VRAM bottleneck @ 16x10

[MrTeal]

I'm curious for those of you gaming at 1680x1050 what sort of ram usage you're seeing in games like BF3 and Skyrim with the high detail texture pack. I got a deal on a couple 1GB XFX 6950s ($240) that I flashed/OCed to 6970s specs that I'm going to load up tonight, but I'm not sure how limited I'll be by the low amount of ram on the cards.

16x10 isn't exactly stressful, but with Crossfired 6970s I will be pushing a lot of frames. I'm a little worried about running out of memory long before I run out of horsepower.

 

[Jaydip]

If u already got the cards let us know how it goes Honestly i don't think it will be that big of a issue.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

For 16x10 unless you do insane mods/AA, you will be fine.

 

[ViRGE]

Skyrim with the high-res texture pack and MSAA may be an issue even at 1680. Otherwise you should be fine.

 

[Crap Daddy]

BF3 on that res ULTRA preset shows VRAM maxed out in AB but no problem at all. (GTX570 1.28 GB) Make sure you have more than 4GB RAM in your machine, in half an hour at the settings I'm playing, large maps over 32 players RAM usage is creeping well over 5GB.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Skyrim with the high-res texture pack and MSAA may be an issue even at 1680. Otherwise you should be fine.

Unlikely. Skyrim with developer mods and 8x msaa at 1600p is just fine with 3gb VRAM. If you make that 4x msaa or 2x msaa even 2gb is possibly okay. So you will be fine

 

[Crap Daddy]

Unlikely. Skyrim with developer mods and 8x msaa at 1600p is just fine with 3gb VRAM. If you make that 4x msaa or 2x msaa even 2gb is possibly okay. So you will be fine

He has only 1 GB available, VRAM is mirrored not added in crossfire and SLI.

 

[MrTeal]

It sounds like from most accounts it shouldn't be an issue, and even if it is for some very specific cases, there'd still be benefit to CF 6970s vs a single. I'll have to spend some time with Skyrim this weekend.

 

[Elfear]

He has only 1 GB available, VRAM is mirrored not added in crossfire and SLI.

+1

1GB might be pushing it for Skyrim with community mods and 4xMSAA or greater at 1680x1050.

 

[lopri]

I'm really sorry to go off-topic, but before your next graphics card upgrade you should get a higher-res display!

 

[Shmee]

agreed with lopri. For the vast majority, your specs are fine for your res. Consider other upgrades like display, CPU (if bottle necked) or SSD if you don't already have one.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

agreed with lopri. For the vast majority, your specs are fine for your res. Consider other upgrades like display, CPU (if bottle necked) or SSD if you don't already have one.

+1

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I run into a VRAM bottleneck at 1080p with Skyrim HD texture pack and 8x MSAA. At 4x MSAA it runs just fine. No data at 1680x1050 though.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

But you have 1gb VRAM, right?

 

[MrTeal]

agreed with lopri. For the vast majority, your specs are fine for your res. Consider other upgrades like display, CPU (if bottle necked) or SSD if you don't already have one.

I have a couple nice matched 22" LG displays that I like, so I don't really have any plans to upgrade them. Not worth it for the two or three hours of gaming I might do in a month. The rest of the system is more than capable of keeping up with the GPUs though.

Didn't really get a chance to play around this weekend, though it's all set up now. It was sunny and 27C outside and the outdoors called. Once I figure out how to quiet the banshee my Hale82 PSU turns into when you get above 350W I'll be golden.

 

[AlucardX]

my vram usage is maxed out in BF3 at ultra and 2x AA / 4x AF @ 1680x. really smooth though, I just assumed it was properly filling up the RAM with cache and what not as opposed to only filling up what it needs.