Does the 3.5 GB really matter?

[MLGNOSCOPEHEADSHOTGETREKT]

Does the 3.5GB on the 970 affect 1440p?How about 1080p?My freind has one he wanna know if he can run 1440p on 3.5GB

[C0LL0SS0S]

Does the 3.5GB on the 970 affect 1440p?How about 1080p?My freind has one he wanna know if he can run 1440p on 3.5GB

I think its different in any game so no real answer

[Laederem]

He should be ok.

 

just because ANY given game uses 4GB of VRAM doesn't mean it needs 4GB of VRAM. 

 

If there are any issues currently with allocation, Nvidia will be able to deal with them through driver updates.

[Kyuubixchidori]

nope, been proven its not powerful enough to use 4gb of vram anyway

[xQubeZx]

Would probably be fine, my gtx 760 runs all games with no problems with only 2gb. All games isnt maxed out tough. (Battlefield 4 at medium to high, crysis 3 medium, cs go all maxed)

[Unlikelyjoker]

If you like to play Titanfall at 1080p

Or any demanding game 1440p/2160p

Then yes it will be an issue.

If your the minecraft kind of guy then hell no.

[Benielishackove]

Does the 3.5GB on the 970 affect 1440p?How about 1080p?My freind has one he wanna know if he can run 1440p on 3.5GB

what about the dx12 fix ?

will it be better to get x2 960 that will work on 4gb (x2 2gb)

or the 970 will knock them out ?

or even better what about evga 4gb 960 ?

[Sauron]

Some members here are running 4k on two 970s. 1440p won't be a problem.

[TheKDub]

Does the 3.5GB on the 970 affect 1440p?How about 1080p?My freind has one he wanna know if he can run 1440p on 3.5GB

 

Nope, as long as he reduces AA (which he should do at higher resolutions anyways) it will be fine.

[cesrai]

He should be ok.

 

just because ANY given game uses 4GB of VRAM doesn't mean it needs 4GB of VRAM. 

 

If there are any issues currently with allocation, Nvidia will be able to deal with them through driver updates.

If it uses the vram it needs it.

[Butterfish]

Does the 3.5GB on the 970 affect 1440p?How about 1080p?My freind has one he wanna know if he can run 1440p on 3.5GB

1440p and 970 owner here. The only game that have used all of the VRAM is Dying Light. It capped at 3500mbs. I didn't really notice any serious FPS drops. Seems like the 970 is a fine sweetspot for 1080/1440p.

[Laederem]

If it uses the vram it needs it.

no, it doesn't

 

go load up any given AAA game at 1080p on a 2GB card and a 4GB card. The 4GB card will approach 4GB, there will be no difference in performance. 

 

what you see is only the difference in the way resource exhaustion is handled by the controllers of each.

[Godlygamer23]

no, it doesn't

 

go load up any given AAA game at 1080p on a 2GB card and a 4GB card. The 4GB card will approach 4GB, there will be no difference in performance. 

 

what you see is only the difference in the way resource exhaustion is handled by the controllers of each.

Most AAA titles do not use the full amount of VRAM available. Some notable examples are Crysis 2 and 3 - the engine is designed to cache as much as it can into VRAM to allow for faster access.

 

I'll even run my own benchmarks if you wish with my 970.

[Laederem]

Most AAA titles do not use the full amount of VRAM available. Some notable examples are Crysis 2 and 3 - the engine is designed to cache as much as it can into VRAM to allow for faster access.

 

I'll even run my own benchmarks if you wish with my 970.

It wasn't intended to be taken literally, point I'm making is that even if it uses 3.6GB of VRAM doesn't mean it needs 3.6GB of VRAM. 

[cesrai]

no, it doesn't

 

go load up any given AAA game at 1080p on a 2GB card and a 4GB card. The 4GB card will approach 4GB, there will be no difference in performance. 

 

what you see is only the difference in the way resource exhaustion is handled by the controllers of each.

If you can make use if the resource why wont you, it the same like RAM when you get 8GB windows will use more than when you have 4GB but windows doesn't need that memory does it ?? if you have a resource you should make full use out of it.

[SkulD]

It wasn't intended to be taken literally, point I'm making is that even if it uses 3.6GB of VRAM doesn't mean it needs 3.6GB of VRAM.

What?

[Laederem]

What?

 

 

If you can make use if the resource why wont you, it the same like RAM when you get 8GB windows will use more than when you have 4GB but windows doesn't need that memory does it ?? if you have a resource you should make full use out of it.

more or less, that's what it does

 

if what is loaded onto the VRAM isn't required to render a scene, it will still stay loaded until some memory needs to be dumped to load something else, we reach that point sooner on a 2GB card, but since less than 2GB is needed there is no performance impact versus another card with more VRAM.

 

the fact that extraneous resources are still loaded onto the higher VRAM card is sometimes an added convenience if it's later needed, and there is no need to forcibly dump and use only what is required because there's no benefit from unused VRAM.

 

this only holds true in a situation where something requires, say 1.5GB of VRAM to run without stuttering and a 2GB and 4GB graphics card is used.  

[ExcitezR]

nope i use it on 3 1080p screens (5760x1080) and don't have any issues 

[MC_loud]

I have a GTX 970 @1440p and I haven't run into any instances where the amount of vram was a problem

[i_build_nanosuits]

will start to matter more in future games (next year...)

[Trik'Stari]

1080p not yet (I claimed it did earlier, but I didn't realize that I had the DSR turned on to 1440)

above 1080? more than likely to start seeing problems, that is unless we actually get stacking Vram in sli in the near future.

[typographie]

nope, been proven its not powerful enough to use 4gb of vram anyway

 

Your citation is glaringly absent.

[Kyuubixchidori]

Your citation is glaringly absent.

Never once seeen a citation on LTT. but here ya go:

From linus/ncix.

in games, at the 3.5gb vram anyway, games are generally at 30fps or less. I dont think anyone who would buy a 970 would be happy gaming at 30 fps. Now, this may be a issue if you go SLI, because that means you dropping just below 60-50fps when games hit that 3.5 gb limit. 

 

Basically, if your just getting a single card, its a nonissue, if your going sli, it may be a issue. 

I can find other sources if you want. that was literally just the first one on google.

[Zah]

Never once seeen a citation on LTT. but here ya go:

-snip-

From linus/ncix.

in games, at the 3.5gb vram anyway, games are generally at 30fps or less. I dont think anyone who would buy a 970 would be happy gaming at 30 fps. Now, this may be a issue if you go SLI, because that means you dropping just below 60-50fps when games hit that 3.5 gb limit. 

 

Basically, if your just getting a single card, its a nonissue, if your going sli, it may be a issue. 

I can find other sources if you want. that was literally just the first one on google.

Did you even watch the video?  He said in Ultra-Wide 1440p.  Which is a 21:9 aspect ratio that is uncommon to be seen, and is not STANDARD 16:9 1440p

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Unless your friend love modding skyrim with high resolution 4K textures with uGrids= 9, he should be fine :>