2GB VRAM still worth for upcoming games?

[rgallant]

Guys, let's get back to my question and forget all this stuff about Nvidia vs AMD, that's not the point.

As I said before, I know 770 is a bit better than 280X on frames in most games (except on those focused for AMD), but that's not the point and not the question.

The question is:

2GB VRAM still worth for upcoming games?

It seems fifty-fifty for while

Anything beyond $350 is out of my reach and I do not intend to mine coins.

we can't play the upcoming games for 2014 or 2015
-just saying if nv put 2gb on their cards in sli you will run out of vram at some point.
not many maxing out today's old console ports running 8800gt' sli with 512 of vram.

 

[poohbear]

Sadly I can't wait, I am taking a trip to NY in April, it probably won't be released untill there. If so, that's definitely my buy: GTX 870.

770 4GB is beyond my reach, way too expensive. I can pay only U$ 300-350, and I wat to buy an asus model, I have a good experience with my currently asus card.

Edit. I am really out of this subject of "mining", first time I heard people talking about it was here. Won't use my card for that purpose, altough I know what bitcoin is.

Dude, Maxwell is supposed to be a beast, so u should definitely wait!! Its not a refresh, its a next gen video card. All these discussions here about best card today are gonna be completely obsolete once Maxwell comes around in 2 months. Ure buying yesterdays technology tomorrow! Just wait.

At anyrate, with my gtx 670 SLI @ 2560x1440 i play all games smooth with everything maxed out (but no AA) and i only have 2gb VRAM. The only exception is Skyrim with a ton of texture mods, but i'd wager its cause of poorly optimized amateur mods than the actual game engine.

 

[Midwayman]

You guys are crazy. 2GB+ of VRAM usage on a stock game?! That may happen on the next game from Crytek or something like that, but I don't think anybody is ready to release games that you can't play on cards that go for 300USD TODAY. It's completely impossible, looking at what we've had over the years.

Its already happened. Titan users report that COD ghost pulls 5GB on max settings. Not that its required, but it is used if you have it.

 

[Teizo]

List the # of games that require more than 2GB of VRAM @ 10080p.

 

[3DVagabond]

Dude, Maxwell is supposed to be a beast, so u should definitely wait!! Its not a refresh, its a next gen video card. All these discussions here about best card today are gonna be completely obsolete once Maxwell comes around in 2 months. Ure buying yesterdays technology tomorrow! Just wait.

At anyrate, with my gtx 670 SLI @ 2560x1440 i play all games smooth with everything maxed out (but no AA) and i only have 2gb VRAM. The only exception is Skyrim with a ton of texture mods, but i'd wager its cause of poorly optimized amateur mods than the actual game engine.

Where are you getting Maxwell release in 2 months? Considering that nVidia is releasing Titan Black and GTX-790 at $1000+ I doubt they have any plans on releasing any high end Maxwell cards above the GTX-750 ti we've read about, for quite some time.

 

[ShintaiDK]

yes but they have more power and run 64 bit code now. this means that the pc versions now have a lot more potential that can be tapped than before. the 64 bit code is very promising as now games can run more than 3.1 gb ram.

Thats entirely unrelated to VRAM. Consoles got around 4.5-5GB memory for games that needs to be shared between VRAM and game code. Its unlikely that any console game will ever go past 2GB VRAM usage.

 

[bergami]

I doubt 870 Maxell will come before April, but 750 TI using Maxell is rummored to be released next month.

http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-rumors-first-maxwell-gpu-coming-february-geforce-gtx-750ti_134079

"Good news everyone"

 

[cmdrdredd]

Its already happened. Titan users report that COD ghost pulls 5GB on max settings. Not that its required, but it is used if you have it.

It is caching not using that much.

 

[Morbus]

Its already happened. Titan users report that COD ghost pulls 5GB on max settings. Not that its required, but it is used if you have it.

Get out. I'm talking about single-screen 1080p configurations. Those Titan users are probably going 4K multi-screen on that little crappy console port of a shooter.

List the # of games that require more than 2GB of VRAM @ 10080p.

At 10080p, that'd be pretty much all of them

 

[OCGuy]

Put anyone who answers this without asking your resolution on ignore.

 

[Attic]

Honestly OP, I would not pay ~$300 for a card with just 2gb VRAM because you don't know what the near future will bring. Once the 2gb cards start hitting a wall on current games it will be tough to get the value back out of the card you paid a hefty price for. I would go for a 4gb model GTX 770 or 280x.

This.

It's not just about VRAM, but also what you're paying for it.

For a midrange solid card at $200, 2gb is fine. If you are going to pay $300 or more 2gb is not enough IMO.

 

[Squeetard]

I game at 1080p. For lightboost. I have a G19 with lcd screen and I monitor among other things, my vram usage. My 590 was frequently using all 1.5g, now my 2-7970's are frequently going over 2gb's. BF4 was using 2.8g most of the time. Black flag and Arkham Origins too. I don't know where you guys are getting your figures from but vram is used for more than just frame buffering.

 

[OCGuy]

Anyone have links to 2GB not being enough for a 1080p monitor? Or even close enough that you would have to worry?

In fact having a 2GB card puts you on the bleeding edge of the market, and will for quite some time.

 

[OCGuy]

In fact pretty much everything supports 4GB being a waste for the vast majority of situations, even on 25XX

4GB is generally unnecessary for 1920x1080 or even for 2560x1600. Only marginal benefits are found at 5760x1080 for a single card.

We would not recommend buying a single GTX 770 4GB card over the 2GB version if there is a significant price difference. We might recommend choosing 4GB GTX 770 SLI over 2GB GTX 770 SLI, but only if the gamer plays at super-widescreen resolutions or requires extreme anti-aliasing.

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31626

 

[McLovin42]

As stated before a 2gb vram GTX 770 on a 1080p display is more than enough not just now, but in the future too..........you will be fine with it. And you can get one now for under $300 shipped.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I game at 1080p. For lightboost. I have a G19 with lcd screen and I monitor among other things, my vram usage. My 590 was frequently using all 1.5g, now my 2-7970's are frequently going over 2gb's. BF4 was using 2.8g most of the time. Black flag and Arkham Origins too. I don't know where you guys are getting your figures from but vram is used for more than just frame buffering.

That is NOT usage. That is caching. If it was using that much then my cards would hit a wall. They are not.

 

[-slash-]

Skyrim, Ultra settings, Single 1080p monitor, 4k texture mods. After adding a higher res flora mod I'm sitting at 2k most of the time when outside. Before I wasnt getting FPS drops, now I am. Granted modded Skyrim isnt everyones bag, but 1080p can use 2gb of vRam

Anyone have links to 2GB not being enough for a 1080p monitor? Or even close enough that you would have to worry?

In fact having a 2GB card puts you on the bleeding edge of the market, and will for quite some time.

See my post above. That is at 1080p. I have experienced stuttering with no loss in FPS that I believe is due to lack of memory buffer. Not 100% sure though. I have a 780 GHz on the way and will do some testing with it this weekend and report back.

 

[-slash-]

In fact pretty much everything supports 4GB being a waste for the vast majority of situations, even on 25XX

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31626

My problem with that review is it does not state what the vRam usage is. If a game only uses 1500mb vRam of course a 4GB card will not make a difference. When asked if any used more than 2GB they didnt respond. I'd like to believe Crysis 3 did. I know BF4 will. Skyrim will. I'm half tempted to pick up a 560ti 1GB to run against my 2GB version and see if the ram really does make a difference on a game I have recorded using 2gb.

 

[OCGuy]

Even the hog BF4 doesn't use more than 1.5 @ 1080p, and piles of data are in this thread supporting one conclusion, but only gut-feeling supporting the other.

 

[poohbear]

Where are you getting Maxwell release in 2 months? Considering that nVidia is releasing Titan Black and GTX-790 at $1000+ I doubt they have any plans on releasing any high end Maxwell cards above the GTX-750 ti we've read about, for quite some time.

April is in 2 months (its already feb this weekend).

 

[cmdrdredd]

My problem with that review is it does not state what the vRam usage is. If a game only uses 1500mb vRam of course a 4GB card will not make a difference. When asked if any used more than 2GB they didnt respond. I'd like to believe Crysis 3 did. I know BF4 will. Skyrim will. I'm half tempted to pick up a 560ti 1GB to run against my 2GB version and see if the ram really does make a difference on a game I have recorded using 2gb.

You can eat up vram by piling on msaa. The game engine itself doesn't necessitate 3GB+ yet. Maybe with a modified version of it.

 

[OCGuy]

You can eat up vram by piling on msaa. The game engine itself doesn't necessitate 3GB+ yet. Maybe with a modified version of it.

Which engine? BF4 doesn't get to 2GB @ 1080p no matter what you do to the settings. You get close @ 2560x only on Ultra with MSAA, but that is unnecessary.

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

 

[-slash-]

Even the hog BF4 doesn't use more than 1.5 @ 1080p, and piles of data are in this thread supporting one conclusion, but only gut-feeling supporting the other.

None of the piles of data show usage though. Again, if your game is only using 1gb of vRam having 4gb will not make a lick of difference. A benchmark needs to use a game that surpasses the 2gb vRam mark to test whether or not the 2gb card will start to limit performance.

I have posted my results using a 560ti 2GB card. It shows utilization of 2000mb vRam and I have maxed it out. If my 560ti can use 2gb I dont understand how you can say a 770 will be horsepower limited at 4gb. I dont believe it can fully utilize any more than 3gb, but I guarantee it can push more than 2gb. I do agree that 4gb is overkill unless you run them SLI as you will hit graphical limitations before hitting the 4gb mark. I will also say that games today going above 2gb vRam on 1080p are the exception, not the rule. I can say this, if he likes pretty textures and high resolution dont cheap out on the vRam.

Like I said, when I get my 780 I'll get some SS's of my usage while playing games this weekend. I should be able to get a good reading with the 3gb overhead and the power of the 780 to back it. I have Metro 2033, Far Cry 3, Skyrim Modded, Stalker CoP, and am thinking of grabbing BF4 just to test the card

 

[-slash-]

April is in 2 months (its already feb this weekend).

Maxwell will be Q3 or Q4. The 750ti is not a true maxwell card and is the only card being released this spring.

 

[OCGuy]

None of the piles of data show usage though. Again, if your game is only using 1gb of vRam having 4gb will not make a lick of difference. A benchmark needs to use a game that surpasses the 2gb vRam mark to test whether or not the 2gb card will start to limit performance.

That is called circular logic. We need to prove that you need a card over 2GB, but since none of the data suggests you do, we cannot use it.

And yes, there is a graph for BF4 showing usage.