2GB Vram The Minimum. Really?

[ALXAndy]

Yep you are correct Andy. That guy on that YouTube vid is wrong and that is totally unplayable. It looked good to me but I also am wrong and anybody who has less than 1280MB cards who think they are playing BF3 are wrong.

Thanks for showing us the error of our ways.

The problem with that video is you are looking at it. Not playing it.

It's not like I even tried to be reasonable about it, I spent an entire day patiently explaining it to you and you chose to ignore it.

Funny that. Yet, here we are now with all of the facts out there.

Did you apologise? you know, for trashing a thread that had a very legitimate purpose? course not. Did you apologise for all of the personal attacks on me in that thread accusing me of all and sundry? of course not.

I find it hilarious that you choose to completely ignore people who have actually experienced things first hand. And that runs a lot deeper than graphics cards. Take CPU coolers for example.

Most of the tests done on CPU coolers are performed in an air conditioned office. Not only that, but we don't get exact temperatures, we get Delta temps. In very small print hidden away in the review somewhere they will tell you the ambient temp of the room they are testing in. But rarely do they make it very clear.

Needless to say I bought three coolers before buying my NH-D14, and each one was completely different in my PC in my room.

Yet, I'm pretty certain that if I went to the CPU part of the forum and explained that people wouldn't listen.

There's a reason why I can sound arrogant. It's usually because I have first hand experience in what I am discussing and I tend to find people that spout a lot of hot air trying to disprove my findings annoying.

And I've every right to feel that way. Especially when I get this band of followers out to trash everything I say.

The truth is Greg I already knew exactly where the BF3 thread was going to go. I knew yesterday morning how much vram BF3 used. I know several programmers who had already explained it to me.

I also had the links to that Nvidia site. But, instead of simply posting them I decided to do it the old fashioned way. Let people try it out for themselves and see it first hand. It's called the hands on way. And, it's how people will listen. Giving them some actual physical way to demonstrate the problem.

I find it a lot more interesting to learn things that way.

 

[MoRT489]

What game settings Brit please and roughly what fps do you get in return? (Min+Max)

Also on a GTX 570 1.2MB here. bf3.exe, right click > properties > Compatibility > Disable desktop composition (turns off aero mode when the game starts) freed up to 200MB of VRAM for me and then also if I close any open web browser once the game has launched it frees up a further 100MB VRAM.

I play at range of fps from 45-70+ at 1920x1080 ultra and 2xAA. Only significant dips I notice are in smoke, but only sometimes, not sure why.

I'd like 120 fps to match my monitor but I'm not willing to reduce visuals

 

[ALXAndy]

Also on a GTX 570 1.2MB here. bf3.exe, right click > properties > Compatibility > Disable desktop composition. This freed up to 200MB of VRAm for me and then also if you close any open web browser once the game has launched it frees up a further 100MB VRAM.

I play at range of fps from 45-70+ at 1920x1080 ultra and 2xAA. Only significant dips I notice are in smoke, but only sometimes, not sure why.

Smoke is quite a large visual effect. Fog is similar too. It's not really a fixed object and it needs to be transparent. If you are using FSAA then it hurts even more.

Batman AA is like that. If you run the benchmark with Physx enabled there is all kinds of smoke and steam and fog. And it really hits performance.

 

[HighlandeR]

Seems to be already 3 different threads on this subject all discussing the heated 1gig or 2gig is NOT enough.....

Any conclusions please cos im baffled lol ?

 

[ALXAndy]

Seems to be already 3 different threads on this subject all discussing the heated 1gig or 2gig is NOT enough.....

Any conclusions please cos im baffled lol ?

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-tweak-guide/#1

Just read that from the beginning. It clearly states to the mb exactly how much vram BF3 uses. Quote - large multiplayer maps can use upward of 1.5gb, so a 1.5gb card is recommended for ultra with 4XFSAA.

In other words? if you are thinking of playing BF3 then for the love of god don't buy a 1gb card unless you want to turn down all of the settings.

 

[HighlandeR]

thx 2gig 680GTX should cut it more then enough

 

[ALXAndy]

thx 2gig 680GTX should cut it more then enough

Of course. Not only that but it can "texture stream" (that's the posh name for it ) from vram.

Which still isn't ideal, but it's a whole lot better than a file on your hard drive.

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

I have been playing with my new 7870 and have found in BF3 with 4x AA at 1680 x 1050 it used over 1600MB.....

 

[Rusty0611]

It didn't "use" 1600MB - it's seeing it has 2GB available and it's caching.

 

[Scougar]

The memory issue is a bit mute anyway.

If a card only has 1GB of memory nowadays, it is likely a lower to mid range card that WILL NOT run a game decently at maximum settings anyway at anything like 1080p or above. If you want to have a game that plays well you are going to have to fork out for a better card for these top end games, and they will more often than not have more memory.

My opinion, 570 is fine for BF3 @ 1080p but NOT EVERYTHING will be at max.

I do not know about 3D, but I assume it uses more memory?

 

[ALXAndy]

I do not know about 3D, but I assume it uses more memory?

Good question. When I get a minute I will try it.

 

[ALXAndy]

Just ran Metro 2033 in 2d and 3d. Memory usage was identical, right around 1150mb.

No crashing with my page file disabled.

 

[andybird123]

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-tweak-guide/#1

Just read that from the beginning. It clearly states to the mb exactly how much vram BF3 uses. Quote - large multiplayer maps can use upward of 1.5gb, so a 1.5gb card is recommended for ultra with 4XFSAA.

In other words? if you are thinking of playing BF3 then for the love of god don't buy a 1gb card unless you want to turn down all of the settings.

BF3 doesn't use FSAA, it uses MSAA (the implementation of which in BF3 basically finds the edges of objects and only antialises those - hence why most people use both MSAA *and* FXAA - the FXAA gets the "insides" of objects and transparent textures that the MSAA misses)

if you are going to try to forcefully "educate" people at least get the terminology right

I happen to agree that 1gb or even 1.5gb is limiting in certain situations (such as BF3 on ultra) but you really are coming off as a complete arse hat

 

[MoRT489]

http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-tweak-guide/#1

Just read that from the beginning. It clearly states to the mb exactly how much vram BF3 uses. Quote - large multiplayer maps can use upward of 1.5gb, so a 1.5gb card is recommended for ultra with 4XFSAA.

In other words? if you are thinking of playing BF3 then for the love of god don't buy a 1gb card unless you want to turn down all of the settings.

Just AA needs to be turned down (provided the card is up to the challenge), where did you get "all" from

Does that guide suggest disabling aero and closing webpages to free up VRAM? Makes a huge difference.

 

[andybird123]

Just AA needs to be turned down (provided the card is up to the challenge), where did you get "all" from

read the guide - it does say that Ultra textures is designed for 1.5GB cards or higher, even without AA, so whilst all might be an exageration, he's not too far off in saying that more than AA needs to be turned down on 1GB cards

I experienced this first hand with a 560ti 1GB - even in SLI I had to run High Textures and only FXAA to get playable frame rates

 

[HighlandeR]

Wonders off looking for 4gig 680GTX cards.....

 

[Gregster]

Wonders off looking for 4gig 680GTX cards.....

I see you have been a member for a long time and I guess you have seen these arguments before.

4GB 680's will be great. Not sure on release date though.

 

[ALXAndy]

Just AA needs to be turned down (provided the card is up to the challenge), where did you get "all" from

Does that guide suggest disabling aero and closing webpages to free up VRAM? Makes a huge difference.

If you read it all it will also tell you to disable vsync, lower texture quality, turn off triple buffering and basically do everything you need to in order to bring up the FPS.

Nice to know you read it all.

 

[Rusty0611]

Actually on my old 6870 1GB I had everything on high (including FXAA), AF x16, HBAO off and MSAA off and I got really decent frame rates (45-70) @ 1920*1200.

Don't get me wrong, the IQ is much better with everything maxed like I have it on my 680 but the above settings still produced an overall fantastic experience.

 

[Gregster]

Actually on my old 6870 1GB I had everything on high (including FXAA), AF x16, HBAO off and MSAA off and I got really decent frame rates (45-70) @ 1920*1200.

Don't get me wrong, the IQ is much better with everything maxed like I have it on my 680 but the above settings still produced an overall fantastic experience.

On my old 560TI, I had everything on ultra except AA (which was off) and I never had slowdown. I was very pleased with how 1GB VRAM performed.