What happens when future games have bigger textures?

[Acanthus]

yes I am dismissing it because it is not likely at all. above 1920 sure but at 1920 and below I have zero doubts that 1280mb will suffice for the next 2 years. if someone wants to buy a 6950 for the sole reason of having more vram than a 570 just to play at 1920 then thats their choice of course.

what happens if the new consoles are equipped with 2GB?

They should be out toward the end of 2011.

 

[toyota]

what happens if the new consoles are equipped with 2GB?

They should be out toward the end of 2011.

new consoles toward the end of 2011? I would love to know where you pulled that from.

 

[Throckmorton]

It depends on the game and on the settings. I can get a 1 GB Radeon 6850 to texture swap in Call of Duty 1 by running it at 2560x1600 with 8xSSAA.

Back when I got my EVGA 1gb 8800GT in early 2008, common wisdom was you only need 512mb. Well now a lot of games exceed 512, even if just by a little. WoW, with 1920x1200 2x AA and most settings maxed goes up to about 530.

 

[Modelworks]

if you dont go 570 sli for over year or so then it would probably make more sense to get whatever new single card is out at that time anyway. I still dont see 1280mb being a worry at 1920 for at least the next 2 years though.

The way to tell what will be required is to look at what the major OEM like Dell and HP are shipping the most. Looking at this Christmas and what dell ships, the model they shipped more than any other:


core 2 3.0ghz cpu
4GB ram
640GB HD,
GMA X4500

HP is shipping the most:
512MB ATI Radeon HD 5450
AMD X4 635 quad-core
6GB DDR3
1TB HD

That is what will decide what developers support in the future. People on places like these forums are such a small part of the market that we usually don't figure into it. I got a friend who left an EA developer to make small games like popcap games and made a killing compared to making big budget high end hardware games.

 

[toyota]

The way to tell what will be required is to look at what the major OEM like Dell and HP are shipping the most. Looking at this Christmas and what dell ships, the model they shipped more than any other:


core 2 3.0ghz cpu
4GB ram
640GB HD,
GMA X4500

HP is shipping the most:
512MB ATI Radeon HD 5450
AMD X4 635 quad-core
6GB DDR3
1TB HD

That is what will decide what developers support in the future. People on places like these forums are such a small part of the market that we usually don't figure into it. I got a friend who left an EA developer to make small games like popcap games and made a killing compared to making big budget high end hardware games.

well a company like Valve will look at what type of systems the vast majority of users have to make sure that nearly all users can run their game at at least some level. most developers mainly focus on consoles though because that is where 90% of their money will come from. not to mention most oem comps come with integrated video that can barley even handle any new games on lowest settings. heck even the 5450 is below the minimum requirements for many games.

 

[Habeed]

At best you’ll get occasional pauses/hitches, while at worst performance will be constantly eroded. This is no different to something like Quake 3 running out of VRAM back in 2000 if you tried to run levels like Hero’s Keep on 32 MB cards without texture compression.


I don’t think GTA 4’s highest texture setting is available unless you have a 2 GB card.

I overrode this with a command line switch. I'm running the game completely maxxed out.

 

[Acanthus]

new consoles toward the end of 2011? I would love to know where you pulled that from.

When MS and Sony both delayed their next gen console launches for wii motion clones?

Obviously it will depend on the strength of current gen sales.

The 3 console makers run on 4-6 year product cycles.

 

[toyota]

When MS and Sony both delayed their next gen console launches for wii motion clones?

Obviously it will depend on the strength of current gen sales.

The 3 console makers run on 4-6 year product cycles.

you have no idea when the new consoles are coming out so your claim that it will be next year is just you guessing. their has not be one single indication or even credible rumor that a PS3 and 360 replacement is coming next year.

 

[notty22]

I remember reading articles about both companies plans, they mentioned 10 year life cycles. Specifically Sony with its blu ray player. Their goal would be to have everyone have one as part of their home theater /entertainment setup. Its actually a more effective business plan to not continually change the hardware. It takes them years to recoup the costs of the hardware, research and development that makes it all happen.
Even when we see new consoles, most are used on 1080p televisions.

 

[Acanthus]

you have no idea when the new consoles are coming out so your claim that it will be next year is just you guessing. their has not be one single indication or even credible rumor that a PS3 and 360 replacement is coming next year.

You are exactly right. It's a guess. I'm glad you could call me out on something blatantly obvious?

That does not in any way change the concept i was presenting.

When the consoles get larger texture buffers, games will begin using it.

 

[toyota]

You are exactly right. It's a guess. I'm glad you could call me out on something blatantly obvious?

That does not in any way change the concept i was presenting.

When the consoles get larger texture buffers, games will begin using it.

are you kidding? it changes everything because I was saying that the 1.25 gb of vram will not be an issue on a gtx570 at 1920 for the next 2 year. you then said that new consoles will be out next year...

 

[lord_emperor]

From what I've observed, by the time you need all that extra video memory, the early-adopting cards that had too much for their own time are obsolete anyway.

 

[Acanthus]

are you kidding? it changes everything because I was saying that the 1.25 gb of vram will not be an issue on a gtx570 at 1920 for the next 2 year. you then said that new consoles will be out next year...

I was not referencing the longetivity of the gtx570.

but you can continue to be a jerk about it if you like.

 

[toyota]

I was not referencing the longetivity of the gtx570.

but you can continue to be a jerk about it if you like.

you replied to ME saying the new consoles should be out next year after I said that 1.25 of vram would be enough at 1920 for the next 2 years.

if you dont go 570 sli for over year or so then it would probably make more sense to get whatever new single card is out at that time anyway. I still dont see 1280mb being a worry at 1920 for at least the next 2 years though.

what happens if the new consoles are equipped with 2GB?

They should be out toward the end of 2011.

 

[jinsaotomex4]

PS3 and Xbox 360 are on 10 year cycles. So don't expect new consoles until 2015-2016 earliest.

 

[toyota]

PS3 and Xbox 360 are on 10 year cycles. So don't expect new consoles until 2015-2016 earliest.

they are supposedly on cycles of being supported for 10 years. that does not mean we will not have new consoles well before then. for example games are still made for PS2 even though we have the PS3. holiday 2012 or 2013 at the latest would be my guess.

 

[jinsaotomex4]

they are supposedly on cycles of being supported for 10 years. that does not mean we will not have new consoles well before then. for example games are still made for PS2 even though we have the PS3. holiday 2012 or 2013 at the latest would be my guess.

Due to the release of the PS Move and Kinect neither Sony or MS have any interest in releasing new consoles soon.

http://venturebeat.com/2009/06/02/m...ribes-origins-of-project-natal-game-controls/

"VB: Can you think about postponing the next-generation console launch if you introduce something big in mid-cycle like Project Natal?

SK: We firmly believe that the Xbox 360 has a life cycle through 2015 (10 years after the launch). Project Natal is a great innovation. It will work with every Xbox 360 sold. It’s not about pushing more pixels on the screen. It’s about how to break down barriers that stop people from playing games."

I am not denying that the new consoles will be released soon as it is certainly a possibility. I think we're going off topic here though.

 

[BFG10K]

really? how is that even possible in that really old game?

In this instance it’s because 8xSSAA renders every frame eight different times. In new games you won’t be running such high AA levels of course, but newer games in turn generally have bigger textures than older games.

Something like a 6970/GTX480/GTX580 definitely has enough performance to benefit from more than 1 GB. The same applies even more to something like a 5970.

 

[Habeed]

And what about the SLI case? In SLI, each card has to have a complete copy of all VRAM assets : the effective memory of an SLI system is the ram of one card. Yet, with 2 gpus doubling performance, an sli system will run games very well for at least a year longer than a solo card that is obsolete.

 

[BFG10K]

And what about the SLI case?

Like I implied earlier, the 5970 (and hence SLI/CF systems in general) need VRAM even more, because they have more performance to give if they aren’t VRAM limited.

You frequently see situations where single cards from new generations are outrunning a pair of cards from the older generation because the new cards have more VRAM.