2/3gb 660?

[rukia_kuchiki]

This isn't a topic on if a 3gb 660 makes sense.

 

What I want to know is, how did they get a 2gb 660 and a 3gb 660 on a 192bit bus, I thought if you had a 192 bit bus that you had to have an odd amount of ram, 768/1.5gb/3gb/etc.

 

Perhaps I need to read up on how bus bit rate impacts ram, anyone got a link?

[KayNine]

bit rate is just how much data is transferred at a time from the gpu memory to the system memory or so.

 

http://www.ehow.com/about_6767000_128-256-bit-graphics-card.html

 

this is what i found so far.

[Andrew0472]

from what i read on toms hardware just then the 2gb cards are actually limited to 1.5gb of vram. Would be good if someone here could confirm this but yeh

[KayNine]

from what i read on toms hardware just then the 2gb cards are actually limited to 1.5gb of vram. Would be good if someone here could confirm this but yeh

I think it's true now that I think about it and now that you mention it... I never saw my video card running more than 1.5gb vram, some games I've played are stuck at that amount. wow, there may even be a limit for those 660's.

 

Edited: also looked at some tom's hardware posts and other people seem to have the same issue I mentioned right up here ^

wow... it is more evident to me that it's limited to 1.5 GB VRAM. ohh noo  

[rukia_kuchiki]

Interesting. I'll shoot a couple of manufacturers and email and see what they say.

[KayNine]

Interesting. I'll shoot a couple of manufacturers and email and see what they say.

I'm dying to hear their responses. I am already following this forum, so posting their replies here would be nice.

[rukia_kuchiki]

I'm dying to hear their responses. I am already following this forum, so posting their replies here would be nice.

Yes ofcourse, I wouldn't post it if I wasn't gonna tell you about it. They might take a couple of days to reply though.

[KayNine]

Yes ofcourse, I wouldn't post it if I wasn't gonna tell you about it. They might take a couple of days to reply though.

Awesome, I can wait.

[rukia_kuchiki]

I was only able to send out emails to EVGA and MSi, the others required a serial number.

 

Also I think I goofed and sent them Bus Rate instead of Bus Width. I assume they will understand though.

[KayNine]

I was only able to send out emails to EVGA and MSi, the others required a serial number.

 

Also I think I goofed and sent them Bus Rate instead of Bus Width. I assume they will understand though.

I think it would not hurt to resend another email mentioning the bus width* .  But I think if you mention something close to like 192-bit rate or something close enough, I think it's somewhat understandable.

[rukia_kuchiki]

I think it would not hurt to resend another email mentioning the bus width* .  But I think if you mention something close to like 192-bit rate or something close enough, I think it's somewhat understandable.

 

Yup thats exactly what I put.

[KayNine]

Yup thats exactly what I put.

Allright. I can't wait for their replies.

[Suika]

@LinusTech - Do you have any input on this? Because my perception might be as skewed, lol.

 

@rukia_kuchiki @KayNine

To my understanding, a video card runs out of horsepower before it runs out of a VRAM in most cases. Take for example, benchmarks between a 2GB and 4GB GTX 770 are identical on all resolutions. The GTX 770 is too weak to power through high resolutions anyway, so it's not going to need more than 2GB. However, equip it with 4GB, and your performance gain is 0%. No difference is made because the GPU can't run the game, so the additional VRAM is useless.

 

Put the GTX 770 in SLI, and suddenly, you have more power. Scaling aside, you're now running double the power. The card can now effectively use more than 2GB of VRAM since it's strong enough too. It's the same case with the 660, or similar at least. It's not quite strong enough to use 2GB, but put it in SLI, and it will.

 

Do you get what I'm saying? Not trying to be mean but it's harder to explain than I thought.

[DJHoro]

@LinusTech - Do you have any input on this? Because my perception might be as skewed, lol.

 

@rukia_kuchiki @KayNine

To my understanding, a video card runs out of horsepower before it runs out of a VRAM in most cases. Take for example, benchmarks between a 2GB and 4GB GTX 770 are identical on all resolutions. The GTX 770 is too weak to power through high resolutions anyway, so it's not going to need more than 2GB. However, equip it with 4GB, and your performance gain is 0%. No difference is made because the GPU can't run the game, so the additional VRAM is useless.

 

Put the GTX 770 in SLI, and suddenly, you have more power. Scaling aside, you're now running double the power. The card can now effectively use more than 2GB of VRAM since it's strong enough too. It's the same case with the 660, or similar at least. It's not quite strong enough to use 2GB, but put it in SLI, and it will.

 

Do you get what I'm saying? Not trying to be mean but it's harder to explain than I thought.

I think card power doesnt matter as long as it can run the game/program (not sure about that). I think its the Bus width and bandwidth that determains how much vram is used and how fast. As for resolution, higher resolutions do use more vram but so do textures. If you play a super high texture game then you use alot of vram, even at 1080p, you will run out.

[LinusTech]

Great question about the odd amount of memory. NVIDIA first introduced this concept with the GTX 550 Ti.

 

There's a great explanation of how they do it here:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/2

[rukia_kuchiki]

Interesting. Thanks for taking the time to help, everyone.

TL:DR: Nvidia is magic and we don't really know how they are doing it on the low level side, but essentially they are just adding a couple more memory chips on the controller. Whereby it becomes lopsided and has to have a few more tweaks from nvidia to get it working well.

[KayNine]

I just hope I am not limited to 1.5 GB of VRAM. I seem limited to that amount but I am not sure if its the bus width limitation or the game not needing more than this amount.

[rukia_kuchiki]

 

I just hope I am not limited to 1.5 GB of VRAM. I seem limited to that amount but I am not sure if its the bus width limitation or the game not needing more than this amount.

 

From what I read it seems like it would work fine, assuming Nvidia picked up there end of the stick and did whatever you need to do to get lopsided controllers working efficiently.

Also heres my response from EVGA....

Hello, For further details and explanation of the design/architecture would be found at Nvidia as they are the sole developers of the Geforce chipset. Regards,EVGA

[KayNine]

Wow, I kind of expected a better answer from EVGA, but allright.  

[rukia_kuchiki]

Indeed, I find it kind of funny though, I didn't even ask about any specifics about the Geforce chipset, merely about the memory configuration.

[KayNine]

I do hope someone else with a GTX 660 utilizing more than 1.5 GB VRAM and closer to 2GB VRAM would confirm that it is actually 2GB though.

[rukia_kuchiki]

Just wanted to update this thread. I didn't forget, its just the other companies I have mailed simply didn't respond.