Why go more than 1Gb

[MrWhippy]

What's the benefit of more than 1Gb memory on a Graphic card?

Is it required purely for the highest quality texture packs or is there an FPS advantage (and if it does improve speed, by what sort of factor)?

Cheers

 

[TerryH]

Is it required purely for the highest quality texture packs or is there an FPS advantage (and if it does improve speed, by what sort of factor)?

Cheers

You answered your own question, yes to both of these. Not sure how you would quantify a factor.

 

[Marvin]

What's the benefit of more than 1Gb memory on a Graphic card?

Is it required purely for the highest quality texture packs or is there an FPS advantage (and if it does improve speed, by what sort of factor)?

Cheers

It very much depends upon your resolution. The general consensus is that if you're using a resolution like 2560x1440 or above, then over 1GB is a good idea if you want to have the AA turned up and nice effects/textures.

For the majority of people playing at 1920x1080 or below, 1GB is still more than enough.

 

[straxusii]

Several games with max settings will exceed 1GB of ram, in that situation your frame rate will tank badly.

It's not common though and I wouldnt be worried about buying a 1GB card for 1080p

 

[MrWhippy]

ah right, for my needs 1920x1080 will be max and i'm more a casual gamer than a hardcare gamer.

suspect a 1 Gb card might do me fine then

 

[g3po]

what happens if you have 2 x 1gb cards in sli ?

 

[Blue160]

You'll run into things like Metro 2033, and Crysis that can use more than 1GB of VRAM. 95% of the time 1GB will be plenty at that resolution.

 

[Blue160]

what happens if you have 2 x 1gb cards in sli ?

Both cards need a full copy of the game data, so effectively you still have 1GB.

 

[mame]

There's a thread on here listing games that go over 1gb for games at 1920x1200 and there's quite a few. 1gb is still 'good enough' but my next card will have more than 1gb because I can't see me upgrading to it for a while yet and will be intending to keep that card for at least a year. Last card I had about 18 months, this card 9 months and counting.

 

[Marvin]

You'll run into things like Metro 2033, and Crysis that can use more than 1GB of VRAM. 95% of the time 1GB will be plenty at that resolution.

I really don't think that Metro does for 99% of users, unless you're running GTX480 SLI or something, and therefore able to max settings, whereby VRAM actually comes into play. I just finished Metro the other day, was playing at 1920x1200 on very high, with 4x MSAA + Enhance (with Transparency AA) and 16x AF (no DOF or Tessellation though) and I was not seeing above 1GB usage (monitoring using Afterburner saw approx 920MB max). If you start using 8x MSAA, or SSAA, or include DOF or tessellation, then of course, but I doubt that anyone using a 1GB card would be able to run it at those settings at 1920x1080 anyway.

There's a thread on here listing games that go over 1gb for games at 1920x1200 and there's quite a few. 1gb is still 'good enough' but my next card will have more than 1gb because I can't see me upgrading to it for a while yet and will be intending to keep that card for at least a year. Last card I had about 18 months, this card 9 months and counting.

I still doubt the overall validity of that thread, or at least its relevance for most users of 1GB cards. Most of the screenshots come from >GTX480 SLI at the highest settings on demanding games, some with mods, all of which are essentially unplayable for a 1GB card at those settings.

 

[MrWhippy]

ok, cheers for all the replies.

i'm pretty much decided now then that a 1Gb card will do me fine. i doubt for my needs i'd see any real world improvement going bigger.

 

[mame]

I still doubt the overall validity of that thread, or at least its relevance for most users of 1GB cards. Most of the screenshots come from >GTX480 SLI at the highest settings on demanding games, some with mods, all of which are essentially unplayable for a 1GB card at those settings.

well even on fallout 3 on max settings at 1920x1200 my card can run out of ram and often uses over 900mb. The gpu usage however is only about 50%. not a massive problem but when I get my next card later this year or next year, I'll be keeping it a while so I won't be getting a 1gb card

 

[Predicament]

I love how the GTX 480 boasts 1.5 Gb

Games like GTAIV require roughly 1200 Mb of VRAM at max settings (1920 x 1080)

 

[spleenharvester]

Depends what you're playing. My 8800GT still does FC2 @ 1920x1080 with nearly all on ultra high at around 45 FPS. That's fine for me.

 

[angela]

Just checked metro 2033 on 1920x1080, played about 5min and it took 1200mb of my gtx480 (and it's only 5min play) I believe it will eat more!

Will check on other games later!

 

[Gelly54]

I reckon the witcher 2 and bf 3 will eat 1gb easy

 

[Marine-RX179]

Using more than 1GB VRAM at 1920 res doesn't equal frame rate to drop to hell.

Take the 6950 1GB vs 6950 2GB for example, the frame rate difference is no more than 0-4fps at 1920res 4xAA:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...iews/40165-amd-radeon-hd-6950-1gb-review.html
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/331?vs=293

 

[Predicament]

Using more than 1GB VRAM at 1920 res doesn't equal frame to rate drop to hell.

You, sir, are correct. Only when significant amounts of VRAM [usually high resolutions w/ AA] are trying to be used in which there is no allocation on the GPU [thus the harddrive comes into play] do we see the famed sharp drop in FPS on high end cards..