Video cards and there RAM.

[Cigarjohn]

I've noticed video cards that have 1.5 gb of video ram on them and some with 3.0 gb of ram on them.

How much ram does one actually need for gaming? Does it really make a large difference how much ram a card supports?

Will I notice a difference in game play?

My 8800GTX uses 768mb of ram and it seems fine in all the games I play. And I use ultra settings.


Would like to hear from some of you tech savvy people out there in eGO Land.


Thanks again.

Peace.

 

[labowsky]

im not 100% sure but it really matters all about the chipset, thats how i buy video cards haha hasn't failed me yet.

 

[Cut Chem!st]

Textures and geometry mainly. It's also better to have more vram if your using a higher resolution, recommended 1gb for 1080.

 

[frankth3frizz]

Textures and geometry mainly. It's also better to have more vram if your using a higher resolution, recommended 1gb for 1080.

This^

 

[anomaly]

You will not need more than 1GB of VRAM unless you are running dual or tri monitors, or nVidia 3D. It all depends on your needs.

 

[Snipeye]

Also pay attention to what kind of VRAM it is. It's not as common now, but before, some video cards had 2GB of GDDR3 RAM, whereas others had 1.5GB GDDR5 RAM, and those with the GDDR3 automatically assumed their cards were better.

 

[frankth3frizz]

You will not need more than 1GB of VRAM unless you are running dual or tri monitors, or nVidia 3D. It all depends on your needs.

not true :/ a 1920x1200 reso single monitor might only need one but a dell u3011 2560x1600 monitor will surely need atleast 1.5GB-2GB.

 

[a pet rock]

Larger amounts of VRAM are better for higher resolution gaming, especially multi-monitor. I know you've got a nice rig in mind, so you also need to know about advertising trickery. Dual-GPU cards (GTX 590 and Radeon 6990) advertise having twice as much memory as what's effectively being used. For instance, the 6990 advertises having 4GB of VRAM the problem is that it has to allocate 2GB to each chip. There is in fact 4GB of physical VRAM on the single card, but as far as performance is concerned it's 2GB. That being said, I think 2GB is plenty enough for 3x1080p. If you're thinking of 3x1600p some more research in that area would be helpful.