List of known/suspected games to eat more than 1GB video memory at 1920x1200

[STEvil]

But extra vram means nothing if the game engine is not programmed to make use of it.

[Hell Hound]

In vanilla format,but the pc is all about a custom experience.That is kept in mind when making the game that's why you get a sdk or the files are not locked away from end user allowing custom maps,guns,characters,cars,gui's.

Example. Doom3 is still being modded.

[dasa]

But extra vram means nothing if the game engine is not programmed to make use of it.

true enough and im afraid most games probably cant make good use of 3g vram even with mods ~1.5-2g is probably the limit for 32bit games if ram usage also counts towards there max
it would be interesting to see a game or at least a benchmark with a 64bit engine that did make use of 8-12g ram and ~3g gpu mem

[STEvil]

In vanilla format,but the pc is all about a custom experience.That is kept in mind when making the game that's why you get a sdk or the files are not locked away from end user allowing custom maps,guns,characters,cars,gui's.

Example. Doom3 is still being modded.

Customization abilities mean nothing with regard to what i'm talking about. The graphics engine has to be made to use more than 1gb of vram. Most are tuned for 256mb to 1gb and nothing is done to allow more performance on cards which have more than that.

[Hell Hound]

More memory is not meant for performance,bandwidth/fillrate is.If capacity is the bottle neck then you might see a gain.Don't get a 2gb card w/64gbs bandwidth and expect performance gain over the 1gb counter part.
Expect to use more objects,better texture or shadow resolution @ current performance level.Shadows might demand more bandwidth though.

[sniper_sung]

Just confirmed Dirt2, Civ V, LP2 and BFBC2.

[STEvil]

More memory is not meant for performance,bandwidth/fillrate is.If capacity is the bottle neck then you might see a gain.Don't get a 2gb card w/64gbs bandwidth and expect performance gain over the 1gb counter part.
Expect to use more objects,better texture or shadow resolution @ current performance level.Shadows might demand more bandwidth though.

hhmmm..... sounds like BETTER PERFORMANCE.

[Hell Hound]

A performance gain would mean numbers go up,not stay the same.Adding more detail is not gaining performance.

[Mungri]

This is a joke



Minimum

Completely shows how insignificant a difference 2 Gb Vram makes, who is going to notice an improvement of 11 FPS to 12 FPS (5870 > 6970)?

As every single graphics card review and benchmarks prove, GPU is the the only thing that makes a significant difference up tp 1920x1200, Differences from Vram are negligible or far too insignificant to notice any improvement.

Better numbers from GTX580 SLI in WOW:

while we both know it's not due to vram shortage, just like how a computer with i7 2600K@5GHz can become laggy (less than 5 fps or so) when you play some flash games of tower defense on some web sites.

And I'm sure your card cannot do better in the case I just posted above:



which is indeed about vram shortage.

Ok, firstly, EVERYONE knows how absolutely terrible WoW's engine is coded, and as you said, we both know that it has nothing to do with Vram, so why do you bother to use that as an Example.

OF COURSE a GTX 580 SLI is going to outperform any lower cards, what exactly are you trying to gain from pointing out the absolute obvious? The cards are far far more powerful, and the Vram has nothing to do with that.

Your OP is fully about 1920x1200, so your second table is a completely irrelevant comparison as well.

Just confirmed Dirt2, Civ V, LP2 and BFBC2.

Right, and I have Played Dirt 2 maxed out on crossfired 5770s, and Civ 5 on both GTX 460s and 560s, and there is never any lag or slowdown at 1920x1200, so Vram usage going over 1 Gb really doesnt reduce performance or cause any lag spikes from what I can see.

Why purpose do you intend for a thread filled with so much misleading information to have? 1 Gb Vram will still be completey adequate for 1920x1200 resolution for a long long time yet, unless you really care about boosting minimum frames from 11 FPS to a whopping 12 FPS!

The only single game you are basing all your opinions on is Metro 2033, which we all know is a poorly coded game in the first place, and every bit of evidence conclusively shows that the difference between a 2 Gb 6950 at 1200p is barely any better at min FPS, and not able to make the game playable over a 1 Gb 6950.

[WARDOZER9]

I wouldn't doubt Fallout 3's ability to pass 1gb @ 1080p with the full compliment of HD mods. I reach 900mb ( says GPU-Z 0.5.3 ) with my rig @ 1024x768 ( old 55" HDTV ) with 4x AA using ultra detail. I'm not even using any of the HD mods for characters yet but I will be as soon as I find good enough ones for me.

[Hell Hound]

There is some doom3 mods that require 2 gb gpu @1080p.
Ambient occlusion
ssao
Dof
Motion blur
HDR
Pom
Highrestexture
@the same time
Needs a min of 2gb w/decent bandwidth.

[sniper_sung]

Completely shows how insignificant a difference 2 Gb Vram makes, who is going to notice an improvement of 11 FPS to 12 FPS (5870 > 6970)?

As every single graphics card review and benchmarks prove, GPU is the the only thing that makes a significant difference up tp 1920x1200, Differences from Vram are negligible or far too insignificant to notice any improvement.



Ok, firstly, EVERYONE knows how absolutely terrible WoW's engine is coded, and as you said, we both know that it has nothing to do with Vram, so why do you bother to use that as an Example.

WoW is an example as *good* as Starcraft 2.

OF COURSE a GTX 580 SLI is going to outperform any lower cards, what exactly are you trying to gain from pointing out the absolute obvious? The cards are far far more powerful, and the Vram has nothing to do with that.

Your OP is fully about 1920x1200, so your second table is a completely irrelevant comparison as well.

OP is about case (b) at 1920x1200, while the second table is about case (a) at 2560x1600. When people like you fail to notice/detect/accept case (b), I have to prove 1920x1200 is at/near the edge of case (b) by showing that its brother 2560x1600 is at case (a).

Right, and I have Played Dirt 2 maxed out on crossfired 5770s, and Civ 5 on both GTX 460s and 560s, and there is never any lag or slowdown at 1920x1200, so Vram usage going over 1 Gb really doesnt reduce performance or cause any lag spikes from what I can see.

Why purpose do you intend for a thread filled with so much misleading information to have? 1 Gb Vram will still be completey adequate for 1920x1200 resolution for a long long time yet, unless you really care about boosting minimum frames from 11 FPS to a whopping 12 FPS!

The only single game you are basing all your opinions on is Metro 2033, which we all know is a poorly coded game in the first place, and every bit of evidence conclusively shows that the difference between a 2 Gb 6950 at 1200p is barely any better at min FPS, and not able to make the game playable over a 1 Gb 6950.

Again, if you cannot accept the fact that 1GB is often near the edge of case (b) at 1920x1200, you could read in a fair comparison between 5870 1GB and 5870 2GB at 2560x1600.

[STEvil]

A performance gain would mean numbers go up,not stay the same.Adding more detail is not gaining performance.

uhh.......

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I honestly don't know what to make of this thread.

Metro 2033 is just not optimized as well as it should be. I run it on high settings @ 2560x1600 w/ tesselation and my gtx 470 handles it fine. Not the highest frames, but easily playable. We all know this, but we really need to move away from Crysis/Metro if we are to really rate 1gb+ effects on gaming.

@ sniper

That last link w/ the comparisons at 2560x1600 raises some questions (because I simply don't know)...

1. Why were some games not taking advantage of more vmem?
2. Is the large discrepency in some gamess a driver issue or does the game need a patch? Lost Planet looks broken to me. Other games have no change, which also looks broken on the side of the developer.


I'd love to see a 5870 or 6950 crossfire comparison among 1 and 2 gig cards and have THOSE results compared to SLI gtx 560 1 and 2 gig cards (single, sli and tri for each actually).

[BababooeyHTJ]

I have always wondered how much vram a fully modded Oblivion install can use. I would be willing to bet that it gets up there.