• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

How does it work? (Xfire)

arc@css

arc@css

arc@css

Caporegime
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
29,398
Always wondered this but have yet not asked.

I hear that if you have 2gb of graphics memory (like on mine for example) you only get 1gb effective at any one time. That's no different to having a single 1gb 4870, in terms of memory at least. So what is the real difference that enables say a 5970 to deliver crushing frame rates over a 2gb 5850 (for example) ?

I assume it would be down to the number of ROP's and shaders? Other things aside from just the memory?

Ta. :)
 
The real difference is from you having 2 GPUs...in other words twice the ROPs and shaders as you have said. Each GPU renders alternating frames so in theory twice the work should be done.
 
Thanks. Guessed it was something like that but never was really sure. I suppose the memory only really comes in to play at the higher resolutions. So a card with around 1.5gb would handle the 1920 or above res better, like the 480.
 
Each card is still rendering the same scene, just 1 frame different. So the same textures are going to be stored in each GPU's bank of memory. That's why a 4870x2 only has 1gb texture memory.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom