CrossFire: 2GB cards vs. 1GB cards - huge diff?

[MichaelD]

There sure is a difference in price b/t the 2GB and 1GB ATI cards. For CrossFire, is it worth it to have 2GB cards vs. 1GB cards? Thanks for your honest assessment and sharing of info.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Unless your running multiple monitors then I wouldn't recommend getting the 2GB cards.

 

[Elfear]

Or a single 2560x1600 monitor. At 1080p, the 1GB cards will be sufficient in all but the most memory intensive games.

 

[MichaelD]

Thank you both. I'm running a 19x12 monitor and I like lots of eye candy. Does that change your recommendation?

 

[busydude]

For your resolution.. 1 GB should suffice for MOST of the games, and there has not been much improvement in graphics quality these days and there are fewer game that are actually demanding.. So.. I think 1 GB should cater to your needs quite well.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, busydude. It's my understanding (from another thread I made) that CF uses memory from BOTH cards. Theoretically that means that CF'ing two 1GB cards gives you a "2GB card", no? I'm not real smart on CF/SLI as I've never used it before.

 

[busydude]

Thanks, busydude. It's my understanding (from another thread I made) that CF uses memory from BOTH cards. Theoretically that means that CF'ing two 1GB cards gives you a "2GB card", no? I'm not real smart on CF/SLI as I've never used it before.

No.. SLI/CFX is based on Alternate frame rendering(AFR) technique; which means each GPU renders alternate frames while gaming. Even though the total VRAM is 2GB, the effective available VRAM is still 1GB.

 

[MichaelD]

Hmm. OK, thank you again.

 

[MichaelD]

Is there any harm in running the 2GB cards anyway? I wouldn't think so...they are indentical to their 1GB counterparts in every way except for memory SIZE, correct?

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

Correct, performance is within 1% of the 1GB cards (usually less than 1% better). 2Gb can't hurt, except in the wallet!

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, Blitz Krieger. I'll stick with the cheaper 1GB cards.

 

[Blue Shift]

MichaelD, which games will you be playing? Witcher 2 uses more than 1GB of video memory at 1920x1080.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Is there any harm in running the 2GB cards anyway? I wouldn't think so...they are indentical to their 1GB counterparts in every way except for memory SIZE, correct?

There is harm to your wallet.

 

[busydude]

As long as you are NOT using ubersampling.. You should be doing fine with Witcher 2.

 

[MichaelD]

I will definitely be playing Witcher2. By "ubersampling" do you mean like, 8xAA/16AF? Or is that some setting in the game? I sure likes me some eye candy. A decent 2GB card (lifetime warranty) isn't cheap.

 

[busydude]

I will definitely be playing Witcher2. By "ubersampling" do you mean like, 8xAA/16AF? Or is that some setting in the game? I sure likes me some eye candy. A decent 2GB card (lifetime warranty) isn't cheap.

Ubersampling is a separate setting.. which is used in addition to the regular AA and AF.

These are the IQ settings for Witcher 2

If curious.. read the following article which details the performance of Witcher 2.

http://www.techspot.com/review/405-the-witcher-2-performance/

 

[MichaelD]

Wow...they really invented something called "Ubersampling." That's funny! Thanks for the screen shot...it's a nice UI they have there. Can't wait to play it. I'm really on the fence about getting 2GB cards. This new video subsystem will have to last the next 3-5 years. I realize by then 6950's will be like...7800GTs are today, but I'm trying to be as future-proof-into-the-near-future as possible.

 

[busydude]

Why don't you wait for 28nm cards to arrive.. rumors point out they will be out in/by Q4.

IMO.. these 2nd gen 40nm cards are unimpressive, they improved crossfire scaling and performance/watt, but there is no massive improvement from 5850/5870.

I actually thought long and hard regarding upgrading from 5770, but I have not been impressed. I am waiting for 28nm cards because.. the jump from 69xx -> 7?xx is going to be far more substantial than the jump from 58xx -> 69XX.

 

[Blue Shift]

For those who don't use Uberampling, transparency Anti-aliasing is very helpful to make the shadow dithering less distracting. I'm pretty sure TW2 can use at least 1200MB with my settings, but I'll run some tests when I get home to make sure.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, busydude and Blue Shift. Maybe I should wait...with new games like TW2 using more than a GB of video memory, buying 1GB card(s) might not be the best move right now. Plus you make a good point, busydude; a die shrink/whole new architecture will most probably mean something substantially better than what's out now. I'm not exactly hurting with the GTX470. I can probably still sell it for about $150 come Jan/Feb anyway. Thanks again.

 

[Jacky60]

Anyone recommending a 1gb card for 1920 and above isn't helping. The industry is moving to 2gb, there's a 3gb version of the 580. With games like BF3 coming you'd be a moron to settle for a 1gb card vs spending $20 more on a 2gb version. Busydude is saying for most of todays games 1gb is usually alright. That should tell you something, especially if you like eye candy=even some of todays games benefit from more than 1gb and 1.5gb so tomorrows games with lots of eye candy definitely will. If you can wait til amd 7000 series/kepler then do so but DON'T buy a 1gb card now if you can possibly afford not to and you're going better than 560/6950.

 

[MichaelD]

Both here at AT and in other places. 1GB is most definitely not going to cut with upcoming games. While I do play lots of older games that will use nowhere near 1GB, I play lots of new games too. And I likes me some eye candy...all of it, usually.

So, I've decided to wait to see what the new AMD cards look like in early 2012. With a 1GB GTX470 I'm not exactly hurting right now. By then, I'll probably upgrade the whole box in one fell swoop...minus the PS and DVD Roms.

Thanks for everyone's help and advice.

 

[nanaki333]

if the gaming box in your sig is what this is going in, you may end up being CPU bound in some games with a couple 6950 xfire cards. you're right though, just stick it out with your GTX 470

 

[MichaelD]

I understand; it is a last-gen CPU. Strange thing though, with most games, most times my CPU utilization averages about 75% across all four cores (each core's usage going up/down independently) but never maxxed-out. When I game though, I close all programs except what stays resident in my system tray.

I'm going to wait until the new year then upgrad the whole system. It's great that I already know where my tax refund is going. Saves me time later.