The video RAM information guide

[Samfisher]

Maybe a little extra explanation in the "Not enough VRAM" section.  In regards to the stuttering, it's cos the game has to store texture data in system RAM, and in some cases, streaming from the HDD/SSD, which is infinitely slower than accessing VRAM, causing the stutters.  Modded Skyrim is a prime example of this.

[D2ultima]

Maybe a little extra explanation in the "Not enough VRAM" section.  In regards to the stuttering, it's cos the game has to store texture data in system RAM, and in some cases, streaming from the HDD/SSD, which is infinitely slower than accessing VRAM, causing the stutters.  Modded Skyrim is a prime example of this.

Thanks, I'll expand on it now.

 

Edit: How's that?

[D2ultima]

This is getting a bump too; it's been updated a bit since last bump.

[faziten]

in multimonitor and ammount of Vram may i suggest an addition? 

 

It's true given a single monitor setup and game which uses xMB of Vram, if you upgrade to triple monitor you won't necesary need 3xMB Vram to do the same thing. BUT, and this but is important, the minimum ram required will need to be 3x as before. So in gaming, running certain game will not (necesary) need 3x ram as certain game settings are not hardlinked to significant ammount of ram increase, but AERO will.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/technical-requirements-of-windows-7-aero-desktop/f731d7e2-8731-438a-a839-011597d8099a

 

Why should i care about minimum requirement?: 

 

Lets say you have 2GB of vRAM, your game uses 1.5GB of Vram in one Monitor @1080p. Lets also asumes this particular game uses 1.8GB of Vram in triple 1080p monitor setup. So far so good right? 

The problem comes with aero, 1080p requieres 128MB of Vram (W7), so while playing single monitor it wont hurt (1.5GB + 0.128GB < 2GB) , the problem comes with triple setup. As you can see in previous link, Windows ask for a minimum of 256 for more than 2.3Megapixels... so: 1920x1080 = 2073600 x3 = 6220800 which is far more tan 2.3 megapixels. So your game which needs 1.8GB of Vram will have problems to assign that amount since windows reserved 256MB of your total 2GB. (1.8GB + 0.256GB > 2GB).

 

Will it start a fire? NO. But you certainly gonna see the unfamous advice by windows "your machine is slow, want to turn of aero?". And/or Stutter, poping up, etc.

[D2ultima]

in multimonitor and ammount of Vram may i suggest an addition? 

 

It's true given a single monitor setup and game which uses xMB of Vram, if you upgrade to triple monitor you won't necesary need 3xMB Vram to do the same thing. BUT, and this but is important, the minimum ram required will need to be 3x as before. So in gaming, running certain game will not (necesary) need 3x ram as certain game settings are not hardlinked to significant ammount of ram increase, but AERO will.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/technical-requirements-of-windows-7-aero-desktop/f731d7e2-8731-438a-a839-011597d8099a

 

Why should i care about minimum requirement?: 

 

Lets say you have 2GB of vRAM, your game uses 1.5GB of Vram in one Monitor @1080p. Lets also asumes this particular game uses 1.8GB of Vram in triple 1080p monitor setup. So far so good right? 

The problem comes with aero, 1080p requieres 128MB of Vram (W7), so while playing single monitor it wont hurt (1.5GB + 0.128GB < 2GB) , the problem comes with triple setup. As you can see in previous link, Windows ask for a minimum of 256 for more than 2.3Megapixels... so: 1920x1080 = 2073600 x3 = 6220800 which is far more tan 2.3 megapixels. So your game which needs 1.8GB of Vram will have problems to assign that amount since windows reserved 256MB of your total 2GB. (1.8GB + 0.256GB > 2GB).

 

Will it start a fire? NO. But you certainly gonna see the unfamous advice by windows "your machine is slow, want to turn of aero?". And/or Stutter, poping up, etc.

This is true, however fullscreening will break off the requirement for the monitor you're on in most cases; for example: on my old 280M, Just Cause 2 was fine on single monitor, but on dual monitors (even when I fullscreened on one) is when I got the out of memory errors and framedrops. I updated the guide to be more clear though; do let me know if it's better for you. Thanks for the heads up however; I'm trying to make things as easy to understand as possible while covering as much information as possible, but it's so long I need to know when people don't get things or if I should extrapolate more.

[D2ultima]

I'm bumping because I said so

[D2ultima]

Bumping again; added a little info in the memory bandwidth section.

[Aphala]

>No HBM

>K

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Thanks, I'll expand on it now.

Edit: How's that?

Lack of vram will cause ctd, infinite load screens, massive stuttering and sometimes textures will look wonky.

[Aphala]

Oh yeah, and that. Thanks @Aphala

Was like "R U AVIN' A GIGLE M8"

[D2ultima]

Hey @D2ultima, I think it'd be nice to elaborate (or "extrapolate") the GTX 970 section, like the 660 Ti. Good job though, found it very useful. 

Your request makes no sense to me. Do you wish for me to make a section like the 660Ti like I did with the 970? I have an incredibly extensive section about the 970, and a smaller section about the 660Ti and similar cards (called the memory bus + mismatched memory section) where I explain about those and how nVidia arrived at them... what more would you like to know?

 

>No HBM

>K

When I understand HBM enough, I'll add its own section. I don't feel like I know enough to write a full section for it, and this is my most exhaustive guide. Gimme a few days to be a super researching sponge.

 

Lack of vram will cause ctd, infinite load screens, massive stuttering and sometimes textures will look wonky.

I know of crash to desktops in extreme cases (which I believe I listed at some point in the guide, using Wolfenstein: The New Order as a reference using testing done by HardOCP) but I've never seen infinite load screens or broken textures. Except in BF4, but BF4 breaks if you alt tab twice and shake your fist at it.

 

I did mention the stuttering as well, but I'll add that crashes can occur.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I know of crash to desktops in extreme cases (which I believe I listed at some point in the guide, using Wolfenstein: The New Order as a reference using testing done by HardOCP) but I've never seen infinite load screens or broken textures. Except in BF4, but BF4 breaks if you alt tab twice and shake your fist at it.

 

I did mention the stuttering as well, but I'll add that crashes can occur.

 

Oh that's specifically for modded Skyrim. That happens in Skyrim  :lol:

[D2ultima]

Oh that's specifically for modded Skyrim. That happens in Skyrim  :lol:

LOL. Well bugthesda bethesda is not known for publishing bug-free games.

[Aphala]

Your request makes no sense to me. Do you wish for me to make a section like the 660Ti like I did with the 970? I have an incredibly extensive section about the 970, and a smaller section about the 660Ti and similar cards (called the memory bus + mismatched memory section) where I explain about those and how nVidia arrived at them... what more would you like to know?

 

When I understand HBM enough, I'll add its own section. I don't feel like I know enough to write a full section for it, and this is my most exhaustive guide (which I have zero idea why it is not stickied yet... *glares at mods*). Gimme a few days to be a super researching sponge.

 

I know of crash to desktops in extreme cases (which I believe I listed at some point in the guide, using Wolfenstein: The New Order as a reference using testing done by HardOCP) but I've never seen infinite load screens or broken textures. Except in BF4, but BF4 breaks if you alt tab twice and shake your fist at it.

 

I did mention the stuttering as well, but I'll add that crashes can occur.

Become the sponge....become the internet! It's a dark path.

[D2ultima]

Become the sponge....become the internet! It's a dark path.

Added info about HBM. It's not a whole lot different as far as what this guide was attempting to show... the largest differences has to do with the physical layout, which this guide isn't covering. Also added a paragraph talking about Maxwell memory benefits.

[msvelev]

I only read the first spoiler and I disagree with some of the stuff. Some other members seem to have pointed the false stuff already.

[D2ultima]

I only read the first spoiler and I disagree with some of the stuff. Some other members seem to have pointed the false stuff already.

Every point someone pointed out has been dealt with already.

 

Please explain to me what you "disagree" with in the first spoiler.

[Aphala]

Added info about HBM. It's not a whole lot different as far as what this guide was attempting to show... the largest differences has to do with the physical layout, which this guide isn't covering. Also added a paragraph talking about Maxwell memory benefits.

Good I EXPECT TO SEE HBM2 AS WELL!!

 

Needs to be sticky threaded.

 

Edit: One for DDR 1 > 4?

[D2ultima]

Good I EXPECT TO SEE HBM2 AS WELL!!

 

Needs to be sticky threaded.

 

Edit: One for DDR 1 > 4?

To my knowledge, GDDR4 doesn't exist, and if it does, it never hit any mainstream cards (I once heard of a FirePro card with GDDR4, but never any other cards and I never bothered to look it up)

 

No point covering GDDR1 and 2 as they aren't used anymore, unlike GDDR3

 

Unless you were talking about system RAM? If that's the case, there's tons of guides about them out there, and I don't know enough to write a guide. I did this one knowing under half the knowledge that's set in here based on limited information I could find, and had to be corrected numerous times (which is what I was hoping for, actually; the more people that can properly correct me is the better the end quality of the guide) before the guide got to the point it is at now. Unless I'm certain I know enough that I can consolidate information (and that there isn't a lot of other good information guides out there) I probably won't write a guide.

 

And finally, the main thing is that I need to have the hardware. I did the SLI guide because I have a SLI laptop and noticed a lot of stuff. I did the vRAM guide because I sit and stare at my overlay most of the time when I try a new game, and I discovered a bunch of things people had wrong. I did my mobile i7 guide because down to Linus was giving false information in his videos about them (which after much pestering from myself and a couple others has mostly stopped, though he seems to rather avoiding saying bad things by clever wordplay than outright pointing out any and all performance issues with the CPUs) and everybody and their mother that wasn't a very active member of notebookreview's forums knew jack shit about mobile CPUs and kept feeding newbs false info based on conjecture extrapolated from somewhere around 2005. I don't have a lot of RAM to test (in fact my RAM sucks, I want an upgrade pretty badly) or other hardware to test to even begin writing another guide that isn't about livestreaming. And unfortunately, I know so much about livestreaming that I can charge for my knowledge, so I won't be doing a free guide on it =D.

[msvelev]

Every point someone pointed out has been dealt with already.

 

Please explain to me what you "disagree" with in the first spoiler.

I'm sorry, I read the post and wrote the commend quite some time after. Didn't even thought that you could've edited it

[D2ultima]

I'm sorry, I read the post and wrote the commend quite some time after. Didn't even thought that you could've edited it

That... would have... had to have been... months... okay then....

 

Anyway, I'm certain at least 95% of the information there is correct.

[Zoomv]

I watched some bf4 gameplay on a r9 380 with 2gb vram at ultra...

[D2ultima]

I watched some bf4 gameplay on a r9 380 with 2gb vram at ultra...

Yes. 1080p 100% resolution scale ultra settings is about 2GB of vRAM give or take for BF4. What are you asking?

[Zoomv]

Yes. 1080p 100% resolution scale ultra settings is about 2GB of vRAM give or take for BF4. What are you asking?

 

If a r9 380 with 2gb is enough to play bf4 assassins creed, fc 4 and maybe arma 3 or if i would need the 4gb model.

[D2ultima]

If a r9 380 with 2gb is enough to play bf4 assassins creed, fc 4 and maybe arma 3 or if i would need the 4gb model.

BF4 is fine. AC:Unity probably not very well. Arma 3 should be fine. FC4 I haven't touched, I don't know. But as I do suggest, if you can afford it, the higher vRAM model is always a good idea.