Quote Originally Posted by The Jesus View Post
Umm, because the 680 has 2GB of VRAM opposed to the 7970's 3GB...
It's fairly amazing to me how last year (3 months ago) 2GB of 256 bit access VRAM was "the thing to have" and "what you need for Eyefinity and 25 X16", and the 3GB 580s were "overkill".

Case in point, HardOCPs review of the 3GB 580s:

http://hardocp.com/article/2011/06/2...card_review/11

While this was a big improvement over standard GTX 580's, it is less of an improvement over two 6970 video cards, which already have a good amount of RAM on them. For the most part, these two setups will perform very similar, except in some specific cases depending on the game.
And he goes on to say in FEAR 3 the 3GB helped at the setting run.

This "gotta have 3GB VRAM" stuff is out of control, and very inaccurate.

I have gamed a TON on 57X10 and 25X16 with 1.5GB/2GB/3GB NVIDIA cards and can tell you 1.5GB is enough for 25X16, and most of the time for 57X10 4X16X. I don't think I've ever run out of VRAM running 57X10 with 2GB, but I've never played SkyRim with the texture pack and 8X MSAA, nor have I played BF3 on Ultra settings. (don't have either game)

My thought is 95%+ of the people saying you need 3GB for 25X16 or 57X10 don't have either, and a review of how many people actually have those resolutions on the STEAM survey would back that up. I'll post some 57X10 benches of the 680s after they go one sale and hopefully put this to bed for good.

People need to remember you can exceed the VRAM on any graphics solution with things like texture packs on the handful of games that have them, or super high AA settings, so proclamations like "I want to play Skyrim at 57X10 8XMSAA with the texture pack settings maxed!" need to be tempered with "and I'm willing to have use a slower, louder card that doesn't have PhysX, good 3d support, CUDA apps, forced AO and needs more power to do so".

A graphics card investment is more than the ability to play one game at one setting, unless that is all you plan to do with it.