Is 1GB VRAM enough?

[harmony]

There is seriously absolutely no difference you could possibly see with your eyes in the Metro bechmark between a 1 Gb and 2 Gb card of the same GPU at 1200p.

Post #5 is nothing but pure jargon.

The most serious lag spike problem I've met was in Crysis and Crysis Warhead. With 1GB cards in CF, if I quickly turn around, it is very likely to lag. In Metro 2033, 1GB cards with MSAA 4X and DOF is a pain.

 

[KiiYzOo]

if there is a lag spike in milliseconds, how the hell does it actually register with your eyes as a drop in framerate, and you have to expect with any sli/crossfire setups that you will get occasional microstutter or drops in framerates!

 

[bhavv]

if there is a lag spike in milliseconds, how the hell does it actually register with your eyes as a drop in framerate, and you have to expect with any sli/crossfire setups that you will get occasional microstutter or drops in framerates!

YOU CANT SEE IT!

I couldnt see it. Just like you cant see any of those upward spikes on the 2 Gb 560 result, and they also dont affect the end score.

Those incredibly tiny spikes on the graphs are far too short to actually see.

I've used so many CF and SLI setups with 512-1024 Mb and NEVER once seen any lag spikes or microstutter unless the overall FPS dropped too low. If the FPS counter is over 40, then there is NEVER any lag that I can see.

 

[Broken Hope]

Forget about at 1080P it doesn't even seem to affect much at even greater resolutions.

 

[KiiYzOo]

that's what I was thinking, if there is a drop in framerate even for a second it doesn't bother me, and I'd expect it from a dual card setup!

 

[bhavv]

I always get smoother gameplay from two 1 Gb cards over one with the added bonus of being able to use SSAA.

Its also a lot less expensive to sell and upgrade mid range cards than it is high end ones.

 

[harmony]

Forget about at 1080P it doesn't even seem to affect much at even greater resolutions.

There are two flaws in this plot:

1) The plot is based on fps numbers averaged over 1-second time intervals, smoothing out the lag spike phenomena. To observe lag spikes, you'll need to plot based on Frametimes, i.e. instantaneous fps.

2) They didn't turn on MSAA 4A and DOF and Very High at the same time to benefit from more than 1GB vram.

 

[harmony]

if there is a lag spike in milliseconds, how the hell does it actually register with your eyes as a drop in framerate, and you have to expect with any sli/crossfire setups that you will get occasional microstutter or drops in framerates!

When you play multiplayer fps games, would you prefer a server with 10ms latency or 100ms latency? In which server would you have a higher chance of shooting down your opponents?

 

[KiiYzOo]

but you will not notice lag spikes unless you look at a graph!

 

[bhavv]

And maybe some people dont mind turning DoF, Ubersampling, or whatever else off to get super high framerates while everything *ELSE* is at maximum.

but you will not notice lag spikes unless you look at a graph!

Exactly, you cant see any of these spikes while playing, and they cant even be called 'lag' because they arent slowing the game down at all. They are only a few microseconds long, completely impossible to see while playing the game.

 

[KiiYzOo]

I've never understood the latency things anyways in multiplayer anyways
and I play games for fun not competitively!!

 

[bhavv]

When you play multiplayer fps games, would you prefer a server with 10ms latency or 100ms latency? In which server would you have a higher chance of shooting down your opponents?

Latency is only affected by your ISP, not by your graphics card. And you can always turn settings down if your hardware is lagging too much which is completely not due to Vram, but due to GPU.

 

[harmony]

Latency is only affected by your ISP, not by your graphics card. And you can always turn settings down if your hardware is lagging too much which is completely not due to Vram, but due to GPU.

When the game uses more than 1GB vram, but you have only 1GB vram per GPU, the memory management would push the textures behind your camera into system main memory. When you quickly turn around, it takes, say, 100ms to load the textures from the system main memory back to the dedicated video memory, and such a lag spike can put you into disadvantage and get you killed by other players.

This is the same disadvantage that netowrk latency gives you. I am not saying vram limitation causes network latency. What I'm saying is that a 100ms lag spike can indeed affect your gaming experience, just like you don't want to join a server with 100ms network latency.

 

[bhavv]

When the game uses more than 1GB vram, but you have only 1GB vram per GPU, the memory management would push the textures behind your camera into system main memory. When you quickly turn around, it takes 100ms to load the textures from the system main memory back to the dedicated video memory, and such a lag spike can put you into disadvantage and get you killed by other players.

Prove this with some kind of evidence or stop making things up.

I dont think that anyone that plays online FPS games with 1 Gb Vram has ever complained about this problem.

 

[harmony]

Prove this with some kind of evidence or stop making things up.

I dont think that anyone that plays online FPS games with 1 Gb Vram has ever complained about this problem.

I don't see you complaining about 30 fps choppy either. Taking BFBC2 as an example, pro players would just turn down the graphics settings and lower the AA, to achieve 100+ fps (in order to minimize the lag spikes of gaps greater than 16ms, which is equivalent to min instantaneous fps of 60, which is 60 Hz of what most monitors have). Noob players wouldn't care about such lag spikes anyway.

 

[Cleeecooo]

But when you put AA down, usually you don't need more than a single GTX560 Ti 1GB.

yes you do! AA has nothing to do with how much grfx power you need!

And maybe some people dont mind turning DoF, Ubersampling, or whatever else off to get super high framerates while everything *ELSE* is at maximum.

This!!!!

When the game uses more than 1GB vram, but you have only 1GB vram per GPU, the memory management would push the textures behind your camera into system main memory. When you quickly turn around, it takes, say, 100ms to load the textures from the system main memory back to the dedicated video memory, and such a lag spike can put you into disadvantage and get you killed by other players.

This is the same disadvantage that netowrk latency gives you. I am not saying vram limitation causes network latency. What I'm saying is that a 100ms lag spike can indeed affect your gaming experience, just like you don't want to join a server with 100ms network latency.

OH NOES!!!!!! I DIED ONLINE!!!!

 

[bhavv]

So if pro players are going to turn settings down to achieve 100 FPS, obviuosly to the point where the game is now using up very little Vram, how would a 2 Gb card be of any benefit to them?

 

[Cleeecooo]

I don't see you complaining about 30 fps choppy either. Taking BFBC2 as an example, pro players would just turn down the graphics settings and lower the AA, to achieve 100+ fps (in order to minimize the lag spikes of gaps greater than 16ms, which is equivalent to min instantaneous fps of 60, which is 60 Hz of what most monitors have). Noob players wouldn't care about such lag spikes anyway.

wE'RE NOT PROS THOUGH -ARE WE??? *turns caps lock off*

we don't care about .1 of a millisecond.
Honestly, the sort of people who need to get £1,000,000 of kit to play one game are just SAD!

 

[bhavv]

OH NOES!!!!!! I DIED ONLINE!!!!

OMG, quick, go and buy a trio of 3 Gb GTX 580s, turn all your graphics settings down for 100+ FPS at every possible instant in the game, and only then is it possible for you to win online games!

 

[harmony]

So if pro players are going to turn settings down to achieve 100 FPS, obviuosly to the point where the game is now using up very little Vram, how would a 2 Gb card be of any benefit to them?

When pro players get cards into SLI/CF, they don't have to lower their graphics settings in order to achieve 100 fps (and sustain 60 instantaneous fps minimum). However if they have only 1GB vram per GPU, they are still likely to suffer from lag spikes due to vram page fault. In such case, they can benefit from more than 1GB vram.