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Thinking about a new PCFollow

#52 Apr 13 2014 at 3:14 PM Rating: Excellent
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I can fix that, how many rateups should I give myself?
(they actually technically lower my score heh.)
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#53 Apr 16 2014 at 8:24 PM Rating: Decent
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@Jophiel, and anyone else contemplating them, I bought a Cyberpower PC a couple years ago (theres a link to it somewhere in here) and have been very happy with it. I've had a few glitches with fan issues recently on the video card, but have patched it together with twigs and bailing wire...still works!
#55 Jul 31 2014 at 5:20 AM Rating: Default
Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
Demea wrote:
It looks like most newer machines use HDMI for video output. I have two DVI monitors. Am I just resigned to upgrading?

Also, how much of a difference does dedicated video card memory make? 1GB vs. 2GB (I've seen up to 4GB as well)?

Edited, Apr 12th 2014 12:13pm by Demea

It depends on what you want to do with gaming. Most games will make use of all the video memory you can throw at them, but it does tend to get to the point of diminishing returns after the 3GB mark. 2GB should be adequate. That being said I have 2 780 GTX TI's with a total og 6GB video memory now. That replaced the 6GB memory total pool of the two 580 GTX's I just pulled out of the system. If youdo any 3d rendering or want to play MMO's in "extreme video settings mode" it comes in handy. That being said a $1,000 budget does not allow for a super high memory video card.



Way to much emphasis is placed on video memory still, vram doesnt stack, if you have 2 3gb 780s you have 3gb vram.
yes video memory is important but usually a video card will have as much memory equiped that it needs to do its job without video ram becoming the bottleneck, in 90% of cases you will run out of video card grunt (from not having enough core clock speed, memory speed, memory bus etc) before you run out of vram. vram has become a bit more important of late likely as a result of the new consoles unified ram design, (watchdogs gobles upwards of 3gb at 1080p for instance on high settings, however no doubt some of it is buffered, just because a game is using more vram doesnt mean it will run any slower with a bit less available) if you have a 2gb card and the same card equiped with 4gb, it usually doesnt make any difference because as said vram is rarely the bottleneck, just the card clocks speeds, memory bus etc are too slow/small to make any difference having more vram on the same card. eg a 760 with 4gb mostly wont be any faster than one with 2gb, and certainly the 4gb 760 wont be faster than a 780ti with 3gb, the only exception would be running games at higher resolutions than 1080p, then vram becomes more of an issue. eg playing at 4k resolution id likely consider 2 6gb 780s over 2 3gb 780tis as vram matters more at higher resolution and the 780 isn't much slower it terms of gpu "grunt" than the 780ti, i still wouldnt consider 2 4gb 760s at 4k though as it probably wouldnt have the "grunt" needed for 4k.

bottom line is never go for a considerably slower card with more vram over a faster card with less vram, sometimes it may be beneficial to go for the same card with more vram as it does help at higher resolution and more future proof especially if going for dual card eg, 2 gtx 580s in sli might be feeling there age a bit these days if you only opted for 1.5 gb models but the 3gb models would now allow for higher settings, eg watchdogs needs 3gb for ultra textures.



Edited, Jul 31st 2014 7:53am by jamiehavok

Edited, Jul 31st 2014 8:29am by jamiehavok
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
#56 Aug 01 2014 at 12:36 PM Rating: Excellent
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Quote:
Way to much emphasis is placed on video memory still, vram doesnt stack, if you have 2 3gb 780s you have 3gb vram.


You apperently don't understand how SLI actually works. Please don't correct me until you understand the technology you are referring to.
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#57 Aug 01 2014 at 1:20 PM Rating: Default
Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
Quote:
Way to much emphasis is placed on video memory still, vram doesnt stack, if you have 2 3gb 780s you have 3gb vram.


You apperently don't understand how SLI actually works. Please don't correct me until you understand the technology you are referring to.


it doesnt take a genius to google how sli works, its also pretty common knowledge that vram doesn't stack, the data is mirrored.

though there are countless sources confirming this, the discussion here http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1868829/sli-increase-vram-usage.html probably explains it best:

Quote:

Each GPU will use the same amount of VRAM as a single GPU on its own. This is because in SLI or Crossfire, each GPU still renders a full frame on its own. Each card will handle every other frame. This means both cards must use their VRAM exactly the same as a single GPU configuration.

Example:
Single 770 may use 1.5Gb in a game.
In SLI, each 770 will use 1.5Gb in the same game.



and ...

Quote:
Quote:
Most of the data on the cards will be the same, they both need to have the textures they are dealing with loaded into their VRAM.

In short, SLI/CF does not increase the effective available VRAM, it only increases computational power


and those textures will be identical on each card...


This is proven when you play a game and measure vram usage, the game will exactly double its vram usage with sli enabled according to programmes like msi afterburner.


Edited, Aug 1st 2014 4:09pm by jamiehavok
#58 Aug 01 2014 at 2:02 PM Rating: Excellent
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Yes, texture cacheing is split evenly over the two cards (mirrored). but model rendering memory is still divided between the cards. In split frame rendering the "top card" manages the top half of the visible display and the second the bottom. In alternate frame rendering, one card is manageing the current display while the other is rendering the next frame. While some of that cached data is certanly present in both scenarios, the physx details, light pathing, ray tracing, shader details and other various video card functions, many of which use very large chunks of vram, are most certanly not identical across both cards. Depending on what engine you are running, what cards you are running and what program you are actually viewing you can get wildly different results. Especially for 3d rendering platforms such as autodesk inventor.
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#59 Aug 01 2014 at 2:20 PM Rating: Default
Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
Yes, texture cacheing is split evenly over the two cards (mirrored). but model rendering memory is still divided between the cards. In split frame rendering the "top card" manages the top half of the visible display and the second the bottom. In alternate frame rendering, one card is manageing the current display while the other is rendering the next frame. While some of that cached data is certanly present in both scenarios, the physx details, light pathing, ray tracing, shader details and other various video card functions, many of which use very large chunks of vram, are most certanly not identical across both cards. Depending on what engine you are running, what cards you are running and what program you are actually viewing you can get wildly different results. Especially for 3d rendering platforms such as autodesk inventor.


interesting ok, ill look into this!
#60 May 26 2019 at 9:35 AM Rating: Good
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Necro-bump. It done be 5 years since I bought my PC, and therefore time to upgrade once again. What's the current meta for fancy gaming tech? SSD is a must this time around; I want those sexy load times.
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