Poll: Video ram
- Thread starter zauxz
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512 is enough for current gen gaming, provided that you get a quality one. I would reccomend the Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT. It works really great. However, if you are planning on keeping that computer for a while and don't want to upgrade anytime soon, I would reccomend bumping it up to a 1 gig card.
Yea, that's the card I have. It's pretty cheap these days and for some reason, it outperforms some of Nvidia's similar, but higher quality cards.zauxz said:
Well, it runs wow at 1080p on my flatscreen with no issue with everything cranked. It handled Doom 3 at max graphics just fine. Crysis started getting choppy at mid high level. I'd say that as long as you don't try turning the Anti-aliasing all the way up on the newer games it would probably perform solidly for a little while yet.
RAM isn't the only factor in a card's performance. There are very fast cards with 512 megs of RAM and much slower ones with a gig or more. What's your budget?
I have an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 with 768 MB of VRAM. It pretty good for all my games but I really use it for 3D modeling.
As for more RAM in other people systems? More RAM is never a bad thing and is always good.
Sure 512 is OK for current gen gaming. In most games you would have to turn most of the settings down to medium with no AA to get decent frame rates.
As for more RAM in other people systems? More RAM is never a bad thing and is always good.
Sure 512 is OK for current gen gaming. In most games you would have to turn most of the settings down to medium with no AA to get decent frame rates.
For now I only have an Nvidia 9800GT with 512mb of RAM
It works fine for most of the games that are out now.
It works fine for most of the games that are out now.
Well, not completely separate, but distinct, yes. Textures that the graphics card needs would have to be present/made present in system RAM before being transferred to video RAM. A texture in VRAM is what you want. If you have go to system RAM this is orders of magnitude slower. If you have to go to virtual memory (hard disk), it's another orders of magnitude slower.
In my experience, 512MB is enough to make Crysis, Far Cry 2 look 'nice' -- if memory serves, medium texture levels for smooth play. (Except on Crysis's last level, inside the structure -- I think they forgot "texture budget" there, as I had to drop to medium-low I think it was, as the card was noticeably scrambling for textures every time I turned around or looked toward a new room. This was with 3GB system RAM/Vista.)
In my experience, 512MB is enough to make Crysis, Far Cry 2 look 'nice' -- if memory serves, medium texture levels for smooth play. (Except on Crysis's last level, inside the structure -- I think they forgot "texture budget" there, as I had to drop to medium-low I think it was, as the card was noticeably scrambling for textures every time I turned around or looked toward a new room. This was with 3GB system RAM/Vista.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121350
ATi 5770 1GB card
ASUS did make a 4gb of ram videocard
http://www.techpowerup.com/95445/ASUS_Designes_Own_Monster_Dual-GTX_285_4_GB_Graphics_Card.html
ATi 5770 1GB card
ASUS did make a 4gb of ram videocard
http://www.techpowerup.com/95445/ASUS_Designes_Own_Monster_Dual-GTX_285_4_GB_Graphics_Card.html
how much vram you need depends on a lot of factors. if you plan on running the game at max settings with a high resolution then 512mb may not be enough.
as a general rule, if you intend to run all the newest games at a resolution of 1920x1080 or higher then you want to go with a 1gb card (however higher resolutions, such as 2560x1600, may require two cards or a single card with two gpus to run well at those settings). however if your resolution is 1680x1050 or lower then 512mb will be sufficient.
as some have said, the vram isnt the only thing thats important. things like the number of shader units, ROPs, texture units and clock speed arguably matter more than just how much vram the card has (though newer cards tend to have 1gb versions that arent too much more expensive than their 512mb brethren).
but the most important thing to remember is this: NEVER just jump head first and impulse buy a graphics card. read reviews ( www.anandtech.com is a VERY good place to start, they give you more information in their reviews then youll EVER need to know), compare prices and ultimately pick the card that is best for your situation based on the research you do. as much as many like to claim its not wikipedia is a good resource, and google is a good one as well. but since you asked these questions i take it your doing your reasearch and in the end you'll probably pick a good card.
just one more thing though, cards with a good price/performance ratio are better choices than cards that are the most powerful but cost a lot.
as a general rule, if you intend to run all the newest games at a resolution of 1920x1080 or higher then you want to go with a 1gb card (however higher resolutions, such as 2560x1600, may require two cards or a single card with two gpus to run well at those settings). however if your resolution is 1680x1050 or lower then 512mb will be sufficient.
as some have said, the vram isnt the only thing thats important. things like the number of shader units, ROPs, texture units and clock speed arguably matter more than just how much vram the card has (though newer cards tend to have 1gb versions that arent too much more expensive than their 512mb brethren).
but the most important thing to remember is this: NEVER just jump head first and impulse buy a graphics card. read reviews ( www.anandtech.com is a VERY good place to start, they give you more information in their reviews then youll EVER need to know), compare prices and ultimately pick the card that is best for your situation based on the research you do. as much as many like to claim its not wikipedia is a good resource, and google is a good one as well. but since you asked these questions i take it your doing your reasearch and in the end you'll probably pick a good card.
just one more thing though, cards with a good price/performance ratio are better choices than cards that are the most powerful but cost a lot.