• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

I am going to test 3x OCed 275's vs 3x OCed 280's on my new i7 build, but...

Mpyra

Mpyra

Mpyra

Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2010
Posts
74
This isn't really a graphics card related questions, but i noticed there were more people viewing this section :P

Basically i had read that Windows 7 32 bit can only address 3.5 GB of memory and that video memory is included in this.

So when i am testing my 3x 275's and 280's to see what's better could a 32-bit OS bottleneck gaming performance, as there would only be an extra 500 mb of system memory available?
 
SLI merely mirrors the VRAM from each card; it doesn't add them together. Three GTX 275s will still only use one 896MB framebuffer, three GTX 280s one 1024MB framebuffer.

That is the definitive, final, factual truth on this question, btw.
 
The amount of physical memory reserved by the GPUs isn't 1:1 with the VRAM on the GPU - typically its a window of 128-300MB per card.
 
Rapido! said:
SLI merely mirrors the VRAM from each card; it doesn't add them together. Three GTX 275s will still only use one 896MB framebuffer, three GTX 280s one 1024MB framebuffer.

That is the definitive, final, factual truth on this question, btw.
Click to expand...

AFAIK each card still has to be mapped in RAM to be able to upload data to it even tho the SLI cards share the same data - so you will have somewhere around 3x 300-400MB per card MIMO reserved from system memory.
 
Okay thank you guys.

What was with the ignore comment Rroff?

So a 64 bit OS would be unnecessary, as the system ram requirements will come well under the addressable limitation.

I was wondering if you could help me with the issue of ram choice, here is some of what i posted in the General Hardware forum:

My system build is:

i7 920 OCed
Rampage II Extreme
3x275's OCed or 3x280's OCed

(I have 3 of each and intend to test them both on Crysis at 1980x1080 with and without AA in order to decide which set to keep.)

From what i have read, RAM makes little difference to gaming performance, however the most significant factors in choosing RAM are the timings and latency, which is something i don't know anything about.

Apparently the frequency of the ram makes little or no difference compared to the latency and timings and overclocking ram or using ram at high frequencies just increases power consumption and heat for little gain.

I've thus far been able to find a definitive source on this issue, I've been especially confused by claims that the i7 can only utilize 1066 mhz ram, but not particularly bothered by it as in all benchmarks I've seen timings effect performance.

I'm still unsure about what timings and latency is and also how much RAM i should use...

Thanks.
 
You've been given good advice so far but I can't seem to help myself on this one.

Why not just use x64?

If you have a legit copy of Windows you'll have the disks for both anyway.
 
Geckovich said:
You've been given good advice so far but I can't seem to help myself on this one.

Why not just use x64?

If you have a legit copy of Windows you'll have the disks for both anyway.
Click to expand...

Did i miss something?

Did someone suggest that i should use windows 64-bit?

My main concerns are with program compatibility and benchmarks showing poorer performance of windows 64 bit with just 3 GB of ram, even adding another 3 GB would only put it on par with windows 32 bit.

Why buy an extra 3 GB of ram unnecessarily?

I really need to know about ram latencies and timings in order to be able to make an informed decision, could you help me at all with that?

Thanks.
 
It wasn't me who made the ignore comment - I think gurusan made some comment then retracted it hence the ignore, not ignore to the whole thread.
 
rhys216 said:
Not sure why op is using either of those two cards for a new build?
Perhaps he needs further guidance...
Click to expand...

See the thing is, if i had conclusive benchmark proof that the 5850's/5870's had dramatically improved due to driver updates since November, which is where a lot of benchmarks that have been very pertinent to my decision date from, i probably wouldn't be.

In any case it's an experiment for me, the reasoning would be very complex to describe an I've gotten into quite a few disagreements with people over it, so i don't really fell like laying it all out all over gain.

I only listen to benchmarks with an explanation of methodology, i never just accept what someone is telling me because of their own conviction.

Meh.

Anyway, I'm all set i have everything i need, just need RAM now.
 
Hallo, its me from the other post :)

Show me some benchmarks where it makes a difference and i will invest, talk is cheap, RAM isn't :P
Click to expand...

TBH, he makes a good (although not particularly polite) point. You have chosen a £260 motherboard. Your planned uses is Crysis Warhead and you require tri SLI. This board supports 3 way SLI and will happily overclock your CPU to 4GHz with a good cooler. So there is little (if any) benefit to you getting the £90 more expensive motherboard. Looking at this review, even an unclocked i7 920/930 makes short work of Crysis and becomes GPU bound.

In contrast, if you spend the extra £50 on 6GB RAM, then you will be getting tangible performance benefits in windows and non-gaming apps. Also, as modern games increase in scope the extra RAM may be using in gaming in the coming months/years. When gaming, I regularly see my RAM usage go over 4GB - this is likely windows 7 making full use of my RAM with lovely stuff like superfetch - but it does show that it is being utilised.

As for 32 bit vs 64 bit, there is no longer a reason to stick with 32. I do remember the times when it was impossible to find good x64 drivers and living with a 64 bit windows OS was a bit of a struggle. Fortunately these times are over. OEMs like dell and HP enjoy offering systems with LOADS of RAM because the numbers look nice and draw in customers - this has led them to roll out 64 bit windows on most systems. Hence - the 64 bit crowd are now becoming the majority and are properly catered for in terms of drivers and general software compatibility.
 
Last edited:
Well firstly, the mobo cost me 120 pounds and secondly that Asus board runs 16x16x4 out of the PCI-e slots which does have a farily significant detrimental effect on TriSLIed GPU's:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/eclipse-plus-n200,2332-5.html

Probably more significant difference than the RAM would have made and in the other thread you seemed to concede to my point about 3 GB 32 -bit vs 6 GB 64 -bit, although you did not address these benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-3.html

I am curious as to how 2gb sticks vs 1gb stick may effect things, i think i read that this had some kind of effect on ram performance?

Really as of the moment i am just looking to get 3 GB of cheap low latency ram 1066 mhz speed is fine, but as its the latency and not the bandwidth that makes the difference, I'd make the decision based on latency vs cost.

I still do not know how to determine the latency of ram however, which is something i really need help with.
 
Wow, well you got a good deal on the motherboard thats for sure. The P6T does drop some performance in tri-SLI, but in crysis and at 1920x1200 the difference is of the order of a couple of FPS as shown by the benchmark. However, this is a moot point as you acquired the R2E for less than the cost of the P6T.

As for addressing the benchmarks, my response is that they are done in Windows Vista, if you have a test comparing Win 7 64 bit and 32 bit I would love to see it as it deals with memory differently.

I think the consensus here is that yes, you can do all you want to do with 32bit OS and 3GB RAM, but if you ever want to do more - you will be restricting yourself for the sake of £50 on RAM.
 
Last edited:
Well, here is my final rationalization, i spent 50 pounds more to get an i7 920 than a Phenom II X4 955, would the performance advantage of an extra 3 GB Ram be as great as the performance loss if i switched to a Phenom?

That said, i could get a Phenom board for about 70 and sell the R2E at a considerable profit.

So that's about 150 extra for the i7 over Phenom.

Now I'm questioning myself lol.

For my logic to be consistent the performance increase from Phenom to i7 must be considerable.

Now the Phenom board would be an AM2+ but AM3 is backwards compatible, it's DDR2, but at 1066 mhz + low latency would still be cheaper on the ram side, would still be Tri SLI.

I'd like to hear you thoughts on this, I'm in a kerfuffle (lol i've never used that word in a sentence before).
 
Mpyra said:
Probably more significant difference than the RAM would have made and in the other thread you seemed to concede to my point about 3 GB 32 -bit vs 6 GB 64 -bit, although you did not address these benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-3.html
Click to expand...

I do not see any difference at all whatsoever between the different ram sizes on that, the only exception being more ram allows you to allocate more at the same time.

In fact in the performance benchmarks, more RAM resulted in a higher score. There is really no reason to get less than 4 GB of RAM.

When I bought this PC, I at first upgraded from XP 32bit to XP 64bit and expected tons of compatibility issues, shifts, changes and needing to re-download all of my programs in 64bit.

Actually, I noticed no difference whatsoever except for the addition of a Program Files (x86) folder.

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 now and still experiencing absolutely no compatibility issues except for one, I can't run the original 16bit The Incredible Machine without a DOSBox, since the 16bit support has been removed.

There really is no reason whatsoever to stick with 32bit, especially once support for 32bit begins dropping out. I can wholeheartedly recommend 6GB+ of memory.

Ps. Memory timings are straightforward - the lower the better.
 
Last edited:
I could gain 150 back if the phenom proves equal, so it may be worth buying a phenom and borrowing a phenom mobo (i know someone) to test against the i7, but i'd have to sell either the i7 or phenom after.

How much value could they lose if they have been used intermittently for just 1 week?

Could i get all my money back?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom