GTX 760: 2 GB vs 4GB Ram?

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

I am looking to buy a GTX 760, and right now it seems that there are three choices I can make.

The Asus DCU2 GTX 760 (2gb VRAM)
The MSI n760 TF GTX 760 (2gb VRAM)
The EVGA GTX 760 (4 gb VRAM)

I'd like to pick the card that is most future proof. I tend to mod my games to have higher textures and what not so vram is helpful, but out of these three is the EVGA most future proof?

johnvonmacz · Jul 2, 2013

SammyAl7 :

If you're getting a 760, get the 2GB version, there's no benefit in getting the 4GB version because 760's bus width (256bit) is not that big to fully ultilize the 4GB vRam you're just wasting the extra cash you pay for it without getting much of a benefit, but if you want to futureproof and you care about vRam, you can consider Radeon 7950 as it has a big enough bus width (384bit) to handle all of it's 3GB vRam.

mclovits · Jul 2, 2013

SammyAl7 :

Yes, if you'll be modding you'll want a 4GB card, though I'd wait until a non-reference model is released with 4GB or Vram, that way you have more headroom for overclocking.

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

The 7950 looks nice but i'm really loving the pricepoint for the GTX 760. When will non-reference models for the GTX 760 be coming out?

mclovits · Jul 2, 2013

SammyAl7 :

Very soon most likely, within a week or two I'm sure a non reference 4GB card will be for sale, though john brings up a good point. You'll be better off with a 4GB card, that's for sure, but you won't really be able to utilize 4GB of Vram without stepping up to a 770 or switching to a 7970 (or perhaps a used 7970).

geofelt · Jul 2, 2013

A while back, this report showed no real difference in performance between 2gb and 4gb:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

I happen to prefer the reference blower type coolers anyway. They get heat directly out the back l of your case.
One reason for fancier coolers is to be able to self overclock a bit higher.
My take is to just buy a better binned card with a factory overclock in the first place.

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

Hmm... I am kinda pinned on getting the gtx 760 for again the price, and because of the release of geforce experience (mainly for shadowplay to record gameplay footage at 3-5 percent fps hit since I will be doing a lot of youtube.) If I get the 4gb version of a gtx 760, how much of the vram will I utilize? And if I do get a 760 with 4gb vram, what do I lose in return? (lower overclocking ability, etc).

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

Is it worth it to get, for example the asus 760 directcu ii?

Diamond-HP · Jul 2, 2013

geofelt :

You won't see a difference between 2GB or 4GB simply because today's games don't utilize more than 2GB in fact you can get away with only 1GB however it depends on the scale of the investment, if the OP is considering keeping this for a long time and play's 1080p I personally would consider it because in two years if a game comes out that is a VRAM hog your investment is prepared for it.

If your going to get another card in two years then I'd say don't bother and just get the 2GB.

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

This might be my last gfx card for a while as in a couple of years i'll be going to uni and I want to save as much money as possible... at the same time I want bang for my buck that's future proof and apparently the GTX 760 it is. And yeah it's logical to get 4gb vram as I will probably need it in the future, but how much of it does the card actually utilize as john mentioned?

johnvonmacz · Jul 2, 2013

SammyAl7 :

To easily understand this matter, GTX 760 has a memory bus width of 256bit, the thing about 256bit is that it's not big or powerful enough to handle that high of vram (4GB) so if you play games, you will notice that there will be no difference in FPS when using either 4GB or 2GB and in some cases 2GB gets more FPS than 4GB. So at the end of the day, if you care about vram, get a gpu that can handle high amount of vram, getting 7950 with a 384bit bus width + 3GB vram is better than getting 760 which has 256bit bus + 4GB vram.

SammyAl7 · Jul 2, 2013

That helps a lot john... in your opinion is 2gb vram good enough for the future, lets say the next 3 years?

johnvonmacz · Jul 3, 2013

SammyAl7 :

It depends on the games you're planning to play in the future and also, If you're not maxing out most of the game settings, 2GB vram will last til next few years. Or if ever 2GB will be a limitation in the future, you can always do a SLI configuration, buy another 760 in the future to enhance the performance.

Also, games has some kind of memory management where it will only use how much vram you have so that there will be no limitation or whatsoever, a good example is battlefield 3, where if you only have 1gb of ram, it will only use 1gb of ram and nothing more.

Diamond-HP · Jul 3, 2013

Yeah it's a tough one the 760 is slightly quicker but the 7950 is a bit of a beast power wise and has more scale for future VRAM usage.

I suppose the question is will VRAM surpass 2GB for gaming anytime soon?

The problem with what were discussing is future possibilities that none of us know as of now, but games have been pushing the envelope of 1GB especially for a 1080p resolution already.

TBH considering you can overclock a HD 7950 and make it even quicker that coupled with a 4 GB VRAM overhead for me is a dead cert, you just can't go wrong with it.

What I can tell you to put you at ease is that either of these cards are spot on for 1080p gaming, buy either and your good to go.

Diamond-HP · Jul 3, 2013

byogamingpc it does beg the question why is it you own a 3GB HD 7950 then lol.

Just kidding.

SammyAl7 · Jul 3, 2013

Thanks for the answers guys. John does bring up a good point regarding SLI, since In the next 3-4 years the gtz 760 price will probably go down. I think I'll go for the gtx 7 60 because of the price performance ratio is just too hard to turn down with my budget.

SammyAl7 · Jul 3, 2013

And byo that looks like a good card option, I'm looking at the Asus dc2 and the MSI ones as well.

SammyAl7 · Jul 3, 2013

And byo that looks like a good card option, I'm looking at the Asus dc2 and the MSI ones as well.

SammyAl7 · Jul 3, 2013

This looks like the best option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127745

Diamond-HP · Jul 3, 2013

Yeah you'll be good to go, that one has a higher starting core clock as well compared to some of the others.

I like the EVGA ones but that's because they look nice and I'm being a tart about it, once it's in the machine you can't see it and it's about the performance.

Good luck.

geofelt · Jul 3, 2013

I would not plan on GTX760 prices dropping in the future.
Historically, this has not happened when new cards arrive, at least not on the new retail marketplace.
The reason is that those looking for a exact card match for a sli upgrade or repair replacement have nowhere else to go to get a new card.
If you look at the used market, the GTX670 will drop to an appropriate price performance level.

Steven Lam · Jul 6, 2013

johnvonmacz :

SammyAl7 :

If you're getting a 760, get the 2GB version, there's no benefit in getting the 4GB version because 760's bus width (256bit) is not that big to fully ultilize the 4GB vRam you're just wasting the extra cash you pay for it without getting much of a benefit, but if you want to futureproof and you care about vRam, you can consider Radeon 7950 as it has a big enough bus width (384bit) to handle all of it's 3GB vRam.

is that the same for the 770 gtx 4gb 256-bit?

SammyAl7 · Jul 6, 2013

I believe so Steven, they both have a 256-bit bus.

johnvonmacz · Jul 6, 2013

Steven Lam :

johnvonmacz :

is that the same for the 770 gtx 4gb 256-bit?

Yes, just get the 2GB version.

Guy Parris · Jul 18, 2013

GTX 760: 2 GB vs 4GB Ram?

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