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I'm buying 2 x GTX670...2gb or 4gb?

skyjawa said:
I have an AMD card but I see it getting very close to 2gb in use, luckily they are 3gb cards. I'd go with the 4gb to be future proof as can't be long until they tip over 2gb more than the rare occasions shown in the graph above.
Click to expand...

I bet if you was to play BF3 on full max detail @ 1080P, you could even see it use more than 2GB. Some games (can't speak for all) cache memory (stores textures etc) and this is why a 3GB/4GB will see more use than a 2GB. It makes no difference to gameplay with or without stored textures but on many occasions, I have seen the arguments "I see 2.5GB vram used in places in BF3, so that is what you need" but this is not the case.

Just using your post as reference :)
 
bf3 will use close to what you have agreed, but that dosen't mean that is what it needs, i am still on gtx 480's x2 sli 1.5 gig, and bf3 at 2560 x 1600 does not run out of vram max i usage i get is around the 1400 mb mark.

i personally though would go for the 4gig cards cos thats what im like but not everyone has the extra £60 for a 4 gig version.
 
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Sounds like 4gb is the way to go then. I agree the price difference is marginal and the last thing you need is for the vram to become an issue a little while from now.

Shame the 4gb EVGA cards are out of stock at the moment. I suppose I will have to be patient. :)

Thanks chaps.
 
I would definitely go with 4gb version... next gen consoles are up soon and we don't know what games in 2014/2015 are going to attack our gpus
 
I agree, once the new consoles appear at the end of the year I would expect quite a big jump in texture res to filter though the various ports, it does depend on how long your wanting to keep them but personally, I would go 4gb just as a safeguard.

On current technology its clear it doesnt make much difference but no one here knows whats going to happen when the new consoles appear, maybe you'll want to use them on your shiny new Ultra HD TV @ 3,840 × 2,160 ??
 
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whyscotty said:
To benefit from the extra vram you'll need to go TriSli,


http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/01/14/asus_geforce_gtx_670_directcu_ii_4gb_sli_review/1
Click to expand...

I remember a guy from EVGA saying the same thing but with no proof. We have been saying it for ages but seems to fall on deaf ears/eyes at times and hopefully now, people will take not.

Good find :)

For those that didn't read it, a brief summary:

Triple screen (5760*1080 or more) minimum of 3*4GB needed to have the highest in game settings, to get any decent frames per second.
Triple screen (5760*1080 or more) 2*680/670 2GB will be fine and settings need to be turned down slightly to get playable frame rates.
 
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gregster said:
I remember a guy from EVGA saying the same thing but with no proof. We have been saying it for ages but seems to fall on deaf ears/eyes at times and hopefully now, people will take not.

Good find :)

For those that didn't read it, a brief summary:

Triple screen (5760*1080 or more) minimum of 3*4GB needed to have the highest in game settings, to get any decent frames per second.
Triple screen (5760*1080 or more) 2*680/670 2GB will be fine and settings need to be turned down slightly to get playable frame rates.
Click to expand...

But that's all now isn't it?

None of us has a crystal ball but I bet if we did we'd be much better off.

If the next gen of consoles use say, 4gb of cheap ram for their video (something like an AMD jobby with cheap DDR3) then games will be coded to utlise that vram. I mean, ddr3 costs very little now as we all know.

So let's say that consoles are always the priority because that's where the/ majority of revenue for game coders comes from then they are going to use it (being lazy, not wanting to come up with compression methods for textures for example - see BF3)

And then you're left with two cards that cost a fortune that are now completely useless because as soon as you crank the detail they run out of vram.

I guess it all depends on the reason the guy is buying dual GPUs. Is he showing off? is he prepared to replace them in a couple of years if that with something else for showing off?

Or, is he dropping a nut on a system that's costing him a fortune with the aim of just leaving it be and using it for the next few years?

If it's the latter then 2gb is not enough. It's amazing how many 1gb GPUs there were on the market that all of a sudden couldn't run a game at the max settings due to a lack of vram.

And we all know (well at least I do !) that if we spend that much we want everything turned on. Otherwise there's no point. If you're prepared to make sacrifices then why go with such a hefty set up? :)
 
So spend a huge price premium on the off chance consoles are coded to dump huge textures into the VRAM? Doesn't sound feasible to me...
 
Console ports are very rarely optimised for PC and I can't see this changing in the near future.

Anyways, the point is for example. If you bought a 3GB 580 on launch, you would need to add 3 more of them to make use of the extra VRAM at triple screen resolutions in today's games. I didn't see it at the time, as I wasn't interested in triple screen gaming but when I was, it made perfect sense.
 
ALXAndy said:
If the next gen of consoles use say, 4gb of cheap ram for their video (something like an AMD jobby with cheap DDR3) then games will be coded to utlise that vram. I mean, ddr3 costs very little now as we all know.
Click to expand...

IIRC the PS3 has 256MB VRAM and the 360 has 512MB, now these were big jumps from the amount on the PS2/Xbox, however that jump was in line with the transition from 480p to 720p/1080p. The new consoles will be staying at 1080p and so the chances of them having a respective 8x and 16x increase in VRAM is very unlikely.
 
2GB is definitely the way to go! It has been tried and tested by many people and they claim that 2GB of VRAM is the so called "sweetspot" for gaming.
As for SLI, 2GB will be fine for dual SLI but if you plan on ever going Tri SLI buy the 4GB version.
 
2GB is definitely the way to go! It has been tried and tested by many people and they claim that 2GB of VRAM is the so called "sweetspot" for gaming.
As for SLI, 2GB will be fine for dual screen SLI but if you plan on ever going Tri screen SLI buy the 4GB version.
 
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