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3G on GTX580 a waste?

wedmonds

wedmonds

wedmonds

Associate
Joined
13 Nov 2007
Posts
231
Hi All,
I have been looking at getting this:

1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 580 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

However

I only have a single screen and have no plans to add additional ones.
I also only really play games but at high settings and would eventually purchase two of these so that I can use SLI.

Am i correct in saying that the above card would be overkill given that I only use 1 screen and intend to keep it that way? The more I read the more it looks like I would not use it as designed.

Would i be fine to go with the 1.5gb or even two of them? as apose to the 3gb one?
 
If your single screen is 30 inches then well worth it. You could get away with a less powerful card on a lower res screen ie the benefit of the more powerful card is diminished the lower the res you go.
 
sk3lph said:
If your single screen is 30 inches then well worth it. You could get away with a less powerful card on a lower res screen ie the benefit of the more powerful card is diminished the lower the res you go.
Click to expand...

This.

A 5870 class card is more than enough for 1920x1200. I went from a 5870 on a 24" screen to a 580 on a 30" screen where the 5870 started to struggle. Don't spend more than you have to. The 6950 rev 1 and the bargain 480 cards are a good choice.
 
I also want to take into account IL2 Cliffs of Dover and I am hearing that it's seriously VRAM intensive. Need some sound advice on how the memory is used when two of these are used in SLI. Do you get 6gb on one screen or does it not work like this?
 
wedmonds said:
I also want to take into account IL2 Cliffs of Dover and I am hearing that it's seriously VRAM intensive. Need some sound advice on how the memory is used when two of these are used in SLI. Do you get 6gb on one screen or does it not work like this?
Click to expand...

No it doesn't work like that.

In SLI or Crossfire you only have the amount of VRAM equivalent to a single card.
 
So if you had two 3gb cards you get 3gb?
Likewise if you have two 1.5gb cards you end up with 1.5gb?

Sounds like two 3gb ones are really only required for two or more screens but that one 3gb card would be ok in that case. Sound right?
 
wedmonds said:
So if you had two 3gb cards you get 3gb?
Likewise if you have two 1.5gb cards you end up with 1.5gb?
Click to expand...

Yes.

wedmonds said:
Sounds like two 3gb ones are really only required for two or more screens but that one 3gb card would be ok in that case. Sound right?
Click to expand...

The higher the resolution you game at the more beneficial more VRAM will be.

SLI isn't about adding extra VRAM it's about combining the processing power of two or more GPU's.

Say a single card produced 50FPS then two cards in theory produce 100FPS. It never works this well in practice as there isn't 100% scaling.


What you want is enough VRAM to cope with whatever resolution your gaming at and enough processing power to produce playable frame rates at that resolution.

If you're only gaming on a single 1920x1080 display then a standard 580 with 1.5GB of VRAM will provide enough VRAM and processing power in most situations.
 
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i have IL2 :D and its Amazing the graphics are Awesome !!! i have a gigabyte 480 and it runs everything on high at about 40fps IL2 is seriously gpu hungry more so than any other game i certainly have. i dont think the 580 is worth the money tbh the 480 should be good for what you want but Christ knows what you will need to run that game on ultra high, a small reactor in you pc i think
 
Randall8686 said:
i have IL2 :D and its Amazing the graphics are Awesome !!! i have a gigabyte 480 and it runs everything on high at about 40fps IL2 is seriously gpu hungry more so than any other game i certainly have. i dont think the 580 is worth the money tbh the 480 should be good for what you want but Christ knows what you will need to run that game on ultra high, a small reactor in you pc i think
Click to expand...

lol, thats what I am thinking!
By going this extreme i end up getting pretty much 3-4 years of none gaming hassle. 3-4 years is about the same time it takes me to save this sort of money up also! :D
 
wedmonds said:
lol, thats what I am thinking!
By going this extreme i end up getting pretty much 3-4 years of none gaming hassle. 3-4 years is about the same time it takes me to save this sort of money up also! :D
Click to expand...

well i just bought the 480 and tbh looking on utube etc people are actually getting more stuttering from the 580, how ever the game does not yet support the 580 officially how ever it does say it supports the 480 chipset but im sure this will be changed in the future. i would not be spending that amount on a card but go for it how ever i would be careful as you may see little to no improvement over a £200 480 in IL2
 
Looking at Afterburner logs Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 on Extreme isn't using more than 700mb here...I could never get any game I played to max out the 768MB on my old GTX...are these obscene amounts of VRAM you get these days even useful?
 
sk3lph said:
If your single screen is 30 inches then well worth it. You could get away with a less powerful card on a lower res screen ie the benefit of the more powerful card is diminished the lower the res you go.
Click to expand...

What does screen size have to do with it? Won't it depend on the resolution?:confused:

Forget it didn't read it properly. It's late :P
 
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1080p at Very High AA, and a lot of big textures may see an improvement, or GTA IV Maxed out. Or way above 1080p.

@Paracelsus - You've obviously never tried to play GTA IV Maxed out at 1080p.
 
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