fine vs the GTX580@@2560x1600 - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/12/02/geforce_gtx_580_vs_460_1gb_sli/ . Of course that was a limited game selection.

Hopefully with these new 6900 series with 1GB we can see if 1GB vs 2GB is really needed or not@2560x1600.

Fascinating thread if read alongside the GTX560 rumours and the 6950/70 1GB rumours.

 

[flexcore]

I don't think many people will argue 1GB is not enough vram at 1080p. Most around the web seem to agree, 2560x1600 and up is where 2GB comes into play. Sure a couple of noobs here and there may think 2GB is faster than 1GB but it's always going tobe that way. Point them in the right direction and move on

 

[Skurge]

Sure buddy no problem.

Riddle me this batman.
Why is this subject even being discussed now, why not 3 weeks ago? Most of the games being discussed are OLD or getting there. Suddenly it's important to have more then 1gb of ram @ 1080p with the same games as before? Why do you suppose this theory is suddenly being discussed?

I brought it up because to many people were tossing around the idea that a mid range card(gtx560/6950) with 2gb or ram is going to be faster then a 1gb card @1080p. I thought wait a minute a 5870 saw no benifit from 2gb except @ 2500x1600, what the hell are they talking about?

Edit: I've read through dozens of reviews in the past 4 months and none of them mention a vram limitation at 1080p. Mabe the framerate was so low at those higher setting that they don't even bother to bench the mid range cards? Why? It's not playable, not because of vram size but because the gpu is too slow.

So you tell me , what good is a card with 2gb of ram that gets 20fps anyway in said game at these ultra high details?
To me it's good for the 5% of us that use crossfire/sli and surround/eyefinity.

What do you think?

a 6950 is a midrange card? what?

Beside that, why don't you just admit you were wrong? You were shown numerous times that is possible to exceed 1GB of vram. I never once said 1gb wasn't enough for that resolution. You just got super defensive about the 560 thinking I was bashing it for not having more than 1gb of ram. No, I saw you claim that it wasn't possible to use more, I told you it was and you calles me and another member liars. I named 3 games and 2 of those games were shown to use 1.1gb of vram at 1920x1080. Crysis does that even without the AA.

Now are you going to admit being wrong and apologize for calling 2 members liars? or are you going to keep this charade up?

You can't argue with the evidence.

Metro 2033
1920x1080* 4xMSAA, 16xAF, Very High, Tesselation on, DoF on, Advanced PhysX on.
Maximum memory usage: 1132MB
Average memory usage: 1107MB

CYS WH
1920x1200 4xMSAA, Enthusiast presets, Vsync off!
Maximum memory usage: 1227MB
Average memory usage: 1214MB

Somehow I know what you are going to do.

 

[Aristotelian]

ahh I asked for no AA ,but thanks

Why does the title of this thread say 4xAA then?