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Video Ram: 2gb or 4gb

HeXen

HeXen

Diamond Member
I searched around and came up with lots of conflictions. Some report with graphs that several games do push close to using 2gb's and over, others say for 1080p gaming, 2gb's is plenty.

I use a lot of texture mods, would some more Vram help on a single monitor/1080p/3d or no? Want to futureproof a bit and make sure textures have plenty of ram for them, or is this a guaranteed waste?

Any links to direct comparisons of this? I couldn't find any
 
2gb is plenty for texture mods , 1080p and probably 3d, however if you decide to use more monitors and/or higher resolution screens you may want to bump it up and even crossfire, look at the hd7950's
 
New question. What happens to textures that get limited space? do they go to system ram? does it effect frames, make it jittery or what?
 
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lavaheadache said:
My modded Skyrim install pulls over 2gb of vram @ 1080 with 4xaa.

Hopefully that pushes you in the right direction
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Perhaps, but what game pushes textures and draw distances like modded Skyrim with AA? Even the developers didn't bother putting that detailed textures into the game; it was the work of overdedicated fans with lots of free time.

To answer the OP's questions, right now 2 GB is just about all you need for playing at 1080p and for the foreseeable future. If you had higher resolution or multiple monitors, the answer might be different, but really 2 GB is going to be more than enough. When textures get limited space, I believe they do get migrated to system RAM. System RAM is much, much slower than video RAM, so yes, it will effect framerates and make things slow down. Whether or not it judders depends on the game.
 
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lavaheadache said:
My modded Skyrim install pulls over 2gb of vram @ 1080 with 4xaa.

Hopefully that pushes you in the right direction
Click to expand...


Really ? and games like MW3 black ops 2 , BF3 , FEAR 3 use at most 800mb ...... if not 1GB. 2GB is overkill. Which is why they sell cheap cards like 40 bucsk with 2GB RAM ,,,,,,,, ....

If skyrim is using 2GB VRAM , Id shure like to know what BF3 or BO3 pulls on your rig.
 
You can max out the memory bandwidth in some ways sometimes,especially with the use of filters (transparency multisampling for example)
I'd say it's unlikely though that you'll encounter one scenario in the foreseeable future that it will necessitate more than 2Gb especially at resolutions lower or equal to 1080p.
 
tweakboy said:
Really ? and games like MW3 black ops 2 , BF3 , FEAR 3 use at most 800mb ...... if not 1GB. 2GB is overkill. Which is why they sell cheap cards like 40 bucsk with 2GB RAM ,,,,,,,, ....

If skyrim is using 2GB VRAM , Id shure like to know what BF3 or BO3 pulls on your rig.
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umm battlefield 3 pulls wayyyy more than 800 MB of vram @ 1080.

FYI, that same Skyrim install runs 2800 MB + @ 2560 with 4x AA.

I'll get you guys a few more numbers later
 
I personally wouldn't go with this generation's nvidia, look at the 7950's they have more vram and a larger memory interface. or if you are willing to spend the extra money get a 7970, which schools everything once overclocked with catalyst 12.11
 
dragantoe said:
I personally wouldn't go with this generation's nvidia, look at the 7950's they have more vram and a larger memory interface. or if you are willing to spend the extra money get a 7970, which schools everything once overclocked with catalyst 12.11
Click to expand...

yeah, but Farcry 3 is coming so..........
And my current card is dying. I actually got a good explanation of how a video card just slowly dies from another forum. Either way, I need a new one, can barely play my current games and temps are through the roof despite more fan power. basically it was running too hot for too long and the new DX11 games I thin pushed it over the edge.

Silicon has leakage where electrons flow from any voltage source (signal lines or power rails) to ground, that gradually create wider paths to ground.
More electrons flow to ground the higher the voltage and/or the higher the temperature, this speeds up the widening of the paths to ground.

So the older the silicon or the hotter it is run, the wider the paths to ground are, which makes more current flow, causing it to get hotter, causing paths to grow faster, causing more current flow, causing it to get hotter...

Its possible that the card has been run too hot for a long time.
Click to expand...
 
HeXen said:
yeah, but Farcry 3 is coming so..........
And my current card is dying. I actually got a good explanation of how a video card just slowly dies from another forum. Either way, I need a new one, can barely play my current games and temps are through the roof despite more fan power. basically it was running too hot for too long and the new DX11 games I thin pushed it over the edge.
Click to expand...

far cry 3 likes amd cards more and with the textures this game pulls you will definitely need the vram amd has
 
HeXen said:
thanks. I looked cards over and now have settled on this one. Reviews show promise, it's one of the quietest of the factory OC cards and some pretty top benchmarks, MSI lightning does better but is louder. Kinda pricey but what the heck, it's almost xmas. I didn't really need to buy a new tablet anyway.
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX680DC2T2GD5/#specifications
Click to expand...

That Asus card is almost $500? I don't think it's worth it. If you want the best single-GPU this generation, go with the Asus Matrix HD7970 Platinum. It would level that 680 in GPU demanding games or with texture mods once you overclock the Matrix and best of all it costs about the same. The features of the Asus Matrix and overclocking are amazing for $499. The only thing the retailers that have the 3 Free games bundle have this card out of stock right now.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...70-3gb-matrix-platinum-edition-review-20.html

Even HD7970 Ghz 1100mhz Gigabyte for $450 on Newegg is faster than that 680 card you are thinking of getting.

Here is FC3
Far-Cry-3-Test-GPUs-1080p.png


Also, games that actually need more than 2GB of VRAM tend to be GPU demanding like Skyrim with ENB mods and again those perform better on HD7970 to begin with, as well as all Arma games, Metro 2033, all Crysis games, and a barrage of 2012 titles like Alan Wake, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman Absolution, and Far Cry 3 will all run faster on a 7970. Even Medal of Honor:W and BF3 are faster on 7970 Ghz with Cats 12.11.

GTX680 4GB is a contradiction. To use that much VRAM you need the most powerful GPU or higher resolutions or mods = but that is where 7970 Ghz would beat it by 15-20%. It would make more sense to go with 4GB if you were considering SLI.

The more sensible choice is $280 Sapphire HD7950 + OC (amazing bang for the buck) or 1Ghz HD7970 after-market cards. If you want NV for personal reasons or PhysX/CUDA, etc. try to catch a deal on an after-market GTX670 card. For example, MSI GTX670 Power Edition with BL2 can be had for $344 after $20 MIR and $15 off using coupon: GREENFRIDAY. Those are very close in performance to a GTX680 minus the price premium. Newegg had $330 GTX670 Windforce 3x on sale recently. That's an excellent card. Alternatively, with the same coupon code above, you can get MSI GTX680 TwinFrozr for $409 with shipping. I don't think the Asus DCUII 680 is worth an extra $50+ over that card.

Also, perhaps wait until Cyber Monday as there may be more GPU deals. AMD HD7950/7970 cards come with 3 free games at places like TigerDirect, Amazon, Newegg, etc and one of those is Far Cry 3, a game you seem to be interested in getting anyway.
 
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I first went with a 2GB GTX670 but then found out Skyrim already takes more VRAM when modded. Since for me doing an upgrade means I can max any game I own at the time of purchase, this was not acceptable - so I switched to the 4GB version 🙂 Skyrim hits 3GB usage right now with the mods installed, so having 4GB is safe for me.

I went with the GeForce cause I wanted PhysX in Borderlands 2. I went with an ASUS DCII so it's whisper quiet. Otherwise I'd go with a Vapor-X-type HD7970 from Sapphire (I had a Toxic HD5850 before and I was extremely happy with the card - sold it to a friend and he's very happy with it too 🙂).

EDIT: I game at 1080p.
 
lavaheadache said:
+3

one of my buddies has one and it is sick. They clock really high on stock voltage. However, his stock voltage is 1.25.

I like it more than I like my lightining.
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My Sapphire 7950 stock voltage is 1.25 too. But it's still quiet and cool so what the heck 😉
 
biostud said:
When I run Crysis 2 @ 1440p Ultra it says 2200Mb video ram usage.
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its been said over and over and over that the vram usage it shows its not always the amount it actually needs. there are games that my gtx570 played just fine with no stuttering or hitching but would show more vram usage on the gtx670 on the same settings. and Crysis 2 is the poster child for showing more vram usage as it will use pretty much whatever you have.
 
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