How much VRAM is enough for lots of mods?

[Skazzy]

worldofscott - Newer boards have problems but in my experience and a whole lot from the others, AMD boards have more problems with games, drivers -even if they have a max. fps a bit higher than nvidia's cards, also I want to benefit from PhysX as I said before, run with cuda acceleration 1080p high bitrate videos and msaa.

Another fact for me is that I don't believe in SLI/CF , I prefer a single powerful gpu with factory oc and good cooling potential, than to run 2 or more cards in the system for a 1080p resolution. Also games have problems with scaling the performance of multi cards.

I prefer to buy the best single gpu solution with the money I have @ the moment of buying...That's my philosophy, may be right, may be wrong but some are already proven facts by people with lots of expertise.

[drafzzz]

I think your fibbing to yourself if you believe newer boards have less problems.

 

Also there's nothing wrong with being a generation behind as long as your buying quality. I'm still using 6950s and they are destroying the latest games being released on max settings.

Once they start to struggle in a few years you can upgrade again at half the price your paying now.

 

 

first , I totally agree with you.

 

my 5870 still run very well. it's enough for me. okay only 1GB , but if you select carefully your textures imporvements, it does the job.

i bought it for arma2. and pixel rate is high.

compare with card of this seasons !

 

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/1623335870.gif

newer card doesnt means better card. first and formost , it means more profit for company...

 

secondly,

more mod != more VRAM requirement. texture mods mainly, would require more VRAM

Edited December 6, 2012 by drafzzz

[Skazzy]

drafzzz -Thank for your input man, didn't intended to offend anyone with older cards or start a discussion amd vs nvidia cards- just wanted to know for sure if I mod Skyrim with lots of mods if I will be okay with a 2gb gtx 670.

Things have changed for me and sadly not for the best and I will have to choose between similar priced Gigabyte 4gb the one that is tri-slot, MSI 670 TwinFrozr IV Power OC 2GB or EVGA 670 2GB FTW+.

[nihlanth]

I have actual experience in this matter.

 

Using a GTX 680 2gb SLI setup with the highest quality Ambient occlusion ENB, 2k SRO texture pack, Static Mesh improvement mod, enhanced distant detail terrain, Skyrim Full distant lod mod, HD Trees 4k, and various other 2k+ texture mods and over 100+ gameplay mods:

 

Walking in a straight line gives a constant 60 fps, but loading new scenery while turning in a 360 degree circle causes some stuttering in an object-heavy outdoor location such as right out side windhelm or whiterun.

 

Using a GTX 670 4gb sli setup with the same mods, I get absolutely no stuttering at all.

 

Why?

 

 

Because my max VRAM usage peaked above 3,262 GB. That means 1.2GB of framebuffer was cached in regular system ram, which is slower than VRAM. I noticed my system ram usage would peak to 6gb.

 

While using the 4gb cards, my system ram did not go higher than 4gb, and as a result, had no stuttering while new scenery was popping in while turning in a 360 degree circle.

 

I am obssessive with skyrim having the highest quality textures and mods, but if you are not as obssessive as i am, just reduce the size of the textures using an optimizer tool.

 

Overclocking the GPU clock speed does not have a very noticeable effect on skyrim since skyrim is more of CPU and memory hog. I wouldnt bother with the 'FTW' or pre-overclocked cards since the cards are easily overclockable on their own.

 

It is up to you wether you can live with a little stuttering in specific situations with the highest quality textures. I can't.... since I'm a little crazy.

Edited December 18, 2012 by nihlanth

[drafzzz]

don't forget that you can optimize some texture with this great tool : http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801

sometime, mod maker don't select good format , in this case you can reduce size of textures without resizing it at all. the format of file can make it smaller.

you can too , resize it very easily . per example, resize only what is > 4096X4096.

it is a great tool .

 

for texture mod, i admit after having experimented a little bit with , images settings (SSAA , FSAA etc) you need 2GB of vram per card to be comfortable.

i had to reduce my textures set (with this tools) to be able to enjoy supersampling 4x supersampling. i disabled my enb plugin finally , to get a smooth image quality.

no more flickering and pixel blinking , even in in south east forest . screenshot can appear smooth , but in live, can be aliased etc. depending of your AA method. SSAA being the best , and the oldest .

 

but very high res texture doesn't change the game experience. don't forget there is a LOAD of great gameplay mods available too .

 

ps: texture is all about surface. to multiply visual presision by 2 , you need 4 time more memory. for 4x precision , you need 16 time more memory .

fortunatly, you don't need to care about volume LOL .

Edited December 19, 2012 by drafzzz

[QT31415]

If you get a 1 or 2 GB card you are playing into today's technology and a card that will be lower end in just a few months. Go see what is coming in January 2013 (next month). Crysis 3 claims to melt your system. For about $40 (or less) you can get a 4GB 670 card that clocks core and boost over 1000Mhz Edited December 19, 2012 by QT31415

[drafzzz]

drafzzz -Thank for your input man,didn't intended to offend anyone with older cards or start a discussion amd vs nvidia cards- just wanted to know for sure if I mod Skyrim with lots of mods if I will be okay with a 2gb gtx 670.

Things have changed for me and sadly not for the best and I will have to choose between similar priced Gigabyte 4gb the one that is tri-slot, MSI 670 TwinFrozr IV Power OC 2GB or EVGA 670 2GB FTW+.

 

 

never though that :) .

Edited December 19, 2012 by drafzzz

[Skazzy]

@nihlanth - With a single 4gb 670 you get stuttering? I want to know if only one single card can power up those textures - for at least 30 fps and without stutter. But I guess I will select the best re-textures and optimize them afterwards for the best gameplay.

 

@drafzzz - Yes, that's why I wanted to know actual facts from people that pushed the limits of their cards and not settled with settings of low quality.

 

@QT31415 - I know what's coming and that's why I want to buy the best graphics card for my money. But at launch new games are still plagued with console graphics level, and not to mention the optimization level that will make any of these games, until the nextgen games come, to run pretty well on current gpu's. See the case of the 2nd Crysis at launch the released it with low level textures and afterwards they launched the hi-res textures pack.

Games without modding will run well one any middle to highend GPU, but we here are talking about pushing the envelope and modding them. :D

[nihlanth]

@nihlanth - With a single 4gb 670 you get stuttering? I want to know if only one single card can power up those textures - for at least 30 fps and without stutter. But I guess I will select the best re-textures and optimize them afterwards for the best gameplay.

 

I dont get stutter with a single 670 4gb, 30fps is certainly doable with single card and all those texture mods. However, dont expect a constant 60fps with a single card.

 

 

If I try to use a triple-monitor surround configuration, the game is unplayable even with two high end GPU's on SLI (unless I remove the ENB).

[RIGGSY]

I play with a GTX 560Ti 2gb and use tons of mods including all 2k textures. That works flawlessly for me so I'd say 2gb is enough (although you can never have enough I guess!).