• Will a 1GB Graphics Card be enough?
    16 replies, posted
Hello, so I am planning to order a Radeon 7850 1GB card, and I'm wondering, will 1GB be enough for playing new games like Far Cry 3, BF3, Skyrim @ 1080p? Or should I spend the extra cash for a 2GB 7850?
It's worth the extra cash really, I went through the same dilemma recently and got a 2GB one in the end. It's mostly the peace of mind that in the future, you will have enough VRAM for sure. You don't want to save £20 today to end up spending a lot more in the future if the 1GB card starts to run out. The 7850 1GB pretty much only exists to hassle the 650Ti's price point.
The 1GB is currently $25 less than the 2GB version: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150642[/url] Just get that - you probably won't be restricted by memory anyway.
[QUOTE=rhx123;39293997]It's worth the extra cash really, I went through the same dilemma recently and got a 2GB one in the end. It's mostly the peace of mind that in the future, you will have enough VRAM for sure. You don't want to save £20 today to end up spending a lot more in the future if the 1GB card starts to run out. The 7850 1GB pretty much only exists to hassle the 650Ti's price point.[/QUOTE] You'll most likely need a more powerful card before you run out of VRAM, a 2GB card is a waste of money. Jump up to a 7870 or get the 1GB 7850. [editline]20th January 2013[/editline] There might be some cases where the 2GB card would be worth it, but it's unlikely that you fall into that group.
[QUOTE=Shadaez;39294292]You'll most likely need a more powerful card before you run out of VRAM, a 2GB card is a waste of money. Jump up to a 7870 or get the 1GB 7850. [editline]20th January 2013[/editline] There might be some cases where the 2GB card would be worth it, but it's unlikely that you fall into that group.[/QUOTE] GTA IV uses 1.3GB vram for me, and I get ~60 fps on max. Defiantly use the extra VRAM.
[QUOTE=rhx123;39294394]GTA IV uses 1.3GB vram for me, and I get ~60 fps on max. Defiantly use the extra VRAM.[/QUOTE] Vram has to do with mainly the resolution while graphic fidelity lies with graphic core
Yeah GTAIV has some weird limit on the graphics settings that can be set based on your VRAM but it's easy to get around, if GTA 4 is the only game you play, sure go for 2GB whatever.
[QUOTE=rhx123;39294394]GTA IV uses 1.3GB vram for me, and I get ~60 fps on max. Defiantly use the extra VRAM.[/QUOTE] He shouldn't do it defiantly, though. And GTA IV is an anomaly, overall 1GB is more than enough (and I've had no problems running GTA IV on a 1GB 6950).
[QUOTE=Shadaez;39294587]Yeah GTAIV has some weird limit on the graphics settings that can be set based on your VRAM but it's easy to get around, if GTA 4 is the only game you play, sure go for 2GB whatever.[/QUOTE] The difference was only £20 for me, which is really not much in terms of day to day spending, so it hardly seemed worth not getting it. And also I've never experience setting locking on GTA, even on my 275. [editline]20th January 2013[/editline] Although to be honest, the only game which REALLY needs extra vram is skyrim. If you intend to play skyrim, you NEED the 2GB one. [IMG]http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph6359/50609.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE=rhx123;39295226]The difference was only £20 for me, which is really not much in terms of day to day spending, so it hardly seemed worth not getting it. And also I've never experience setting locking on GTA, even on my 275. [editline]20th January 2013[/editline] Although to be honest, the only game which REALLY needs extra vram is skyrim. If you intend to play skyrim, you NEED the 2GB one. [IMG]http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph6359/50609.png[/IMG][/QUOTE] There's no way that graph is legit, probably paid to show it runs at higher fps on certain cards.
[QUOTE=gay_idiot;39296781]There's no way that graph is legit, probably paid to show it runs at higher fps on certain cards.[/QUOTE] How isn't it? its the same card with the only difference being in Vram they should all run the same since its the same core (maybe with a bit of variance) more Vram is only beneficial for multi display.
Ok, so say I go for the 1GB model, and I'm playing GTA IV, which I assume I will play once in a while with my friends, and the needed Video Ram goes up to say....1.1GB, will my game just crash on me or..?
[QUOTE=StevenW;39303141]Ok, so say I go for the 1GB model, and I'm playing GTA IV, which I assume I will play once in a while with my friends, and the needed Video Ram goes up to say....1.1GB, will my game just crash on me or..?[/QUOTE] I'm not quite sure (someone correct me if I'm wrong, don't take my word for this), my guess is it will just kill your FPS as the card swaps textures and stuff in and out of memory. You can of course just turn the Render/LOD distance down to use less memory. [editline]21st January 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=gay_idiot;39296781]There's no way that graph is legit, probably paid to show it runs at higher fps on certain cards.[/QUOTE] The graph shows that mostly the 1gb (cheaper) card is faster in a more circumstances than not, why on earth would someone pay to get people to buy a cheaper product? Also anandtech is as unbiased as you get in tech journalism.
If the GPU runs out of VRAM, it uses system memory instead
[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;39305216']If the GPU runs out of VRAM, it uses system memory instead[/QUOTE] So I'll be fine with 1GB for a bit before I end up, upgrading down the road?
So I guess, since this card is just going to hold me over since I will upgrade later in life, I'll just go for the 1GB and save 'bout 35 bucks, which will help a bit considering I'm on a budget build [editline]22nd January 2013[/editline] Well just my luck, the price changed, I guess now I'm going for the 2gb, because now the 1GB is only $10 less
[QUOTE=StevenW;39321120]So I guess, since this card is just going to hold me over since I will upgrade later in life, I'll just go for the 1GB and save 'bout 35 bucks, which will help a bit considering I'm on a budget build [editline]22nd January 2013[/editline] Well just my luck, the price changed, I guess now I'm going for the 2gb, because now the 1GB is only $10 less[/QUOTE] You said you'll be playing Skyrim, you might need the extra VRAM if you go all out modding on the game, My skyrim currently uses 2gb of VRAM at times.
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