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VRAM Usage in Games?

Rezident

Rezident

Rezident

Soldato
Joined
29 May 2007
Posts
4,924
Location
Dublin
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.
 
It'll be fine in your 32bit OS. Anyway the benefits are when running at 2560x1600, and then it's only a couples of FPS. The only game which needs that much to maxed out is GTA IV.
 
You will see a reduction in available RAM but hard to say how much - at a guess it would drop from 3.25 to around 2.5 to 2.8 with a 2gig GPU.
 
I've read that people who have 4870X2s and 4GB on a 32bit OS can see have around 3.2GB available.
 
Hmm, I'm on a 32bit OS with 4gb ram and a 2gb card so would I effectively only be getting 1.25gig of ram? 4gig becomes around 3.2 - 3.25 - that much I know but perhaps having a card with that much ram isn't an advantage then? Roll on Win7:)
 
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.
 
Rezident said:
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?
Click to expand...

Correct me if im wrong but its still just 1gb but just twice the bandwidth?

Eg. Having 2x 1gb 4870's doesnt give you 2gb its still 1gb.

Happy said:
There we go, having 4GB on a 32bit OS with a 2GB videocard is fine :)
Click to expand...

I would investigate this more cos i know that your computer can only have 4gb max including videoram, there must be some bottlnecks somewere, possibly you just don't notice it? As you dont require it.
 
creed said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
unknownsock said:
I would investigate this more cos i know that your computer can only have 4gb max including videoram, there must be some bottlnecks somewere, possibly you just don't notice it? As you dont require it.
Click to expand...

I'll have a search on google later :)
 
unknownsock said:
I would investigate this more cos i know that your computer can only have 4gb max including videoram, there must be some bottlnecks somewere, possibly you just don't notice it? As you dont require it.
Click to expand...


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.
 
Rroff said:
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.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
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