vram usage under 1920x1200 captured by GTX580 3GB x 2 SLI

[whipgeez]

I can run with 32xaa without any major performance hit on mohaa and bfbc2. Dont have it set at that all the time though. But it was worth trying it to see if it could be done.

yeah i could run bc2 maxed with 32x aa on my single 570 i had and had no problems with frame rates

 

[harmony]

Nonetheless, people shouldn't bother to upgrade from their reasonable quick 1GB card such as 5850/5870 1GB to a 2GB card this gen, considering they are not really much faster on GPU speed, and still stucked on the aging high power consumption 40nm process.

Smart people will wait for the launch of 28nm process 1.5GB/2GB card, rather than jumping on the 2GB boat on a soon to be under-powered, obsolete 40nm card.

It really depends. Some people might think £500 not expensive for graphics cards at all, and it's pretty reasonable to sell for £200 after 6 months when 28nm is available, which is equivalent to £50 per month. I remember many friends going for expensive mobile phones (e.g. NOKIA 8800, iPhone 1,2,3,3Gs,4) by signing such contracts.

The issue I have with these threads is that you make a series of statements, like '1GB is not enough for 1920x1080' without clarifying that the majority of GPUs with 1GB memory can't run the games at the kind of settings that causes that to be true. Sure, one shouldn't buy two 1GB cards for SLI/CF at 1920x1080 any more, but saying that any 1GB card is pointless/rubbish for 1920x1080 is not true.

Most of the time we need SLI/CF to utilize more than 1GB vram. Rare exceptions (indeed not rare at all) include WoW dual instances.

 

[Gripen90]

yeah i could run bc2 maxed with 32x aa on my single 570 i had and had no problems with frame rates

BC2 uses an entirely different anti-aliasing based setting that primarily is for consoles. That's why getting higher AA settings in BC2 doesn't have any higher impact and the AA quality isn't particular better. Then only thing you get is a blur effect over the textures rather than real anti-aliasing.
This has been discussed widely at guru3d and bc2 forum about "broken AA".
To me 16xCSAA in the game looks worse than 4xMSAA.

The issue I have with these threads is that you make a series of statements, like '1GB is not enough for 1920x1080' without clarifying that the majority of GPUs with 1GB memory can't run the games at the kind of settings that causes that to be true. Sure, one shouldn't buy two 1GB cards for SLI/CF at 1920x1080 any more, but saying that any 1GB card is pointless/rubbish for 1920x1080 is not true.

Yes you still get a long way with 1GB, but all the above still confirms where we are heading - more memory usage.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Yes you still get a long way with 1GB, but all the above still confirms where we are heading - more memory usage.

No doubt the memory usage would would pretty much going upward, but with there still being minimal impact on the actual frame rate, people with cards like GTX460/5850/5870 1GB will perfectly fine gaming at 1920 res until they upgrade to 1st or even then 2nd gen of the 28nm cards.

Some people are just blowing this "usage more than 1GB VRAM" issue completely out of proportion, and trying to force their own opinion onto other and trying to turn it into some kinda of norm. Nobody disgree on the benefit of extra VRAM, but it is going overboard when spreading misinformation on how 1GB cards is "not enough" for gaming at 1920 res, by using 1 or 2 games as example...which not everyone plays.

At this moment, 1GB VRAM is still pretty reasonable amount for gaming at 1920 res; if someone can only afford around £100 for a card to game at 1920 res, the Sapphire 5850 Extreme is still the best choice...but if someone paying around £200, then it would obviously make more sense to get the MSI 6950 2GB Twin FrozR III over the GTX560Ti (unless they need Nvidia card for apps that are using).

Nonetheless, personally I wouldn't upgrade from my 5850 to this gen's card, as we all know that the 40nm process has long passed its retirement age.

 

[BubbySoup]

Games loading up the vram because they can isn't the same as games needing the vram to function. A lot of titles seem to gobble up whatever is available regardless.

I have rigs with both 2GB and 1GB cards in and at 1080p, I am really struggling to see any difference.

 

[Dutch Guy]

Games loading up the vram because they can isn't the same as games needing the vram to function. A lot of titles seem to gobble up whatever is available regardless.

I get this idea as well, the more ram you have the more is used but that in itself doesn't really mean it is a huge limiting factor though, or is it?

I have also monitored video ram usage sometime ago but I could never figure out why Crysis Warhead showed >1GB of video ram use when I have a GTX280 with 1GB

 

[arc@css]

I get this idea as well, the more ram you have the more is used but that in itself doesn't really mean it is a huge limiting factor though, or is it?

I have also monitored video ram usage sometime ago but I could never figure out why Crysis Warhead showed >1GB of video ram use when I have a GTX280 with 1GB

Maybe system memory usage as well?

 

[TheMorningStar]

For those of you with amd/ati systems and especially if you have duel screen (one for gaming one for live monitoring) AMD system monitor is a great app! It wont tell you vram usage but it will tell you multicore CPU usage, GFX utilisation and RAM utilisation at a glance.

Nice mini review btw

 

[dante`afk]

harmony

the OSD, is this rivatuner ? with which plugins and where from or are they already built in?

 

[Strife212]

Waste of 3GB, get Surround

 

[harmony]

harmony

the OSD, is this rivatuner ? with which plugins and where from or are they already built in?

It's from MSI Afterburner.

Waste of 3GB, get Surround

I tried Dell U3011 from OcUK. There was a grey spot on the screen and they accepted my return under DSR. I just don't want to risk trying another one again, as I've got no luck recently.

After extensive tests, even under 1920x1200, it's pretty easy to exceed 1.5GB with great framerates, e.g. Crysis 2, Shogun 2, Metro 2033, Civilization V etc.

Crysis 2 DX11 with High Res Texture, 1920x1200 max, SLI disabled:

Crysis 2 DX11 with High Res Texture, 1920x1200 max, SLI enabled:

However under 2560x1600 there is no longer guarantee of being able to max out every game with excellent framerates.

 

[dante`afk]

there is no mem usage in monitoring tab within afterburner for me :s