Is VRAM all that important?, 2x 560 Ti's in SLI or a new single card? Options

[ninjacatfish]

So I upgraded my monitor to a 2560x1440 panel. My GTX 560 Ti Hawk is running things admirably, much better than I thought it would, but it's not perfect. I do want to upgrade it, but I'm not sure which is the best way to go about it.
Initially I was thinking I'd just get a second GTX 560 Ti for about $270 and be set for a while. Investigating into SLI though, I've found that I'd be limited to the VRAM on the main card, which is only 1GB. Running at 2560x1440, with high resolution textures where possible, I'm not sure if having only 1GB of VRAM will be bottlenecking my GPU performance.

The other option is to spend about $550 on a GTX 670 or equivalent AMD card with more RAM. This is much more expensive, and I don't want to do it if there will be little appreciable benefit.

So I ask, is it worth paying almost double as much to get the extra VRAM?

[unco_tomato]

You are correct when you say you will get more performance from higher VRAM, but "is it worth the price difference?" is only a question you can answer. It will vary from title to title, but in my experience (I've run Eyefinity in the past and currently use 2560x1440 at home) I'd say you can expect a 5% performance gain from the extra VRAM at that resolution. Even with huge textures used in 2560x1440 a lot of games don't actually have those texture sizes, and in fact just stretch out their typical HD textures.

Also, with consoles being severely RAM limited, many developers are getting good at making their textures very small in terms of memory resource requirements, and again we don't see a huge need for >1.5GB of VRAM (why the GTX 680 is only 2GB).

Personally, I'd say going with the second 560Ti will yield the best results for your spend, and possibly even out perform the single 670 in some titles.

EDIT: For example: See here where the GTX 560 Ti SLI comes out on top of the single GTX 580, despite having 500MB less VRAM, and 1GB less than the 5970. VRAM comes into it, but GPU processing power is usually the bottleneck.

[gamble]

Idk but I had HD 5850 in xfire and it was fast but moving to the single card was much smoother and I could run at higher settings. Also, you need to have good cooling, psu, and will have more noise with two cards. You could sell your card too.

Compares with 560 sli vs 670: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/399...top-2gb/?page=3


Some OC results: http://www.gpureview.com/gpureviews-gtx-67...rticle-947.html

This post has been edited by gamble: Jun 21 2012, 01:15 AM

[ninjacatfish]

You are correct when you say you will get more performance from higher VRAM, but "is it worth the price difference?" is only a question you can answer. It will vary from title to title, but in my experience (I've run Eyefinity in the past and currently use 2560x1440 at home) I'd say you can expect a 5% performance gain from the extra VRAM at that resolution. Even with huge textures used in 2560x1440 a lot of games don't actually have those texture sizes, and in fact just stretch out their typical HD textures.

Also, with consoles being severely RAM limited, many developers are getting good at making their textures very small in terms of memory resource requirements, and again we don't see a huge need for >1.5GB of VRAM (why the GTX 680 is only 2GB).

Only about 5% difference you say? I definitely don't think roughly double the price is worth such a tiny difference. Sounds like my best bet would be to grab a comparatively cheaper second 560 Ti, and it should see me through the GTX 6xx generation, at which point it will be a much much bigger jump in performance. Plus, I've only had the 560 Ti for less than a year, feels bad just throwing it aside :P

[gamble]

I think I would lean more toward the single card still and is only double if you dont sell your current card. Even if you only sold your current card for $170 - $550 = $380. That really only $100 bucks more for the single card than going sli.

But I guess you could maybe pick up a 2nd hand 560 for cheap.

[Dasa]

extra memory makes no difference until the amount needed exceeds the amount you have and then once it goes a bit past the gamse becomes a stuttering mess go far enough past and your framerates can go from 120fps to 3fps or the game crashes but then you can fix this by setting texture quality to low
at the moment there is no unmodded games that will stress 1g gpu memory to the point where you will get a very large performance drop when at 1080p no aa but there is a number of games that will run noticeably better at 2560 especially if you try to add aa

[nobody813]

Aren't cards like the HD 5970 (dual chip ones) only half what they're advertised to be? That specific card is 2x1GB, rather than a true 2GB card. I was under the impression each chip only gets to use its 1GB. Is this true?

[NukeJockey]

Aren't cards like the HD 5970 (dual chip ones) only half what they're advertised to be? That specific card is 2x1GB, rather than a true 2GB card. I was under the impression each chip only gets to use its 1GB. Is this true?

Yup.

It mirrors it on both cards.

[nobody813]

Explains why my 512MB HD 4850 was able to game well at 1080p, but 2 would run out of memory, as there is some overhead

[xyzzy frobozz]

So I upgraded my monitor to a 2560x1440 panel. My GTX 560 Ti Hawk is running things admirably, much better than I thought it would, but it's not perfect. I do want to upgrade it, but I'm not sure which is the best way to go about it.
Initially I was thinking I'd just get a second GTX 560 Ti for about $270 and be set for a while. Investigating into SLI though, I've found that I'd be limited to the VRAM on the main card, which is only 1GB. Running at 2560x1440, with high resolution textures where possible, I'm not sure if having only 1GB of VRAM will be bottlenecking my GPU performance.

The other option is to spend about $550 on a GTX 670 or equivalent AMD card with more RAM. This is much more expensive, and I don't want to do it if there will be little appreciable benefit.

So I ask, is it worth paying almost double as much to get the extra VRAM?

Great question and thanks for asking it!

I've been rattling the same question about in my head for a while. I game at 2560 x 1600 and I have AIDA64 running on my G19 screen where I monitor all sorts of things in real time, including VRAM usage. I've noticed that certain games when modded can max out the memory use on my GTX580 - specifically Skyrim and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. COP.

My understand was that adding an extra card won't help, because the textures will be loaded into both cards memory, filling up the available VRAM.

Is that correct?

If so, 1.5GB and possibly even 2GB is starting to look like a pretty skinny amount of VRAM for those gaming above HD.

This post has been edited by xyzzy frobozz: Jun 21 2012, 02:11 PM

[unco_tomato]

You're right, both cards fill VRAM equally so there is no point getting a second card if that is your intended fix for running out of VRAM.

As I said in the second post, there are certainly games that can make use of >1.5GB VRAM at 2560x1600 and up, and as Dasa added, AA / AF can compound the issue. I'd still say the GTX 560 Ti SLI is a better option for the cost outlay (unless you can find a really cheap GTX 670 (or better yet 7950)).

Ideally you would use one or two 7950/70 cards when running 2560x1600 and above, though obviously not everyone can afford that luxury. Two cheaper cards in multi-GPU setup should offer a better cost/performance solution most of the time.

[ninjacatfish]

I ended up going for the second 560 Ti card in SLI. It'll perform more than satisfactorily for the forseeable future, and I'll just get a bettter single card in a year or so when the GTX 7xx series comes out and blows the 6xx series away :P

Regarding AA usage, I don't see much need for it when pixel density is as high as it is in a 27-inch 2650x1440 monitor. In a game that will push my system, I rarely put it anywhere above 2x because I honestly see such a small difference that it's not worth the performance hit.

Thanks for your advice all!