Is 1024mb REALLY beter than 512mb when it comes to crossfire?

[mrbobc]

ive just been checking out some stats as i'm getting an exchange for my 4850x2 and i was looking at a 4870x2 or 2x 4870s in crossfire. but i was checking out the graphics cards charts at tomshardware and it seems that, overall, 2x 4870 512mb cards is really not far enough off the 4870x2 2gb card to warrant the price difference. in all theres only 6fps difference at maximum detail with 1900/1200 res and full aa/af in a total of 8 games including crysis, world in conflict and fsx.

in some games the 2 4870s in crossfire got slightly better frames at that res! so whats the diddlyo?

can anyone confirm or deny these finding.

the problem is that i can get 2 4870s 512mb for £260, but the 4870x2 comes in at £330. thats a £70 difference for what seems a minimal gain at such a high resolution so like i said, can anyone prove otherwise to these findings or is it more down to the raw power of 2 gpu's than the memory buffer???

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1920x1200-AA,801.html

[Neuromancer]

I beleive it has more to do with texture levels and resolution than AA.

For instance, take a visually impressive game like Crysis

Tom's Hardware - Benchmark Crysis v1.21 (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1.21,758.html)


HUGE differnce. (33%)

[rainless]

I beleive it has more to do with texture levels and resolution than AA.

For instance, take a visually impressive game like Crysis

Tom's Hardware - Benchmark Crysis v1.21 (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1.21,758.html)


HUGE differnce. (33%)

That's correct. In... say... DX10 games with a lot of texture at high resolution you're going to see a HUGE difference between 512mb and 1024.

If you're gaming at 1360x768... not so much.

[mrbobc]

crysis apart there's also assassins creed, fsx and world in conflict that are dx 10 and the results are negligible between the 2.

what other instances are there to show where there are gains @1900/1200 between 1gb and 512mb?

[Alacritan]

You need more memory if you plan on enabling AA, and upcoming games will only use more, larger textures, not less. I guarantee that in a year the performance gap between the 512MB card and the 1GB card will have widened significantly, just as it did with the 8800GT 256MB and 512MB. You can play Far Cry 2 on Very High with an 8800GT 512MB, but not with a 256MB.