3GB Vram enough for 1080p 60fps?

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MythicalSnake

MythicalSnake

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Look, I'm currently using an GTX 650 Ti 1GB. And I really want to upgrade it finally. All of the new AMD cards (except the RX560/460 and 550) won't fit into my case. The GTX 1060 mini 3GB variant does though. I want to game at 1080p and have 60fps, I don't mind turning some settings down here and there (Vram intensive stuff like textures and anti-aliasing). Besides that, I play most of my games on my TV which is far enough away that FXAA takes care of the jaggies at 1080p without introducing perceivable bluriness. And small details (like you would find in ultra settings) like finer shadows, less pop-in are way less apparant for me.
SPECS: i5 3570 3,4 GHz - 8GB DDR3 RAM - 2x 500GB HDD - GTX 650 Ti 1GB
 
Solution
atomicWAR
If your willing to drop to medium settings down the road you should get some good wear out of your card. You are right that in most games FXAA has a very small hit on vram, one of it's huge advantages performance wise. Though with 3GB that small difference may count in 4 years time or less. As for a GTX 1050Ti 4GB out performing a GTX 1060 3Gb down the road....mmm it is possible in VRAM limited situations but I still find it fairly unlikely in most titles if your willing to cut back on textures/AA while your being considerate of your VRAM limitations. Basically a GTX 1050Ti 4GB might win in a game at the same settings frame rate wise vs the GTX 1060 3GB when VRAM is exceeded but if you tweak things to fit in VRAM of the 1060 the GTX...
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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Honestly I have zero idea why nvidia released a 3GB card. Yes you can game at 1080P with it but it feels the crunch in a number of games. And that is today...in time things will only get worse IMHO. If your strictly limited by size you may be stuck but I also find it hard to believe you can't find a 6GB variant of similar size. What case are you using BTW? If it were me i would want a 6GB card. The 3GB version should have never been made.
 
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MythicalSnake

MythicalSnake

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I currently have a mini ITX case. The main problem is the lenght of the card.
And pricing is also important for me: the GTX 1060 3GB costs 229 euro where I live (as cheap as that card can get over here), while the 6GB costs about 350 euro. Firstly I wanted to go with the GTX 1050 Ti (better than RX 560), but then I saw that, for 50 euro extra I could get double the performance.
 
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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In your use case an argument for a GTX 1060 3GB can easily be made on price to performance. But it does mean things like HD textures (in many not all cases) are out the window as is anti-aliasing which will likely include FXAA (again not always but in some cases). The biggest concern if it were me would be longevity. 3GB is already a problem in some games even without HD textures packs/AA. The question is how long do you want this card to last? You may be ok on that front if your just now feeling the urge to upgrade from a GTX 650Ti with 1GB. I just want to make sure you know what your getting into is all. I see to many posts where someone like you goes "3GB or 6GB" one week in the forums only to return complaining about not being able to do this or that on the 3GB card a week later. As long as you're aware of the short comings and potential longevity issues then you should be happy with the card.
 
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MythicalSnake

MythicalSnake

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@atomicWAR, but do you suspect that the GTX 1060 3GB woll always perform better than the GTX 1050 Ti 4GB? I mean, I know that the 1060 is a much more powerful card, but seeing as big of a limitation vram could be.
By the way, I bought the GTX 650 Ti 1GB four years ago, so in four years time the GTX 1060 3GB should perform a little bit better compared to how my current card does (don't know when I'll replace the card, do want it to give me 60fps at medium/high/ultra settings (I do love to tweak games, so mixing and matching settings and such shouldn't be an issue).
To quickly adress the fact that you said 3GB VRAM might not be enough for FXAA, whenever I had fxaa on, it didn't seem to impact my four years old 1GB card much.
 
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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If your willing to drop to medium settings down the road you should get some good wear out of your card. You are right that in most games FXAA has a very small hit on vram, one of it's huge advantages performance wise. Though with 3GB that small difference may count in 4 years time or less. As for a GTX 1050Ti 4GB out performing a GTX 1060 3Gb down the road....mmm it is possible in VRAM limited situations but I still find it fairly unlikely in most titles if your willing to cut back on textures/AA while your being considerate of your VRAM limitations. Basically a GTX 1050Ti 4GB might win in a game at the same settings frame rate wise vs the GTX 1060 3GB when VRAM is exceeded but if you tweak things to fit in VRAM of the 1060 the GTX 1050Ti will not get a faster frame rate then the GTX 1060 3GB as a whole when VRAM is not exceeded. That make sense? As to whether or not the VRAM situation will be come an issue like this down the road, this is why I don't like the 3GB card as it can be a problem now in a handful of games. My guess is that list will grow. But if your willing to turn things down and not exceed vram (or you lucky and a game is well optimized for fetching information from RAM to VRAM it might not matter, there are examples on the market now like this). This is what makes it the tough call and why some folks say a GTX 1060 3GB is fine for 1080P and others like me who wonder why the heck Nvidia even made the card to begin with. Time will tell. I am sorry I can't give you a more solid answer then that. I lost my crystal ball in a card game ;)
 
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Solution
MythicalSnake

MythicalSnake

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And you know what the funny thing is? With my GTX 650 Ti I couldn't even play new AAA games at 30fps and above 900p on the lowest setting. Playing medium 1080p sounds good to me (30 or 60fps). Wow, will this be a big difference for me!
 
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