VRAM Usage in Games?

[Rezident]

Looking at a 4890 1Gb but just saw a 2Gb 4890 for only £20 more. I can‘t imagine many games actually using more than 1Gb of VRAM (or do they?) but I suppose in the future they might (I’ll probably keep the card for a few years).

It seems like a pretty cheap upgrade to add an extra gig of GDDR5 for only £20 more, is it worth it?

Also, 2Gb VRAM shouldn’t cause any problems for the existing 4Gb (3.25 effective) RAM on a 32-bit OS should it?

Cheers.

 

[Rezident]

There we go, having 4GB on a 32bit OS with a 2GB videocard is fine

Grand, that was my main worry. Many thanks.

 

[Rezident]

There we go, having 4GB on a 32bit OS with a 2GB videocard is fine

Wait a minute, he has a 4870X2, I know that has 2gigs of GDDR but isn't it one gig per core as opposed to a single gpu with two gigs?

 

[Rezident]

OP: Whether the extra £20 is worth it depends on what base price ur talking for the 1GB version. The 4890 can be had for as little as £145 on OCUk or £158 for 1GB with dual cooler.

Yes but I want one with a fan that is quieter than the stock fan, like the Vapor-X one. OCUK still doesn't have them in stock and I don't want to wait any longer.

 

[Rezident]

GPU only needs to reserve some MMIO space - and aperture if you will - so that the memory on it can be accessed from the system. Typically around 200-600Mb depending on hardware - its very rare for it to actually map 1:1 with the amount of VRAM on the card.

Aha, that explains it. Many thanks.