Titan X 24GB RAM requirement

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mr_zen256

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I was surpised to see the 24gb RAM requirement for Titan X on the nVidia website.

Some users have scratched this up as a typo, but apparently nVidia & EVGA reps have confirmed the 24gb requirement is correct.

This is supposedly due to the large 12gb VRAM. It seemed odd as I don't recall seeing the Titan Z having the same RAM requirement.

Here are some further discussions regarding this:
Toms Hardware
nVidia Forum
EVGA
 
What the deuce? Maybe... if you run out of VRAM and it has to swap out with regular ram, it needs 24 GB to make sure there's enough.......... This is stupid.
 
Does it matter. It's been beat to death. Everyone is loving their Titan X without system memory issues.

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suiken_2mieu said:
What the deuce? Maybe... if you run out of VRAM and it has to swap out with regular ram, it needs 24 GB to make sure there's enough.......... This is stupid.
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I suspect this is the case, as it has been mentioned in some of those threads. Some posts mention that the Titan X will only display 4gb of VRAM if system RAM is below a certain amount.

I've got a Titan X on order and I never considered RAM requirements. I've only got 8gb installed, so I guess it's time for an upgrade!
 
I've heard of this before. For most people it won't be an issue as they'll never come close to using the full 12GB.

With Titan Z it was different as that card still had only 6GB effective memory. Also Windows itself doesn't use SLI so I assume it was seen as a 6GB card.
 
When Windows 10 launches and 2 Titan X in SLi means you have 24 GB of VRAM unlike today where it would be seen as still 12GB, does that mean that you need 48GB of system ram? 4 Titan X in SLi would require 96GB of system ram? Kinda cool!
 
xorbe said:
Does it matter. It's been beat to death. Everyone is loving their Titan X without system memory issues.

fXlwnvI.gif
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lol...love your "custom" emojis. Keep up the good work. :)

On topic: Guru3D reviewed the card using 16GB RAM and did not state anything about that being an issue: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/nvidia_geforce_gtx_titan_x_review,12.html.

The best "theory" that I have heard is that because of the VRAM being 12GB they want you to have 2x that (minimum) in case of swapping. The card's manual says 2-4GB minimum. I'm sure anyone would be just fine with 8GB or more. Hell, if you have less than 8GB of RAM I'd argue you should not be buying a TITAN X, anyway - you should have other upgrade priorities first. :)
 
sk3tch said:
The card's manual says 2-4GB minimum.
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EVGA Tech stated that Titan X owner's manual was wrong.. it's 24GB minimum, and 48GB recommended (though he also stated that in most cases, it would work just fine with less system RAM).
 
AFD said:
EVGA Tech stated that Titan X owner's manual was wrong.. it's 24GB minimum, and 48GB recommended (though he also stated that in most cases, it would work just fine with less system RAM).
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I can state the same counter-point to you:

"NVIDIA rep on NeoGAF says no:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=156338071&postcount=210"

Common sense should win here. The card does not need 24GB minimum system RAM.

xorbe said:
Thanks! On topic, they barely use any of my Titan X vram.
Oohe1Cl.png
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haha.
 
Most of the data in ram of a gpu is intermediate data. You take much smaller amount of data from the cpu. Pretty much vertex data, textures, etc. On the gpu the vertex data is interpolated across all the pixels so the fragment shader can operate on them. That causes an exponential increase in memory usage. However once you go through everything you are usually left with a single frame buffer image. All the intermediate data is usually trashed and would have no need to be stored in dram on your system. Just copying that would be a bottleneck on the overall system.

Anyways, long story short, there is no need for the same amount of system memory as your gpu has. I won't claim to know how DX12 operates but I would guarantee system memory is not being used as some global buffer to mirror the gpus vram. That would kill your system performance.
 
If you can afford a Titan X, you can afford to upgrade your system RAM. I see this as a non-issue unless you're one of the idiots out there purchasing this for his 5-year-old dual core setup (or even worse, a mini-ITX setup, ugh)
 
I just bought mine without knowing this...I have 16GB of ram, wasn't planning on upgrading until I build a new system with DDR4 later in the year. Pretty sure it's not going to be an issue.....
 
Until Nvidia explain the need for 24GB minimum, I claim bollox.
 
If it requires 24gb then it definitely swaps things out to system ram. Gtx 970 did that and needed 16gb un officially if your gonna be pushing the vram to the limit.
 
sk3tch said:
I can state the same counter-point to you:

"NVIDIA rep on NeoGAF says no:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=156338071&postcount=210"

Common sense should win here. The card does not need 24GB minimum system RAM.



haha.
Click to expand...

Ramzal said:
This is false. It's 2-4.
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Seriously guys, it's 24GB minimum, 48GB recommended. Nvidia even updated the Titan X user's manual to reflect this..

http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce-gtx/GTX_TITAN_X_User_Guide.pdf


Xinmosni said:
If you can afford a Titan X, you can afford to upgrade your system RAM. I see this as a non-issue unless you're one of the idiots out there purchasing this for his 5-year-old dual core setup (or even worse, a mini-ITX setup, ugh)
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Wtf is wrong with running a big card in an ITX rig? :rolleyes:
 
-_- like giant HSFs crowding over all other components, my skin crawls claustrophobically just thinking about the lack of room in such rigs.
 
Xinmosni said:
-_- like giant HSFs crowding over all other components, my skin crawls claustrophobically just thinking about the lack of room in such rigs.
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Lol. I'm just the opposite, and can't stand having too much unused space in my cases.

It'll be okay man, we'll get through this with time and plenty of therapy :D
 
mr_zen256 said:
I was surpised to see the 24gb RAM requirement for Titan X on the nVidia website.

Some users have scratched this up as a typo, but apparently nVidia & EVGA reps have confirmed the 24gb requirement is correct.

This is supposedly due to the large 12gb VRAM. It seemed odd as I don't recall seeing the Titan Z having the same RAM requirement.

Here are some further discussions regarding this:
Toms Hardware
nVidia Forum
EVGA
Click to expand...

It's not a 24gb requirement, 24gigabit? That's only 3GB.

Gigabyte = GB
Gigabit = Gb or gb

The Titan X doesn't have 12gb vram, that's only 1.5GB
 
xorbe said:
Does it matter. It's been beat to death. Everyone is loving their Titan X without system memory issues.

fXlwnvI.gif
Click to expand...

They won't love it for long with GTX980 TI coming out cheaper and faster.....just like what's happened with every Titan release
 
mr_zen256 said:
I suspect this is the case, as it has been mentioned in some of those threads. Some posts mention that the Titan X will only display 4gb of VRAM if system RAM is below a certain amount.

I've got a Titan X on order and I never considered RAM requirements. I've only got 8gb installed, so I guess it's time for an upgrade!
Click to expand...

Yeah, if you only have 8 gigabit main memory (aka 1GB), you really need to upgrade.
Ram is cheap, why only 1GB?
 
Ultranifty said:
Yeah, if you only have 8 gigabit main memory (aka 1GB), you really need to upgrade.
Ram is cheap, why only 1GB?
Click to expand...

Better safe than sorry I guess? Ordered 32gb just be sure. Hell, if I'm gonna buy a killer card, why not crank it to the max? I suspect the 24gb minimum requirement is all shit unless the VRAM got maxed out. Just call me "Mr. Consumer Whore". Marketing wins again.
 
mr_zen256 said:
Better safe than sorry I guess? Ordered 32gb just be sure. Hell, if I'm gonna buy a killer card, why not crank it to the max? I suspect the 24gb minimum requirement is all shit unless the VRAM got maxed out. Just call me "Mr. Consumer Whore". Marketing wins again.
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32gb? So you only ordered 4GB ?
 
sk3tch said:
Well I'll be damned. I stand corrected.
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Yeah I changed my take too when I found the 12GB recommendation on OG Titan 6GB a few days ago. *Shrug* And I bet a lot of gamers were running fast low latency 2x4GB 27 months ago.
 
I dont recall the 6GB Titan owners having issues if they had less than 12 to 24GB of ram though.
What is this a requirement for?
 
Nenu said:
I dont recall the 6GB Titan owners having issues if they had less than 12 to 24GB of ram though.
What is this a requirement for?
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It's required for long useless forums threads.
6ENarPY.gif
And the making of manuals that nobody actually uses.
 
My EVGA Titan X Superclocked has been smooth as ice on 16GB.

You will only need the 24GB+ for a memory swap and there are not any games taking advantage of more than 12GB GDDR5 yet...but this amount of usage will not be common place for maybe another 2 to 3 years down the road. (Curious to see how the Witcher 3 runs tho)
 
Yes, I can verify that the Titan X works fine even on 8gb of RAM. The 24GB minimum and 48GB is totally out of proportion with CURRENT games.

I figure the min/max requirements are nVidia posturing for this card to have significant longevity, and I'd expect so.

EDIT: The rumours that the Titan X will not utilize the full 12GB of VRAM under a certain amount of DRAM is bullshit. As expected
 
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mr_zen256 said:
Yes, I can verify that the Titan X works fine even on 8gb of RAM. The 24GB minimum and 48GB is totally out of proportion with CURRENT games.

I figure the min/max requirements are nVidia posturing for this card to have significant longevity, and I'd expect so.
Click to expand...

While Titan X is mainly focused as a gaming card, there are others out there that will purchase it for the large VRAM and 6TFlops of SP. There are numerous scenarios where you will fill the VRAM they just aren't any gaming related, currently.
 
LordEC911 said:
While Titan X is mainly focused as a gaming card, there are others out there that will purchase it for the large VRAM and 6TFlops of SP. There are numerous scenarios where you will fill the VRAM they just aren't any gaming related, currently.
Click to expand...

Considering the fact the Titan X is a single-precision card, I'd expect most "crunchers" will look elswhere, as they should. nVidia has never portrayed this card as a "cruncher" so the 24GB minimum is a bit out of left field.

There hasn't been much elaboration from them to explain this aside from the usual marketing spin. Anyone that knows hardware will understand that those numbers are bullshit unless there is an exceptional situation. I look forward to a detailed explanation from nVidia.
 
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