Will 2GB Ram be enough for Eyefinity at high AA

Jacky60

Golden Member
Jan 3, 2010
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I want to upgrade my setup to play Arma 2 at uber high resolutions (5760x1200) and was set on a pair of 6990's or possibly 3 x6970 BUT I'm concerned that at this resolution I'll run out of Vram or if not actually run out then my FPS will slow to a crawl. I usually use very high AA setting and if I'm going for 3 monitors I want to keep all the eye candy at least as high as currently (all settings very high except post processing disabled and shadows high, HDR normal).
My question is this-is it likely I'll run into Vram limitations? Pretty sure the answer is yes.
Is there a way to measure vram usage on ATI cards? Do I wait until the next generation of cards and Ivy Bridge before upgrading or do I find another hobby?
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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If money is no object then three GTX 580s 3GBs would probably be the best option. The cards have more memory and also more memory bandwidth, which surely comes into play at these uber high resolutions.
 

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
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I believe the CF cards have bridge bandwidth issues when you start to push AA settings, but AFAIK, vRam is fine!
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
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I doubt any amount of RAM satisfies that many pixels, even worse if you plan on enabling AA.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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I doubt any amount of RAM satisfies that many pixels, even worse if you plan on enabling AA.

its not the pixels you should be concerned about, it's the power of the gpu in this case. A 3gb Evga gtx580 is the best gpu in this case.:thumbsup:
 

Skurge

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2009
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I believe the CF cards have bridge bandwidth issues when you start to push AA settings, but AFAIK, vRam is fine!

The issues only crop up on 4 cards and at 2560x1600 x3. With the way Crossfire works it should not be an issue with 3 or 2 cards. In this case 2 6990s are actually a better choice than 4 6970s when running 3 30" monitors.
 

Skurge

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2009
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its not the pixels you should be concerned about, it's the power of the gpu in this case. A 3gb Evga gtx580 is the best gpu in this case.:thumbsup:

Power of the GPU? Im not sure what you mean here. It is the pixels he should be concerned about. As for the GPU, its more complicated than that. The 580 has more bandwidth, but less fillrate. Also, since is considering multiple cards, scaling is also an issue. AMD have showed to have slightly better scaling that negates the raw power advantage of the 580.
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
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Look at the hardocp.com review. There's a thread in here about it. The 3x 580s setup did bad where the 3x 6990with the 6970 manage to crank up 35fps at 3x 1080p. At that high resolution you don't need that much AA honestly.
 

Jacky60

Golden Member
Jan 3, 2010
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Look at the hardocp.com review. There's a thread in here about it. The 3x 580s setup did bad where the 3x 6990with the 6970 manage to crank up 35fps at 3x 1080p. At that high resolution you don't need that much AA honestly.

With Arma 2 you DO need that much AA honestly. I don't want to increase my screen area and downgrade how the image looks. THAT is the whole point of what I'm shooting for but thanks anyway
 

badb0y

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2010
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Unless your getting 3x 2560x1600 resolution monitors, the 2 GB will be enough. Anything higher you are looking at a GTX 580 3GB.
 

nanaki333

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2002
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i've only played a few games with my 5760x1200 eyefinity with everything maxed out in ghostbusters and l4d2. everything was silky smooth with no noticeable drops in fps. i have 2x 6970s.