1.5GB enough for 2560x?

Pete.Dakota · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:12

At either 2560x1600 or x1440 single monitor, is 1.5GB of VRAM likely to limit frames? I'm upgrading my rig in October, then going from 1920x1200 to 2560x in the New Year and I need to spec a GPU that will suffice on the latter monitor.

The 3GB 580s are getting on £500, so I'm considering a 6970.

arc@css · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:14

I'd also consider two 6950's, they both can be had for less than £400.

arknor · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:31

i'd get a 2gb card 6950/6970 personally.

i know from owning an nvidia 460GTX and running msi afterburnewr with the onscreen display showing memory usage (something only nvidia cards can monitor) that at 1920x1080 with 4x AA mosr console ports only use around 800mb of memory , the few demanding games can manage 1-1.1GB

1.5gb would probably be enough but for peace of mine i would get a 2gb

Marine-RX179 · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:56

For that res the lack of grunt should be a greater concern than the lack of VRAM:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning_Extreme_Edition/1.html

Personally I would not recommend you to upgrade from 1920 res to 2560 res, unless you got £450 or more to spend on graphic card(S).

harmony · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:05

To the OP: 1.5GB is too pity for 2560x1600. Whenever reading reviews, my advise is: throw away reviews which didn't have the ball to turn on 4AA at 2560x1600, unless you didn't plan to enable AA at all. A proper review would look like this:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/06/06/msi_n580gtx_lightning_xe_3gb_video_card_review/6

However, if you are upgrading in October then I'd say it'd be best to wait for the 28nm process. If you have to upgrade now, then 6950 crossfirex is the best bang for the buck.

Pete.Dakota · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:06

Marine-RX179 said:
For that res the lack of grunt should be a greater concern than the lack of VRAM:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning_Extreme_Edition/1.html

Personally I would not recommend you to upgrade from 1920 res to 2560 res, unless you got £450 or more to spend on graphic card(S).

Do you suppose a 3GB 580 would handle 2560x well?

marc1024 · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:08

harmony said:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/06/06/msi_n580gtx_lightning_xe_3gb_video_card_review/6

my card is that green line!!!!! lol only if i lived in an ideal world i could afford such a thing...
that 580 by msi is immense !!

arknor · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:17

why do you want to jump from 1920x1200 anyway? its not exactly a small screen is it because you do a lot of editing in photoshop or something and actually need the space?

if its just for gaming the cost of upgrading GPU's all the time would out weigh the benefit for me where as at your current res a gpu can manage fine for quite along time

Boozebeard · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:22

1.5gb is fine in most games but if I was building a new rig I would defo get 2+

I really hate jaggies and always ran as much AA as I could on my 1080p 24" but I've found the pixel density is so high on my 27" 2560x1440 that I don't need any AA at all.

Pete.Dakota · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:23

arknor said:
why do you want to jump from 1920x1200 anyway? its not exactly a small screen is it because you do a lot of editing in photoshop or something and actually need the space?

if its just for gaming the cost of upgrading GPU's all the time would out weigh the benefit for me where as at your current res a gpu can manage fine for quite along time

Na the monitor isn't an impending upgrade. It's likely. But probably early next year. But I do want capable graphics in case I do decide to upgrade. I don't mind having a bit of headroom until then.

harmony · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:30

Pete.Dakota said:
Do you suppose a 3GB 580 would handle 2560x well?

I don't think a single 580 3GB would handle 2560x. You'll need at least a pair of 40nm GPUs.

layte · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:37

It will be fine. I actually own a pair of 1.5GB 480's and a Dell 3008WFP and so speak from real world experience. The only game to ever give any problems was Metro with everything maxed, disable the AA and it was perfect.

harmony · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:41

layte said:
It will be fine. I actually own a pair of 1.5GB 480's and a Dell 3008WFP and so speak from real world experience. The only game to ever give any problems was Metro with everything maxed, disable the AA and it was perfect.

Because you never played Shogun 2.

Mr Krugga · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:59

harmony said:
To the OP: 1.5GB is too pity for 2560x1600. Whenever reading reviews, my advise is: throw away reviews which didn't have the ball to turn on 4AA at 2560x1600, unless you didn't plan to enable AA at all. A proper review would look like this:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/06/06/msi_n580gtx_lightning_xe_3gb_video_card_review/6

However, if you are upgrading in October then I'd say it'd be best to wait for the 28nm process. If you have to upgrade now, then 6950 crossfirex is the best bang for the buck.

This review doesn't prove anything since the cards would be obsolete at this resolution and everything maxed out. 18.7 fps on average is just unplayable unless you enjoy choppy gameplay on the edge of a slideshow.

This is why I hate when people try to prove the point with Metro 2033 as an example of a highly vram demanding game.

You wouldn't be able to play it smoothly with any single-gpu card at this settings so why bother with getting a video card with more than 1.5GB vRAM?

Crossfire 6950s will be your best bet, OP, they are the best value cards at £380 budget.

Failing that, Crossfire 6870s for £260 or 5850s for £200 ish are your best bet.

If you want a single card, GTX570/480 or HD6970, although I would still consider saving the money towards a bigger upgrade and getting an unlockable 6950 or a highly overclockable one.

Freddie1980 · 14 Jun 2011 at 19:03

harmony said:
To the OP: 1.5GB is too pity for 2560x1600. Whenever reading reviews, my advise is: throw away reviews which didn't have the ball to turn on 4AA at 2560x1600, unless you didn't plan to enable AA at all. A proper review would look like this:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/06/06/msi_n580gtx_lightning_xe_3gb_video_card_review/6

However, if you are upgrading in October then I'd say it'd be best to wait for the 28nm process. If you have to upgrade now, then 6950 crossfirex is the best bang for the buck.

All that graph shows me is that there's no single video card that can play Metro 2033 at 2560x1600 with 4xmsaa, 16x AF, Very High with Depth of field on. A 6970 may get twice the frame rate a 1.5Gb GTX580 but it's still unplayable so it's ram advantage is a mute point.

Marvin · 14 Jun 2011 at 19:08

Mr Krugga said:
Snip

Freddie1980 said:
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So true. I'm getting fed up with the "VRAM is the most important thing evarrr!"

I'm guessing these people would suggest that if a 5450 was available with 1GB or 2GB of VRAM, that 2GB is better as when you turn a game's settings to a point that no card is able to produce playable frame rates on, the 2GB produces more frames...

And, to the OP: 6950 2GB CF would be my suggestion. For 2560x1xxx monitors, an overclocked 2GB GTX460 SLI setup is about the minimum you can get away with to get excellent FPS on most games at full settings (and still be able to play the most demanding at high-very high)

Mr Krugga · 14 Jun 2011 at 19:54

Marvin said:
So true. I'm getting fed up with the "VRAM is the most important thing evarrr!"

I'm guessing these people would suggest that if a 5450 was available with 1GB or 2GB of VRAM, that 2GB is better as when you turn a game's settings to a point that no card is able to produce playable frame rates on, the 2GB produces more frames...

And, to the OP: 6950 2GB CF would be my suggestion. For 2560x1xxx monitors, an overclocked 2GB GTX460 SLI setup is about the minimum you can get away with to get excellent FPS on most games at full settings (and still be able to play the most demanding at high-very high)

I was gaming on a single 5850 1GB overclocked to 940/1200 and it was doing just fine at this resolution. Beat in mind that a 5850 at this clocks is generally faster than a stock 5870, that is not far behind a stock 6950 either.

There were some games were higher framerate result in smoother gameplay though.

Pete.Dakota · 14 Jun 2011 at 19:57

6950 CF looks pretty tasty. £90 cheaper than the 3GB 580s and more performance. Though I was fancying a switch to the green side. Been red for years and getting fed up with their crap drivers, time after time.

harmony · 14 Jun 2011 at 20:50

Mr Krugga said:
This review doesn't prove anything since the cards would be obsolete at this resolution and everything maxed out. 18.7 fps on average is just unplayable unless you enjoy choppy gameplay on the edge of a slideshow.

This is why I hate when people try to prove the point with Metro 2033 as an example of a highly vram demanding game.

You wouldn't be able to play it smoothly with any single-gpu card at this settings so why bother with getting a video card with more than 1.5GB vRAM?

Crossfire 6950s will be your best bet, OP, they are the best value cards at £380 budget.

Failing that, Crossfire 6870s for £260 or 5850s for £200 ish are your best bet.

If you want a single card, GTX570/480 or HD6970, although I would still consider saving the money towards a bigger upgrade and getting an unlockable 6950 or a highly overclockable one.

Freddie1980 said:
All that graph shows me is that there's no single video card that can play Metro 2033 at 2560x1600 with 4xmsaa, 16x AF, Very High with Depth of field on. A 6970 may get twice the frame rate a 1.5Gb GTX580 but it's still unplayable so it's ram advantage is a mute point.

Marvin said:
So true. I'm getting fed up with the "VRAM is the most important thing evarrr!"

I'm guessing these people would suggest that if a 5450 was available with 1GB or 2GB of VRAM, that 2GB is better as when you turn a game's settings to a point that no card is able to produce playable frame rates on, the 2GB produces more frames...

And, to the OP: 6950 2GB CF would be my suggestion. For 2560x1xxx monitors, an overclocked 2GB GTX460 SLI setup is about the minimum you can get away with to get excellent FPS on most games at full settings (and still be able to play the most demanding at high-very high)

There are technologies called Scalable Link Interface (SLI) and CrossFireX, just in case you guys have never heard about them

If you have never had a chance to play Metro 2033 at 2560x1600 max, wait for price drop of 30" displays and grab a couple of GTX580s or HD6970s when 28nm cards are released (and of course 28nm cards sound better if they are not too expensive).

By the way, not every game supports split-frame-rendering, therefore if taken alternate-frame-rendering into account, multiple cards do not simply add up the vram but instead the effective vram is the same as a single GPU, e.g. GTX590 would have only 1.5GB vram effective, as well as 580 1.5GB x 4 SLI would also give unplayable fps for Metro 2033 at 2560x1600. True experience from a user who has ever owned and played more than ten GTX580s and been in 3DMark Hall of Fame for a long while. I think he knows how to tame games like Metro 2033 better than you do, if you never had the experience. Believe it or not.

Mr Krugga · 14 Jun 2011 at 21:11

harmony said:
There are technologies called Scalable Link Interface (SLI) and CrossFireX, just in case you guys have never heard about them If you have never had a chance to play Metro 2033 at 2560x1600 max, wait for price drop of 30" displays and grab a couple of GTX580s or HD6970s when 28nm cards are released (and of course 28nm cards sound better if they are not too expensive).

By the way, not every game supports split-frame-rendering, therefore if taken alternate-frame-rendering into account, multiple cards do not simply add up the vram but instead the effective vram is the same as a single GPU, e.g. GTX590 would have only 1.5GB vram effective, as well as 580 1.5GB x 4 SLI would also give unplayable fps for Metro 2033 at 2560x1600. True experience from a user who has ever owned and played more than ten GTX580s and been in 3DMark Hall of Fame for a long while. I think he knows how to tame games like Metro 2033 better than you do, if you never had the experience. Believe it or not.

What is your problem?

Why do you always post this rubbish that is not even remotely related to the posts you're replying to? :confused: