GTX 770 2GB or 4GB?

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emuman42

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Apr 1, 2014
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I was browsing the forums, and the general consensus is that the 770 cannot utilize all 4GB of VRAM. This makes sense. My plan, however, is to buy one now, because that's how much money I want to spend now, and probably buy another one in 6 months to a year or so to SLI, thus being able to actually use most, if not all, of the VRAM.

My question is, however, if I am only running one monitor at 1920x1080, is the extra 50-100 bucks for the 4GB on both cards worth it for most games out or coming out? Or should I save the money and go with the 2GB versions?
 
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enemy1g

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Oct 3, 2013
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Ghosts is a poorly made game, thus why they "require" 4GB of VRAM. Games are -barely- touching 3GB of VRAM, and that's with all of the eye candy and AA turned on. If you're looking to max out everything, then the 770 is just shy of that, and would be better off looking towards a 780+ or a 290.
 
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Eduello

Eduello

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Mar 2, 2014
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So the GTX 780Ti 3GB can't run CoD: Ghosts on high? If the game takes more VRAM than is available the frames will drop to like 5-6 fps...

So yeah that's over least 2 times as much VRAM as the game uses. Please give links to these recommended specs.
 
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TheAshigaru

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Isn't the 4gb version only like $40 more anyway? Not too much extra, and you'll get a bit more longevity from the card. Worth it in my book.

Plus, although it isn't too common, some games do use more than 2Gb nowadays. Rome 2 Total War uses more than that IIRC.
 
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emuman42

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Apr 1, 2014
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This was what I was thinking, and I was hoping that by getting two cards and SLIing them, I'd be able to get a few years out of them. So what are games going to be looking like in the next 2-3 years? Do we project games to be using 3 or 4GB of VRAM? Because if we are, I will spend the extra money.
 
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enemy1g

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At high settings on a game like Titanfall (which is likely what you should be aiming for with a 770) at most you'll be using is closer to 1.5GB of VRAM at 1080p. Even if you upped the res to 4K, you'd be look at a little over 2GB.

If you're playing on the highest setting, you'll use closer to 3GB, but realistically, you can't play at the highest setting with playable FPS on a 770.

Which is why the 770 has 2GB of VRAM, it's like sweet spot currently. If you intended on maxing out games, you would've gone with a GTX 780/Ti, as they come with 3GB of VRAM, which is about how much would be used.
 
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emuman42

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Even with SLI?
 
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enemy1g

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Using SLI doesn't double the amount of VRAM that your system is allowed to use (2GB + 2GB = 2GB). So if you're playing with everything set to max, it'll use around 3GB of VRAM. But as I've been reading, Titanfall won't even let you set the settings to the max unless you have at least 3GB of VRAM.

My basis for these statements are based off of Beta, in which things might have changed now. But again, even if you were playing at 4K res on high with SLI 2GB 770s, you'd still use around 2GB of VRAM.

If you're truly that concerned with getting the best card for your buck, and that will last a fair amount of time, you shouldn't be buying a GTX 770. $40 is $40, but if it's just $40 to you, why not add an extra $100 and have the ease of mind of having a GTX 780?
 
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TheAshigaru

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I'm seeing a 4Gb PNY 770 on Amazon right now for $375. The cheapest 780 is $509. To me, an extra 2Gb of VRAM is worth the incremental cost increase because you completely eliminate it as a potential bottleneck for the GPU.

I say this because my last graphics card was a GTX 570 classified. I got it in 2011 when the sweet spot was 1280Mb of VRAM. The card chokes on newer titles because it runs out of VRAM. Even a heavily modded Skyrim will use a ton of VRAM because it has to load in a bunch of super hi-res textures.

The option of SLI in the future is always nice to have, but when you're thinking about it, definitely consider the price/performance gain versus just getting a new single GPU. I do think that 4Gb is certainly a better option if you will SLI though. As enemy1g said, doubling up on a 2GB card won't solve any VRAM issues.
 
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