VRAM

[Waterspear65]

Is 3.5gb vram enough to play gta v modded and skyrim w/ mods and txt. packs at 60fps high settings?

[dkspooder]

No. you need about three more bags of Doritos.

What resolution are you running at?

[Waterspear65]

No. you need about three more bags of Doritos.

What resolution are you running at?

Doritos?

1080p

[dkspooder]

I can run skyrim on 1080p on 2 gigs. If you mod a lot, it will dip slightly. A little healthy overclocking will do ya some good as well. Is 3.5 supposed to be a cheap blow at the 970?

[Sam Z Man]

If you crank settings no you're going to hit the wall.

[Amazingasian]

Is 3.5gb vram enough to play gta v modded and skyrim w/ mods and txt. packs at 60fps high settings?

Yes it is.  I'm also assuming that you're talking about a GTX 970.  If you haven't purchased the 970, I would go with a R9 390 instead.

[Waterspear65]

I am trying to decide between the msi gtx 970 and the sapphire nitro trix oc r9 390.

[Aytex]

I am trying to decide between the msi gtx 970 and the sapphire nitro trix oc r9 390.

sapphire nitro

[FixedDevice]

I am trying to decide between the msi gtx 970 and the sapphire nitro trix oc r9 390.

 

Sapphire...!!

 

Quietest and card in existence w/ great performance!

[Belgarathian]

Doritos?

1080p

 

You'll be fine buddy. I run GTA V and Skyrim Hi-res on 3440x1440p with 3.5Gb VRAM

[TheKDub]

Is 3.5gb vram enough to play gta v modded and skyrim w/ mods and txt. packs at 60fps high settings?

 

Depends on the resolution you're playing at.

 

I can max out skyrim at 1080p with 80+ mods easily with my 970, FPS never goes below 40 or so, usually staying around 60+.

 

 

Also, the 970 has 4GB of VRAM, not 3.5GB. (Yes, I know the last .5GB tends to be slower, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.)

[Arc_Jester]

Sapphire is the way to go.

[Waterspear65]

I'm so confused. I'm getting both answers. Is the r9 390 worth the trade off of performance in most cases but for heat and noise and less driver support.

[don_svetlio]

I'm so confused. I'm getting both answers. Is the r9 390 worth the trade off of performance in most cases but for heat and noise and less driver support.

Heat - the Nitro 390 is cooler than 90% of the 970s available today.

Noise - I doubt the 970 you're looking at will be quieter than this card - maybe if it's a KingPin or Classified but yeah. Sapphire are the best along with EVGA

Drivers - currently, believe it or not, AMD have slightly more stable drivers than Nvidia

VRAM - Once you hit the 3.5 wall - the 970 starts using the slow part causing all 4GB to run on a 32-bit bus in order to harmonize with the slow part - read @D2ultima 's guide on the subject.

[D2ultima]

VRAM - Once you hit the 3.5 wall - the 970 starts using the slow part causing all 4GB to run on a 32-bit bus in order to harmonize with the slow part - read @D2ultima 's guide on the subject.

It's not on a 32-bit bus. The 32-bit controller part that interfaces with the slow vRAM must essentially do the work of two 32-bit controllers, so it halves memory bandwidth for the rest of the card synchronizing with it.

 

So it acts like 7 x 16-bit controllers, not 7 x 32-bit controllers, for a 112-bit memory bus.

 

It's not exactly as bad as a single 32-bit controller (EVERYBODY would feel it at that point) but it is bad.