192bit bus, whats this mean?

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:36

Hello all,

Can someone please explain to me the limitations of having 192 bit bus over 256 bit bus, but please explain it in layman's terms.

If it helps I only plan to game in 1080P so to my understanding 192 is fine and I only need 256 if I plan on going higher resolution or multi screen?

Marine-RX179 · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:48

While I may not give a 100% accurate explaination regarding the bus-bandwidth, the general understanding is that the smaller the bus, the more the frame rate would suffer/drop when gaming at higher resolution and AA settings.

Even for for 1080, there's some reviews showing that 192-bit cards have frame rate dipped hugely even only on just 4xAA, much more so than cards with wider bus-size.

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:49

192bit should be ok at 1080p providing you don't go overboard on AA, but its not ideal.

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:49

Marine-RX179 said:
While I may not give a 100% accurate explaination regarding the bus-bandwidth, the general understanding is that the smaller the bus, the more the frame rate would suffer/drop when gaming at higher resolution and AA settings.

so I should be fine at 1080P with a graphics card that has 192bit bus.. in theory ?

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:50

umboma said:
so I should be fine at 1080P with a graphics card that has 192bit bus.. in theory ?

Yes.

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:51

Sorry, I have one other question, If I sli a 192 bit bus can do I effectively get 384 bit bus, or is it like Vram and it doesn't double up?

Marine-RX179 · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:51

2xAA should be fine, but going up to 4xAA, you might lose more frame rate than it is worth in some games.

umboma said:
Sorry, I have one other question, If I sli a 192 bit bus can do I effectively get 384 bit bus, or is it like Vram and it doesn't double up?

They stay the same at 192-bit.

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:53

hmmm ok, so 660sli or single 670, time to think about it some more.. I'll be back with more questions I'm sure.

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:54

umboma said:
Sorry, I have one other question, If I sli a 192 bit bus can do I effectively get 384 bit bus, or is it like Vram and it doesn't double up?

It won't double up in that way, as far as i understand it. But in games that scale well you will see double the performance of a single card.

Here's a video which shows 660TISLI vs a 680gtx and the SLI setup does well in comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJI8f81a9IA

Marine-RX179 · 22 Apr 2013 at 08:58

umboma said:
hmmm ok, so 660sli or single 670, time to think about it some more.. I'll be back with more questions I'm sure.

670 would be more than enough for maxing cast majority of the games at 1920 res, provided you are willing to run some demanding games at more reasonable settings (i.e. Crysis 3 at very high instead of everything maxed).

Go SLI GTX660 might seem like a great idea if you are only thinking about raw power, but if you considering the possible poor scaling of multi-GPU in some games and potentail driver issues, higher power consumption and more heat, it could be more hassle than it's worth.

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:04

Marine-RX179 said:
Go SLI GTX660 might seem like a great idea if you are only thinking about raw power, but if you considering the possible poor scaling of multi-GPU in some games and potentail driver issues, higher power consumption and more heat, it could be more hassle than it's worth.

Yep there is that to consider. I was just thinking he could probably get away with more AA with an SLI setup.

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:20

well, I'd like to play games like crysis 3 on MAX everything, but in turn I'd want to future proof i guess.

spoffle · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:24

It sounds like you're looking at going for a 660Ti, if so, why's that? You can get 7950s for around the same price that offer more performance.

You can do that with a 7950 with everything on max bar AA, whereas that's not happening on a 660.

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:25

I think you'll be needing at least two titans if you want to run Crysis 3 at max settings.

umboma · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:33

spoffle said:
It sounds like you're looking at going for a 660Ti, if so, why's that? You can get 7950s for around the same price that offer more performance.

You can do that with a 7950 with everything on max bar AA, whereas that's not happening on a 660.

well, after some reviews/video, it shows that the 660 in sli beats a single 680 for the price of £347.98, where as a single 680 would cost me £420+ so I save £80ish depending on the card and get better performance.

I like the idea of the 7950 at £250 but i hear a lot of horrible issues about driver and driver support, so I figured the best option would be Nvidia.

Rusty0611 · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:35

Uh oh now you've done it. :eek:

LtMatt · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:43

umboma said:
well, after some reviews/video, it shows that the 660 in sli beats a single 680 for the price of £347.98, where as a single 680 would cost me £420+ so I save £80ish depending on the card and get better performance.

I like the idea of the 7950 at £250 but i hear a lot of horrible issues about driver and driver support, so I figured the best option would be Nvidia.

As punishment i demand you watch 2 hours of 'sittin on tha toilet'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp9a0O_rbHA

Rusty0611 said:
Uh oh now you've done it.

spoffle · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:44

umboma said:
I like the idea of the 7950 at £250 but i hear a lot of horrible issues about driver and driver support, so I figured the best option would be Nvidia.

Haha, well most of the people who talk smack about AMD drivers either haven't used an AMD card ever, or in a very long time.

You'll find the vast majority of people around here have no issues with drivers on the AMD cards, and on top of that, not many people have any driver issues that aren't caused by them being a bit dim or as known as PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair).

jkb · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:50

umboma said:
well, after some reviews/video, it shows that the 660 in sli beats a single 680 for the price of £347.98, where as a single 680 would cost me £420+ so I save £80ish depending on the card and get better performance.

I like the idea of the 7950 at £250 but i hear a lot of horrible issues about driver and driver support, so I figured the best option would be Nvidia.

I'm not going to jump in rabidly defending one side or the other :eek:

I switched from nvidia 216 SLi to AMD 6990. Both essentially dual GPU set-ups and I have been happy with both, no issues with either set-up.

spoffle · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:52

jkb said:
I'm not going to jump in rabidly defending one side or the other I switched from nvidia 216 SLi to AMD 6990. Both essentially dual GPU set-ups and I have been happy with both, no issues with either set-up.

There's no need to "defend" a brand as such, but rather correct the misinformation that umboma has been given.