2GB VRAM not enough for BF4?

[Triglet]

I don't think it's the end of the world if you're gaming on 2GB right now -- I doubt you're losing much, hopefully retail BF4 benches will answer definitively.

However, I do cringe whenever I see someone post that they just bought a 770 -- not seeing a lot of logic in that decision at this point in the game.

 

[Teizo]

I have a suspicion that BF4 is saying 3GB 'recommended' in order to push AMD cards. Granted 3GB is better than 2GB @ 1440/1600p....but I seriously doubt it will make a big difference at 1080p.

That's just my thinking on the matter. Reviews will be out shortly to confirm or deny.

 

[Skott]

I've seen two reviews now concerning the current game requirements (remember, they are not final yet) and they both saying 2GB VRAM is fine for BF4 @ 1920x1080. Now if you want to run a higher res and the highest game settings then the 3GB and 4GB is more attractive. IMO 4GB VRAM is overkill at 1920x1080 but read the reviews and see what they say for yourself. There is a lot of misinformation floating around right now.

 

[Mastercommander]

2gb is fine for 1080p. I have 3gb 7950s and still report under 2gb vRAM use

 

[blackened23]

Yeah. 2GB is fine for 1080, agreed with above poster. It isn't until surround or 4k resolutions where 3/4GB comes into play, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[BrightCandle]

As far as I know the main limitation 2GB users (with SLI) are going to find in BF4 is that they can't go all the way to MSAA 4x and should stick to 2x to reduce the memory usage, and this is at 1080p. They can still run high settings but MSAA 4x tips them over the VRAM limitations.

2GB is still just about fine but we are starting to see games release now that want more VRAM than that. It took nearly 1.5 years but it does look like we are going to be limited by VRAM now given enough processing performance, which still requires SLI.

So if you are looking for top settings and 120hz for example you I have a dilemma today. On the one hand the 780 and 290X are both overpriced and you kind of need two of them to reach 120 fps and that is might expensive. The 680/770 can get the frame rate but the VRAM becomes a problem in the latest games. The 79X0 is still problematic in crossfire in some cases but it should work in this very particular case but will be bad for DX9 games. In essence today you have to pay a lot to get at those top settings and smooth gameplay in BF4 and the other games that are going to target the latest consoles. I don't think the old cards from last year are a good buy now, but I also think the cards from this year are overpriced for their performance level comparatively. With 20nm likely due next year it just seems like a bad time to upgrade to the 28nm top end cards at those prices.

I don't know what to recommend people do, I just know 2GB of VRAM is starting to impact on the settings you can use in BF4 at 1080p and I suspect we'll see more games with similar limits.

 

[5150Joker]

I'm reaching very close to 3GB (might be even over w/my settings, will double check tomorrow) at 1440P + ultra + 2xSSAA in BF4. I'll reiterate that I believe when next gen consoles are in full swing in 2014, games that are made for them and ported to the PC will start pushing beyond 3GB and that's when cards like the 780 will start hurting at high res + AA.

 

[wand3r3r]

2 years into this generation there's now way I'd buy a card with 2GB.

Unless you plan to upgrade next year I wouldn't bother going with something that is verging towards a minimal requirement and when the new console games start hitting it may change quickly. Resale will also plummet as 2GB becomes too little since it will finally force upgrades. I think the 770 4GB is overpriced though, so it's hard to pay $90 over the 280x for an extra GB. I also think the 290 will drop the 770 price pretty quick, I could be wrong though.

 

[zod96]

I never said I used max settings To me the difference between Ultra and High is minimal at best, yet you take like a 50% hit with Ultra settings. Yes if you like to run completely maxed out at 2560x1440 or above then I would say get a card with at least 3GB of video memory. But if High is enough for you, save your money 2GB is plenty

 

[moonbogg]

Guru3D tested BF4 in single player and fully maxed at 1080p only used 1.5gb. That's not what my rig is showing. I'm pegged at 2gb, so I lowered AA to 2x and lowered texture quality to high to save a little Vram. Everything else is on Ultra. Dips in the lower 50's aren't fun, but for all I know that could be my CPU doing that. It does it in BF3 due to CPU limitation. Imagine the lols if I spent $1500 on two 780ti's and got the same mins! Bah!

 

[BrightCandle]

I have been able to run in Single player with ultra graphics and MSAA 4x at around 60 fps. I personally prefer more than that so I dropped msaa to 2x but there is no drastic drop off in performance of having 2GB. I will have a look into gpu-z utilisation but there aren't any signs in my gameplay that 2GB was too little.

 

[SimianR]

I have a suspicion that BF4 is saying 3GB 'recommended' in order to push AMD cards.

Or it could just be that the VRAM usage charts in BF4 are showing that @ 1080p with no AA the game is using just under 2GB. Once you add AA @ 1080p the usage is jumping to 2.2-2.4GB. I don't know about you but I don't really play anything without AA these days.

 

[5150Joker]

I'm going to measure BF4 in a few minutes w/my 24/7 settings which are:

Game: Ultra with antialiasing post set to OFF (I hate the blur effect) + 2x SSAA forced in NVCP at 1440P.

Will post the screenshot here once its loaded in MP on a 64 player server.

 

[rgallant]

I'm reaching very close to 3GB (might be even over w/my settings, will double check tomorrow) at 1440P + ultra + 2xSSAA in BF4. I'll reiterate that I believe when next gen consoles are in full swing in 2014, games that are made for them and ported to the PC will start pushing beyond 3GB and that's when cards like the 780 will start hurting at high res + AA.

that's what I'm thinking looking at buying 780 sli

 

[BrightCandle]

So I have looked at this in GPU-Z just now on the 4th level of the campaign. I am running ultra settings. The game without MSAA and High deferred AA uses about 1.1GB immediately after load. However if you play for a bit the memory usage gradually climbs until it reaches ~2GB and then it stays there. If I turn on MSAA 4x the memory usage is ~ 1.5GB to start and then it climbs to 2GB and stays there.

In the cutscenes the memory usage climbs from almost no use to the games start 1.1 GB or so and presumably that is because the game is loading the assets for the main game during the cutscenes. That is an interesting optimisation that makes it very quick to start into the game.

So in essence BF4 does not require more than 2GB, in fact you could probably get away with 1.5GB in an SLI/xfire card by the looks of things. I only get noticeable frame rate issues when using PPAA and MSAA, which is just likely too heavy on the performance of the GPU and not VRAM related at all.

 

[5150Joker]

Here's a shot with a tiny map like Operation Locker...will post more on bigger levels.

So yeah, cards like 780 with 3GB of vram will be in trouble.


Here it is, >3GB VRAM used and avg was hitting 2.9GB+:

Personally if I were in the market for a card today, I wouldn't touch the 780 3GB version because it's going to be vram limited in newer games. Better off with an AMD R9 290X or the supposed 780 Ti variant that has 6 GB and 12 GB. Or a used Titan if you can find one.


P.S. See that smooth line with the core never dipping below 1150 MHz? Yeah that's the power of a custom Tech|Inferno vbios.

 

[Will Robinson]

2GB is not not good enough anymore. Even if you'll be fine with BF4, then next "big game" will make it not enough.

3GB as new minimum and 4GB as standard and 6GB+ for more1440p or higher with full bells and whistles will start to emerge in 2014.

On the other hand paying for premium high-end option like 770 SLI right before console gen changes and not long before 20nm GPUs is not very smart, if you're a person that is not wealthy and 150$ is noticeable amount of money.

You can forget 20nm GPUs for at least a year...so that argument is a moot point.

 

[Rvenger]

I am playing bf4 right now and its using 2204mb of VRAM @ 1080p everything on ultra on a 7950.

 

[Teizo]

Guru3D tested BF4 in single player and fully maxed at 1080p only used 1.5gb. That's not what my rig is showing. I'm pegged at 2gb, so I lowered AA to 2x and lowered texture quality to high to save a little Vram. Everything else is on Ultra. Dips in the lower 50's aren't fun, but for all I know that could be my CPU doing that. It does it in BF3 due to CPU limitation. Imagine the lols if I spent $1500 on two 780ti's and got the same mins! Bah!

Could be your RAM as well. It was shown 1600mhz was not enough according to the reports Corsair put out. Well, it was ok...but compared to higher speed RAM 1600mhz really limited average and made minimum fps worse.

Granted that was Corsair, but the rep on the Linus WAN show said they had it independently tested and verified before they reported the story.

 

[Slomo4shO]

2GB seems to be enough for resolutions under 4k:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark,11.html

 

[nenforcer]

The 2GB GTX 770 is suppose to drop to $329 while the 4GB should drop to what, $400?

If your talking a price difference of $800 - $660 = $140 for a future proof solution I think its an easy decision.

The 4GB models better match with this console generation and will be better suited to last you several years.

 

[guskline]

OK I ran BF4 with Fraps (latest licensed version running in back graound.
Here is a GPU snapshot of my specs for both EVGA GTX670 FTWs

My CPU is set forth below in rig 1, (3930k @ 4,4Ghz) along with all of my other hardware.

I'm pasting the Fraps log for an entire multiplayer game that lasted about 5-8 minutes. Though not as scientific as other tests these are real world results of my 670s in sli (2GB vram each) with all settings at ultra except that msaa is 2x not 4 x.

Perhaps someone can make sense of these results. Enjoy and BTW the game played great for an old guy like me!
2013-11-01 21:27:50 - bf4
Frames: 860 - Time: 4563ms - Avg: 188.472 - Min: 174 - Max: 199
2013-11-01 21:27:55 - bf4
Frames: 14100 - Time: 146359ms - Avg: 96.338 - Min: 27 - Max: 202
2013-11-01 21:31:36 - bf4
Frames: 479 - Time: 2391ms - Avg: 200.335 - Min: 199 - Max: 201
2013-11-01 21:31:41 - bf4
Frames: 4092 - Time: 36110ms - Avg: 113.320 - Min: 13 - Max: 201
2013-11-01 21:32:43 - bf4
Frames: 4335 - Time: 76578ms - Avg: 56.609 - Min: 25 - Max: 196
2013-11-01 21:34:01 - bf4
Frames: 3296 - Time: 36671ms - Avg: 89.880 - Min: 74 - Max: 113
2013-11-01 21:34:38 - bf4
Frames: 2394 - Time: 32282ms - Avg: 74.159 - Min: 17 - Max: 102
2013-11-01 21:35:12 - bf4
Frames: 6241 - Time: 90656ms - Avg: 68.843 - Min: 25 - Max: 96
2013-11-01 21:36:44 - bf4
Frames: 6954 - Time: 104140ms - Avg: 66.775 - Min: 3 - Max: 94
2013-11-01 21:38:29 - bf4
Frames: 64684 - Time: 865281ms - Avg: 74.755 - Min: 16 - Max: 107
2013-11-01 21:52:55 - bf4
Frames: 7388 - Time: 121516ms - Avg: 60.799 - Min: 0 - Max: 121
　
I apologize for all the entries but I kept hitting the F11 key in fraps to be sure it was running so it stopped started etc but this is the complete log.

 

[snouter]

I'm able to play BF4 enjoyably with high or ultra settings and no or 2x AA on 1440p using two GTX760 2GB cards in SLI.

Using GPU-Z:

It looks like I stay in the 1960MB to 1980MB out of 2048 used.

My memory controller load stays in the 30% range for the most part occasionally reaching 40-42% touching 46-48% only a few times.

So, I'm filling the memory up for sure, but it does not look like I'm thrashing it too hard? This was a pretty small map though, maybe the larger maps will report differently as more textures are swapped around?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Hey guys my wife and I fit just fine in a two seater convertible. We're going to buy it today even though she's expecting a child.
See where I'm going? Only a fool would buy a 2gb high end card today.

 

[Chumster]

I wouldn't touch the 780 3GB version because it's going to be vram limited in newer games ...

.. if gaming @1440p (27" monitor) with all settings at max (including an expensive SSAA). Based on the Guru3D link, it appears that even 2GB is adequate for most people. Though I'd agree a 3GB would be a better buy for future proofing.