Is it true that buying a 4GB GTX 960 is throwing money down the toilet?

[Ikarmue]

I know that, from what I have read, people say the 4GB GTX 960 is not worth it due to the 128 bit bus not being able to take advantage of the 4GB VRAM. However, I have also heard from others that it can use the 4GB just fine, it's just that some games do not need the extra VRAM. I ask because I am wanting to upgrade my GPU from a GTX 750 Ti to something better and would rather not be left with buyer's remorse.

[Guest]

Just get the R9 380.

[mikat]

Just now, Ikarmue said:

I know that, from what I have read, people say the 4GB GTX 960 is not worth it due to the 128 bit bus not being able to take advantage of the 4GB VRAM. However, I have also heard from others that it can use the 4GB just fine, it's just that some games do not need the extra VRAM. I ask because I am wanting to upgrade my GPU from a GTX 750 Ti to something better and would rather not be left with buyer's remorse.

i'd buy the R9 380 4GB

[UnlimitedTMD]

R9 390 4Gb is the answer 

[comicsansms]

You are not throwing your money away, but it isn't the best option. Get a R9 380 4GB, you can get them as cheap as $160USD.

[cynexit]

The main problem is that VRAM usage grows with your in-game settings. Higher resolution? You'll need to allocate more VRAM so the frames you see on screen are actually saved somewhere (like saving images on your HDD, the bigger the image the more space you need). High resolution textures? Better have the VRAM to cach them somewhere since asking the HDD for them every time is slow as f**k.

Now the thing is: The 960 is an entry level card. It's not designed to play games in 4K or with Ultra High settings (<- exaggeration) so the chip isn't really that capable of handling graphics settings in games that would really require the additional VRAM.

That being said there might be cases where the VRAM comes in handy, CUDA workload especially or even games that just see that the VRAM is there and then start to cache everything even tough it might not be that necessary.

 

Conclusion: The 4GB might be useful around 10% of your gaming time, if this is worth the extra money to you go with it. Generally a 380 would be the better option here tough.

[Paralectic]

11 minutes ago, UnlimitedTMD said:

R9 390 4Gb is the answer 

So a product costing alot more is the answer? Titan X 4 Way SLI is the answer than...

[WaterproofBeanie]

2 minutes ago, Paralectic said:

So a product costing alot more is the answer? Titan X 4 Way SLI is the answer than...

Given that you can't buy a 4gb 390, I'd guess it's a typo - he probably meant a 380, which makes more sense than a 960 4gb in any case

[Paralectic]

Just now, ShaolinBear said:

Given that you can't buy a 4gb 390, I'd guess it's a typo - he probably meant a 380, which makes more sense than a 960 4gb in any case

That's indeed true.

[Conan1600]

many youtube videos will show you that a 4gb gtx 960 performs better than a 2gb. google search gtx 960 2gb vs 4gb videos and watch. if you are like me and like shadowplay and streaming the 960 is the way to go if that is your max price point