• 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.

VRAM limited?

1GB is limited for SLI/CrossfireX. If you listen to those who say it's fine then you'll pay for it one day. Try it if you dare.
 
1GB of graphics memory is starting to become a a bit of a bottle neck but only in very few situations, as harmony says especially for SLI/Xfire. of course the GPU manufactures have known this for a while and Nvidia have had more than 1GB on their top two cards for the last 17 months, AMD have pushed the bar a bit higher by going with a full 2GB with their top card and two dedicated versions of their second card a 1GB and 2GB variant (6950) right of the bat from December last year.
the next generation from AMD if rumours are correct will have 2GB on the top two cards and 2GB on the two cards next down the line as well (7970/7950 and 7870/7850). nobody knows what Nvidia plan to do, but i would be surprised if they didn't follow suit and increase their memory count, this is of course made a little more difficult for Nvidia due to their different bus widths but who knows what they will do.

Bottom line is 1GB enough, high end its not an issue, mid range it could be, depends how often you upgrade. if you plan to upgrade sometime next year then you will still be fine with 1GB for now, but if you are going to hold on for another couple of years then go for more memory now.
just my 2p worth.
 
bru said:
1GB of graphics memory is starting to become a a bit of a bottle neck but only in very few situations, as harmony says especially for SLI/Xfire. of course the GPU manufactures have known this for a while and Nvidia have had more than 1GB on their top two cards for the last 17 months, AMD have pushed the bar a bit higher by going with a full 2GB with their top card and two dedicated versions of their second card a 1GB and 2GB variant (6950) right of the bat from December last year.
the next generation from AMD if rumours are correct will have 2GB on the top two cards and 2GB on the two cards next down the line as well (7970/7950 and 7870/7850). nobody knows what Nvidia plan to do, but i would be surprised if they didn't follow suit and increase their memory count, this is of course made a little more difficult for Nvidia due to their different bus widths but who knows what they will do.

Bottom line is 1GB enough, high end its not an issue, mid range it could be, depends how often you upgrade. if you plan to upgrade sometime next year then you will still be fine with 1GB for now, but if you are going to hold on for another couple of years then go for more memory now.
just my 2p worth.
Click to expand...

+1
 
I've been playing at 1080p on a 768MB GTX 460 since November, and have honestly not had that many problems. 1GB would be my minimum if buying now, but as long as you don't go applying ludicrous amounts of AA (you shouldn't need to at 1080 resolutions) it'll be fine. My humble 460 can max Bad Company 2 without any issues whatsoever, despite benchmarks saying it shouldn't be able to.

If it's a real concern, you have the post count for member's market. A used 570 at around £200 is a good buy. If you must have new, then something like a 6950 with 2GB of VRAM would be perfect.

I played Battlefield 3 at i43 (it's AWESOME :eek: :D), and the EA rep there confirmed all the machines were running AMD/ATi graphics cards.
 
I've still never had my FPS tank on a 1GB 5970 at 1080 even on Metro 2033 & Stalker CoP with high res textures on mostly full. I think you need to be using a lot of AA etc. to force it to use more than 1gb. However I'd still say go for the 2gb if you're buying new as you'll be better future proofed.
 
The price difference between a 2GB 6950 and a 1GB 6950 is minimal so go for the former with more vRAM.

With that in mind, 1GB is more than enough at your resolution.

Utilising more than 1GB vRAM in a game doesn't mean the game NEEDS more than 1GB vRAM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom