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Big difference between 512 and 1GB?

P

Prise

n00b
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
7
I've searching for a gpu for my new build, and noticed the small price increase to go from a 512MB card to a 1GB.

Is there a noticeable performance difference in framerates? Rendering quality?

Thanks!
 
It can vary by situation, but I would almost universally recommend a 1GB card unless you're 100% sure you won't benefit from it.
 
Generally go for 1GB of VRAM if you can. However just make sure that when you're comparing two video cards, one with 512MB and one with 1GB), make sure that both are of the same VRAM type. I.e GDDR3, GDDR5, DDR2, etc. Reason being that 1GB of GDDR2 RAM is gonna be slower than 512MB of GDDR3 RAM. So go for the 512MB of GDDR3
 
Everything can be hunky-dory until resolution, applied effects like AA, high quality textures, etc. max out the on-board memory of your card. Then it has to move some data to system memory and your frame rate drops from 60 to 5.

I'm almost done with Oblivion, for example--I waited until I could buy it with the major expansion packs in a package for $20, I've learned over the years that such a day almost always comes around!

My 8800GT-512 had plenty of horsepower for this older game, but when I got done adding all the visual quality enhancements that are available online, I would run into situations where the framerate just tanked. I got a better card just so I could have more memory onboard. The extra raw power didn't hurt either, of course. Sudden framerate dives and hard lockup crashes disappeared.
 
not enough vram and you might run into stutter/thrashing in new games like avp3 maxed out. thats worse than a framerate drop imo

ooh also suzdal brings up a very good point: if you like AA, especially high levels of it, then get as much vram as you can :D
 
Commander Suzdal said:
Everything can be hunky-dory until resolution, applied effects like AA, high quality textures, etc. max out the on-board memory of your card. Then it has to move some data to system memory and your frame rate drops from 60 to 5.

I'm almost done with Oblivion, for example--I waited until I could buy it with the major expansion packs in a package for $20, I've learned over the years that such a day almost always comes around!

My 8800GT-512 had plenty of horsepower for this older game, but when I got done adding all the visual quality enhancements that are available online, I would run into situations where the framerate just tanked. I got a better card just so I could have more memory onboard. The extra raw power didn't hurt either, of course. Sudden framerate dives and hard lockup crashes disappeared.
Click to expand...

Along the same line with GTA4.The extra memory allows for more immersion :textures,more cars,characters,etc.
 
If the card you're looking at is at least as fast as a GTX 260 or Radeon 4870/5770, and if your monitor is >22", then 896MB/1GB would give you more performance (or better image quality without a significant performance hit).

Quick guide:
512MB is plenty on a card like a Geforce 8800GT/9600GT/GT 240 or a Radeon 4670/4770/5670
896MB/1GB is good for a card like a Geforce GTX 2xx card or a Radeon 4870/4890/5770/58x0
512MB is overkill for anything slower than a 9600GT or Radeon 4670
 
I was comparing running either a 2 x Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire, or a 2x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire. I can see where having extra memory could never hurt.

From what I've read, I presume ATI has the upper hand over Nvidia, until Fermi is introduced.

Any insights or opinions on what you guys would do?
 
Yes if the card actually supports it.

A lot of cheap video cards in the past only made the RAM a selling point, if you were to run a game that actually uses all that ram, the card slows to a crawl!

A lot of times, on any of the gaming forum, a guy would be crying about how the game sucks and slows down for no reason or have artifacts. I'd ask them what the video card is, they just tell me the size of the vram ("It's a 1GIG VIDEO CARD!!!" or "It's a 512MB CARD!"), AGAIN i ask what model it is, they finally answer that they don't know. I tell them to check it and come back to me. They usually answer with something like "Geforce 4 MX", at which point i just give up on them.

The one that almost got me banging my head on the keyboard was the guy that insistently says he's got an uber 1Gig video card so he should be running everything at max. When i finally got him to check. It was a pentium card. HE WAS BRAGGING ABOUT A 1GIG ONBOARD CHIP!!!
 
Last edited:
geforce said:
Quick guide:
512MB is plenty on a card like a Geforce 8800GT/9600GT/GT 240 or a Radeon 4670/4770/5670
896MB/1GB is good for a card like a Geforce GTX 2xx card or a Radeon 4870/4890/5770/58x0
512MB is overkill for anything slower than a 9600GT or Radeon 4670
Click to expand...

Ok, to make sure I understand the gist of this. For the lower end cards, extra memory is almost irrelevant; but, on the higher end cards, it makes sense to go to 1GB.

So, on crossfire/sli with medium range cards, 512MB should be fine, and anything above would be of a negligible benefit.
 
Sly said:
The one that almost got me banging my head on the keyboard was the guy that insistently says he's got an uber 1Gig video card so he should be running everything at max. When i finally got him to check. It was a pentium card. HE WAS BRAGGING ABOUT A 1GIG ONBOARD CHIP!!!
Click to expand...

I suppose, he'd be fine if he stayed with 2D games exclusively.
 
Prise said:
Ok, to make sure I understand the gist of this. For the lower end cards, extra memory is almost irrelevant; but, on the higher end cards, it makes sense to go to 1GB.

So, on crossfire/sli with medium range cards, 512MB should be fine, and anything above would be of a negligible benefit.
Click to expand...

No, we are talking single cards. For Crossfire, the combined memory of the 2 cards is the memory of a single card so it'd be a total waste to crossfire with only 512MB since the processing power of crossfire would quickly outstrip the memory available, bottlenecking it's potential power.
 
Spare-Flair said:
No, we are talking single cards. For Crossfire, the combined memory of the 2 cards is the memory of a single card so it'd be a total waste to crossfire with only 512MB since the processing power of crossfire would quickly outstrip the memory available, bottlenecking it's potential power.
Click to expand...

This.
 
Is the jump to ~1700MB or 2GB vram a noticeable difference? Will it be noticeable in a year or two, or will 1GB be okay?
 
I think more is better.gaming is only going to get more complex.there are games,not many,where more than 1gb vram is needed at extreme settings.
 
Prise said:
I was comparing running either a 2 x Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire, or a 2x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire. I can see where having extra memory could never hurt.
......

Any insights or opinions on what you guys would do?
Click to expand...

HD 5770 all the way. Assuming that the HD 4850 is the 512MB version, in Crossfire, you still only have 512MB of VRAM as others have said. As such, the HD 5770 1GB is the better choice due to more RAM and less power.
 
Prise said:
I was comparing running either a 2 x Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire, or a 2x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire. I can see where having extra memory could never hurt.

From what I've read, I presume ATI has the upper hand over Nvidia, until Fermi is introduced.

Any insights or opinions on what you guys would do?
Click to expand...

The 5770 is simply a more powerful card than the 4850, the 5770 is similar in performance to the 4870, maybe even slightly better.
 
omg Seyba, idk
IDK

ITS LIKE CALCULUS! IDK!!!!

AGHHHHHHH

anyways, im pretty sure its been mentioned, 1gb helps in high resolutions.
1gb is more futurproof
1gb is worth it

i need a 1gb card! LOl
 
These days a card with 1 GB is getting to be quite affordable, and in various performance levels. I would look more in the type of memory that the card has than the quantity (GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR5), because from the base of the problem, 512MB of video memory should be enough for most games at low to medium resolution. But since the tendency is for games to stack more and better looking textures for more IQ (image quality), and since we're more aiming for the high reoslutions (1920x1200 for example) and using AntiAlias becomes standard, 1GB is recommended. Then again, if you're buying a low performance card, you will obviously not run at high resolution and will not use AntiAlias, so 512MB should be enough for the "entry level" graphics card.
 
I learned a long time back to buy the card with the more memory. I bought a card with the lower amount of RAM once, and ended up regretting it when I loaded a game which required more graphics memory to function properly. Never again.
 
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