EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win Dual GPU Review

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Originally Posted by bhavv

Sorry but no. Your system only has 4 Gb ram. Your lag spikes are occurring because excess Vram is being stored into the shared ram instead, which vastly reduces your amount of available system ram

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Sorry but no to you, my system memory only maxes out at ~%80 used during game play. And just in case you want to start blaming my CPU it maxes out at ~%60

I get the lag spikes when the vram is fully allocated. I can see it with my own eyes!

It only happens when I run the ultra preset, with the high preset (which is what i run and i'm fine with it) I never get a single lag spike, and the vram never maxes out..


Fact is BF3 Can max out the vram on 1gb GPU's, and when it dose you have an undesirable effect on your gameplay!

Well the thing is that if you feel that Vram is the limiting factor in your PC, then why dont you upgrade your graphics cards?

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Originally Posted by CrazyNutz

Fact is BF3 Can max out the vram on 1gb GPU's, and when it dose you have an undesirable effect on your gameplay!

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I have heard from two or three people now with SLI 1 Gb GTX 560 tis and also 8 Gb system ram that they never experience any lag spikes or unplayable framerates in BF3 on Ultra settings, so no this isnt a fact, it is only your personal experience.

I havnt yet been limited, nor seen lag spikes in a lot of games that people claim 'eat up more than 1 Gb Vram' -

Metro 2033 - Max settings, 4x AA, DoF - 30-35 FPS average, not really very playable, but then a pair of 2 Gb GTX 560 tis also perform identical to this, so Vram is not the limiting cause
Witcher 2 - maxed out with Ubersampling disabled and 4x AA - cnstant 40-60 FPS, smooth gameplay with no lag or stutter
Civ V - maxed out with 4x AA, constant 60 FPS, no lag spikes, no stutter. The only problem is waiting times between turns later on in the game, but this even happens for people with 3 Gb GTX580s.

I will gladly upgrade to 2 Gb or more Vram when I need to do so. At the same time, you wont see me complaining like you lot do that any less Vram than what I have is insufficient for other people, because unlike you and several others, I realize that Vram alone is not the limiting factor for performance and lag spikes.

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

He is just defending his purchase which I do think is a good buy.

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The irony of that statement from someone who always complains about anything with less Vram than what their card has is astounding. If Vram is so important to you, then feel free to buy a 3 Gb GTX 580. There is no need for you to have to complain about mid range cards which only have 1 Gb Vram.

BTW - Oblivion fully modded with QTP, improved LOD and character textures, OGE, Godrays and I cant remember whatever else I used was only using up around 700-800 Mb Vram with 4x Transparent AA.

Skyrim only uses up 800-850 Mb Vram on Ultra with 8x MSAA. Dropping the AA down to 4x still leaves plenty of room for texture modding.

When oblivion is modded up to this amount and only using 800 Mb Vram, I still get lag spikes with SLI mode disabled because one GTX 560 ti is insufficient. Using a 2 Gb GTX 560 ti would not improve performance in the slightest bit at all, but having a second and using SLI makes modded Oblivion silky smooth and perfectly lag free and playable.

I mentioned this because you asked a few times about these games.

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Originally Posted by bhavv

Well the thing is that if you feel that Vram is the limiting factor in your PC, then why dont you upgrade your graphics cards?

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Why would I do that? I don't even care to play at ultra. I set it to ultra to show people in this thread that this game can eat up >1gb of vram! And I proved it.

I play BF3 online extensively. I have quite a few people in my clan, some of which do in fact have gtx560ti SLI 1gb, and they lag spike on ultra, so they play on high like me.
Only the guys in my clan that have >1gb vram can play Ultra with no lag spikes.


Back to the original debate: The 560ti 2win can be held back by it's limited vram.
For $500+ You would be better off buying a 580 for that price, or two discrete 560ti's with 2gb each

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Originally Posted by CrazyNutz

Why would I do that? I don't even care to play at ultra. I set it to ultra to show people in this thread that this game can eat up >1gb of vram! And I proved it.

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'Eat up more that 1 Gb Vram' =/= reduced performance, or lag spikes:

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I have two 1GB 5850s in crossfire and dont game above 1080P. Because I play at this resolution I don't need more VRAM. I played the BF3 Beta on Ultra settings at around 40fps average, no stuttering at all. You only need more than 1GB VRAM if your going to play at very high resolutions (i.e. above 1080p).

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http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18336345

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Just got my second 560 Ti

And the performance is GREAT!

Finally can max out BF3 completely and get over 60 fps, so if you are thinking of getting a second 560 ti, do it! VRAM isn't a problem

Doesn't even reach 1GB of RAM

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In regards to Vram vs System ram:

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I had 4GB of ram with my CF 5850 1GB cards and got stuttering if I put any setting on Ultra. Now with 8GB I have everything but textures and shadows on Ultra and it runs a dream at 1080P. Averaging 70fps and dips to 50fps for a second when things get hectic.

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The guy you are quoting is not playing the Ultra preset, he is using Custom with MSAA turned down to 2x. The Ultra preset has 4x MSAA. With a true Ultra preset he would run out of vram and get lag spikes at some point during game play.


On a side note I've been playing around with disabling windows visual themes/Aero. This can free up around 100mb of vram. It freed up enough vram on my system so I could play at true ultra without lag spikes. However I have not tried it on all maps

For information my 6970 BF3 is eating 1.4Go of VRAM in high without MSAA, 1.7 in 2xMSAA & 1.9 in 4x

A lot of people dont mind turning AA down though if it makes the game playable.

My point is that 1 Gb Vram is still sufficient for 1920x1200 resolution and less, and if you play at these resolutions, you should at least wait until HD 7000 or Kepler before paying for a card with 2 Gb Vram which should have enough GPU power to handle processing 2 Gb worth of data.

GTX 560 ti SLI, or this dual card is not intended for use over 1200p, it remains the best (IMO) price / performance option you can currently by for gaming at or under 1920x1200.