2GB VRAM not enough for BF4?

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Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
7,949
48
91
www.techbuyersguru.com
Ok, this is completely contradictory to the glorious charts I've seen. I think it's a waiting game until someone does a full in-depth test.
Even at 1920 x 1080p, my 2gb Sapphire 7850 OC (OC'd further), is pushing 1960+ Vram. That's at Ultra x2 AA (low setting)
There's no way at Ultra x4 AA (high setting) that 2gb Vram would cut it anymore. In fact, it's at that setting that goes over the 2gb barrier.

Point being, I've seen what it can look like at 4xAA and it's a beauty. I'm tempted to scout around for a 280x

I can confirm that both 1080p and 1440p used 1950MB on my GTX670.

I'm now using a GTX780, and it uses 2300MB at 1440p. While some of it may simply be cache, the fact that both 1080p and 1440p use 1950MB at Ultra settings suggests that it is not optimal, at least for 1440p.
 

skipsneeky2

Diamond Member
May 21, 2011
5,035
1
71
So glad I went for the 4GB version over the 2GB card when I bought my Gigabyte GTX770 back in July.

What sucks about the situation for you is how 5 months later a card from Amd being the R9 290 comes out priced cheaper then your 4gb 770 but the sad part is the 290 owns it like a boss.

What sucks for me is if i waited just two more months i could have bought the 290 with its 4gb of ram and faster overall performance for the same price i paid on my 770 but when your sitting on a gtx650 with need of more performance basically waiting isn't something i would like doing.
 

Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
What sucks about the situation for you is how 5 months later a card from Amd being the R9 290 comes out priced cheaper then your 4gb 770 but the sad part is the 290 owns it like a boss.

What sucks for me is if i waited just two more months i could have bought the 290 with its 4gb of ram and faster overall performance for the same price i paid on my 770 but when your sitting on a gtx650 with need of more performance basically waiting isn't something i would like doing.

Its always going to be like that. If you are always waiting then you aren't using!
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
4,762
1,165
136
What sucks about the situation for you is how 5 months later a card from Amd being the R9 290 comes out priced cheaper then your 4gb 770 but the sad part is the 290 owns it like a boss.

What sucks for me is if i waited just two more months i could have bought the 290 with its 4gb of ram and faster overall performance for the same price i paid on my 770 but when your sitting on a gtx650 with need of more performance basically waiting isn't something i would like doing.

None of it matters because there is always something better if you wait.

I could have not bought my my 7970Ghz in June and wait until november and picked up a 290X for $200 more than I paid and had something 20-30% faster.

But that is how this game works!

lol so i'm basically agreeing with you.
 

Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
None of it matters because there is always something better if you wait.

I could have not bought my my 7970Ghz in June and wait until november and picked up a 290X for $200 more than I paid and had something 20-30% faster.

But that is how this game works!

lol so i'm basically agreeing with you.

Meh, a 40% increase in price for a 30% increase in performance isn't all that great. Now, if you wait another year when the the 290x drops in price even more, then it would be a better bargain. But then a new card will come out. Might as well buy when you want to buy.
 

Spidre

Member
Nov 6, 2013
146
0
0
In 1080p bf4 my 2gb 770 works just fine with 4xmsaa.

2gb should do until the next series; if you are buying today go for 3+
 

skipsneeky2

Diamond Member
May 21, 2011
5,035
1
71
Its always going to be like that. If you are always waiting then you aren't using!

I would have waited for a hot potato being the R9 290 that wouldn't have been cooled off good enough by my htpc case which just does a decent job on my 770 keeping it under 80cel.I would have had to make a choice of a new case and a hot potato or buying a after market 780 and in the end spending a extra $100 i didn't have lol as when i bought the 770 i had a limit of $400 anyways.

As for the concern of BF4 and 2gb, well i honestly didn't care much for the maps and overall gameplay of BF4 and when i did play i never did touch 2gb of vram anyways as i disabled msaa and personally i just enjoy BF3 more and the 2gb 770 is more then plenty for BF3 as is performance.
 

Daedalus685

Golden Member
Nov 12, 2009
1,386
1
0
This all seems quite silly.

Of course there are settings in a modern game that might use up more than 2GB of memory on the graphics card, but why does that matter so long as your card is balanced?

It is worrying that folks are using this info as a reason to buy 3 or 4 Gb instead of 2. Not that there are that many identical cards with double the ram for fun.

For instance, have a look at the Guru3D BF4 performance review. First observe the 1600*1200 results and note the relative standing of the GTX770 and the 7970. This is a setting they claim consumes 1400MB of the buffer. The two cards are exactly tied.

Now look at the 4K results, the cards are again exactly tied. There is no benefit to the extra ram in this case. There are many many reasons to favor a 770 or a 280x, but frame buffer unless you plan to crossfire/sli at 4K is not one of them.

Now certainly if you could magically double the speed of the 770 it might bottleneck out on the 2GB of ram, such as 770 SLI, which is easily observed by the tanking of the 690 at 4k. But that is the ONLY card currently for sale where it is bottlenecked by the RAM at an otherwise playable setting.

Sorry for rambling but it bothers me when people (and even reviewers do it) make statements like "this card isn't future proof with only 2GB of ram". The statement is correct without the extra information, the card is not future proof, in year or so it will be too slow and you will have to reduce settings. There are exceptions in niche user requirements (SLI/crossfire for extreme resolution use in the few and far between cases where 2 cheap cards are a far better buy than a single high end one) where a card really isn't suitable for what you want to do because of its ram but these have no bearing on the modest midrange/low high end cards that more often than not see 2GB of ram. Moving forward all cards are going to be shipping with more ram, and likely ram they can make use of. Those 2GB cards we own now are going to feel slow then too, but because they can't keep up with modern titles of the day, not because they are limited in frame buffer.

If Nvidia or AMD start releasing 2GB and 4GB versions of lower end cards they are doing it to make money because big numbers sell cards, not to make a better card. This debate has been going on since the dawn of GPUs. The cards we usually see with only 2GB today simply aren't fast enough to make use of any more than that unless you plan to SLI and play on a $800+ display setup in which case budget conscious GPUs are not targeted at your demographic.
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
4,762
1,165
136
Meh, a 40% increase in price for a 30% increase in performance isn't all that great. Now, if you wait another year when the the 290x drops in price even more, then it would be a better bargain. But then a new card will come out. Might as well buy when you want to buy.

I agree and that is why I went from a 6950 to a 7970 price was right and the performance increase is in the 50-60% range and those are the kinda of margins I like.

A gpu that is 20% faster than the previous won't even get second look from me.

I prefer larger gains now than when I first started building computers lower margins were fine, now I have higher standards
 

FalseChristian

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2002
3,322
0
71
It all depends on the resolution you're playing at. For 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 2GB is fine. Anything higher you want 3/4/6GB of vRAM.
 

felang

Senior member
Feb 17, 2007
594
1
81
With a 4GB 290x I never saw my VRAM usage go above 2.6GB at 2560x1600 4xMSAA

Don't see how 1680x1050 could be using more...

Exactly... the engine just caches more if it´s available, doesn´t necessarily mean that more than 2gb is necesary for smooth gameplay.
 

finbarqs

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2005
4,057
2
81
yeah, just hoping it'll hit 60 fps at all times, but it's not doing it... but that's fine. 50+ and most of the time @ 60 will suffice...
 

nightspydk

Senior member
Sep 7, 2012
339
19
81
Honestly I would prolly focus on the cpu. The gpu with 2 gigs should be more than sufficient but the cpu is what drives all the calculations on a large map plenty of action. Look at it like this your screen size is set and res, but the calculations in the background is the unknown if you understand.

This is just imo.

Lets do an example. I can run almost anything single player on a decent cpu 3d, but then mmorg hmm.

Just saying.
 

nrok45

Member
Sep 3, 2008
28
0
0
At 1440p maxed out and 2xmsaa I'm only going a little over 2GB vram usage on my cards. I would say if you wanted to to have some longevity to your purchase, like lasting you the next couple of years or something, I would definitely go for a card with 4GB+ vram.
 

rgallant

Golden Member
Apr 14, 2007
1,361
11
81
In 1080p bf4 my 2gb 770 works just fine with 4xmsaa.

2gb should do until the next series; if you are buying today go for 3+
just a comment
what about next gen. games?
we don't have the 2014-2015 games .I'm looking at 2 gpus with blocks so nv with 3 gb @ $1400+ is a concern at @1440res.
 

rgallant

Golden Member
Apr 14, 2007
1,361
11
81
At 1440p maxed out and 2xmsaa I'm only going a little over 2GB vram usage on my cards. I would say if you wanted to to have some longevity to your purchase, like lasting you the next couple of years or something, I would definitely go for a card with 4GB+ vram.
I think so
next gen games can't be tested , a couple of cards in sli with 3 gb @1440 could be crippled 2014-2015 .imo
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,637
3,095
136
I've done enough testing to verify that all ultra with 4x AA results in hitching. All ultra, except textures at high and only 2x AA eliminates the hitching. FPS is very high with all setting configurations, but Vram causes issues. This subject is settled for me and the debate is over. When R9 290's come out with better coolers, I buy two of them. If Nvidia releases a $400 GTX780 with more than 3gb of Vram, then I may buy those, but that won't happen. The R9 290 Xfire is the ticket. I'm buying them.

EDIT: Using only 2X AA looks like jagged garbage. This is a worth while upgrade and i'm going RED! First time since 9700 pro.
 
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alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,967
19
81
If you really need 4GB on a 770GTX newegg has some with $100 off with a NVIDIA SHIELD...I am not sure what the ebay rate is but it may make it around <$300 for it in total.
 

vendrio

Junior Member
Nov 5, 2013
10
0
0
I have 1gb AMD Radeon 7650m gddr5 graphic card with 4 gb ddr3 ram..
will i be able to play battle field 4 on my laptop!!!
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,637
3,095
136
Carried over from 780ti thread:

And the game is not slow/unplayable so anything else doesn't matter.

What it comes down to for me performance and even the new 780ti does not outperform my sli 670s. Memory is not enough an issue at 1440 yet.

OK, I think I get where you are coming from now. There may be minor issues, but you can tolerate them. If you experience a really brief hitch or stutter, then you don't mind it enough to buy new cards. I can respect that.
Speaking for myself, if that happens in Battlefield for me (which it does on full ultra at 1080p), then it can't be tolerated. So, I can lower settings to fix it, which I have done, and if I so desire I can buy new cards, which, if I do, will be R9 290's.
2GB 670's are not flawless in BF4 at 1080p fully maxed. They work well enough for some people, but they are not flawless. They hitch and skip.
 

Daedalus685

Golden Member
Nov 12, 2009
1,386
1
0
Carried over from 780ti thread:



OK, I think I get where you are coming from now. There may be minor issues, but you can tolerate them. If you experience a really brief hitch or stutter, then you don't mind it enough to buy new cards. I can respect that.
Speaking for myself, if that happens in Battlefield for me (which it does on full ultra at 1080p), then it can't be tolerated. So, I can lower settings to fix it, which I have done, and if I so desire I can buy new cards, which, if I do, will be R9 290's.
2GB 670's are not flawless in BF4 at 1080p fully maxed. They work well enough for some people, but they are not flawless. They hitch and skip.

The thing is though, if you look at BF4 performance reviews, the relative standing of the 680 does not change all the way up to 4K resolution, and the 690 is only losing its relative placing at 4K(where it is very clearly bottlenecked by ram amount) with it improving at every resolution up to that as the CPU bottleneck is alleviated.

So the issue is not that the 2GB is not enough for stutter free perfection, it is that the cards are not fast enough for stutter free perfection. Semantics, but given the topic an important difference.

Admittedly the Guru 3d BF4 review does not include minimum frame rates, but it does include FCAT which doesn't show a huge difference at 1440 for the 690 vs 7990 other than what you would expect given the 7990 is faster (a bit smoother and on the whole lower given its higher FPS).
 
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