View Full Version : At what point is 256mb not enough?
I'm considering a minor video card upgrade so I can take advantage of my shiny new 21" trinitron monitor. I'm hoping to play Oblivion with AA at a decent resolution. My screen likes a 4:3 ratio. It's probably going to be either 1280x960 with more AA, or 1600x1200 with a little AA. I'm not positive which way uses more memory or gives the best visual results as the difference is subtle. I'm hoping to get by with an OC'd 7900gt 256mb but I'm afraid I may have to spend a little more for an X1900xt or a 512mb 7900gt. So, what's better in your opinion? Higher res with a little AA or medium res with more AA?
Will one way require more video ram than the other? Any advice is appreciated.
EDIT: Just remembered Oblivion doesn't do AA plus HDR on Nvidia cards but question is basically the same for other games.
ohh of course, man i though u were talking about RAM then I read "I plan to play Oblivion":eek: lol
ok u should get the 512MB only if u want to play nicelyy at high resolutions, that is all. 256MB can do ok till 1280x1024...bigger than that... mmmm...:rolleyes:
How do you tell the difference between different types of game lag? I just tried 1980x1440 and it played like crap. I'm not sure how to tell if it's a lack of video memory or a lack of gpu speed. I tried to use a program called video memory watcher but it won't start up. All I know is the FPS is low at high res but it's not like running out of system memory and page filing where the game constantly pauses to write to disk. It just looks like low frames per second.
Internal
07-20-06, 10:42 PM
Even my card could use a bit more ram then 256 when playing oblivion with the high texture packs.
what do u call low FPS?
I didn't measure the number (don't know how) but it was in an outdoor scene with lots of grass, trees, enemies, and an oblivion gate. It never really runs smoothly in this situation but it's playable at 1280x960. At max res it's choppy enough to really screw up my timing and make playing difficult. If I had to guess I'd say under 10 fps. Inside buildings and cities it's okay but when the action starts it gets bad.
Dan0512
07-21-06, 03:50 AM
I think it will skip when there isn't enough video RAM, like when the system RAM is not enough, not necesarily low fps. My system does that when playing D3 @ ultra... No fps drop, but it skips like hell.
dan
I guess I should stop fooling myself and go for a 512mb card. Thanks everyone.
I have an example of when 256mb is not enough RAM. When I first got GRAW I had an x1900xtx (512mb) and played at like 1440xsomething with high texture rez and it was awesome. I sold that card and put my x800gto2 back in (256mb) and played at 1024x768. The game does not give you the option for high rez textures with a 256mb card so I went into the config file and set it up to run high res. When I loaded up the game I got a checkerboard pattern on the ground where only half the street was textured and the other parts were black. Clearly the card did not have enough RAM to run high rez textures.
So i'm really in the same boat as you are. I would like to get a 7900GT for around $230 or so, but really I'm not willing to buy another 256mb card.
ummm...ehhh... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
http://img76.echo.cx/img76/5132/king29hc.jpg
deathman20
07-22-06, 10:05 PM
If you want to know what equates to getting a higher memory card. Get a program that monitors your video ram usage. Oblivion is a perfect example. Add a pack of higher res textures and boom over 300meg. Add in AA add another 50-100. Add in some more higher res textures and other things and already at 450-500 with 1920x1200 and AA to 4x (then again ATI's hack at it doesn't seem to slow the game down even if its using more video ram then the card has).
I use a program called VidMemWatch. Its worth a shot and you'll soon see what games start eating your presious vram.
Audioaficionado
07-22-06, 10:35 PM
I fixed a stuttering problem with a 128MB 6600GT by setting a 256MB graphics system memory aperture in BIOS. Smooth as silk now.
If you want to know what equates to getting a higher memory card. Get a program that monitors your video ram usage. Oblivion is a perfect example. Add a pack of higher res textures and boom over 300meg. Add in AA add another 50-100. Add in some more higher res textures and other things and already at 450-500 with 1920x1200 and AA to 4x (then again ATI's hack at it doesn't seem to slow the game down even if its using more video ram then the card has).
I use a program called VidMemWatch. Its worth a shot and you'll soon see what games start eating your presious vram.
I have that program but when I try to start it I get "the program failed to initialize yaddayadda" I'm not sure what the problem is.
I fixed a stuttering problem with a 128MB 6600GT by setting a 256MB graphics system memory aperture in BIOS. Smooth as silk now.
All I have is "pcie payload size"or something like that set at 4096.
ohh of course, man i though u were talking about RAM then I read "I plan to play Oblivion":eek: lol
ok u should get the 512MB only if u want to play nicelyy at high resolutions, that is all. 256MB can do ok till 1280x1024...bigger than that... mmmm...:rolleyes:
Native resolution on my screen is 1600x1200 and everything runs butter smooth with my 7900GT with 256mb of vram. I always turn the settings way up.
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