Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Why only 1GB of 2GB used on new 4870 X2?

Why only 1GB of 2GB used on new 4870 X2?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Why only 1GB of 2GB used on new 4870 X2?

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soldier37   08-14-2008 at 01:41:36 AM

I'm not understanding why the full 2GB isnt used even when scaled and tested at 2560 x 1600 all high settings in games. Seems like a waste to me. Or am I not understanding the reviews. I was planning on upgrading to this card from my 8800 GTS 640MB, but why pay for a card with only half the memory being able to be used. I game at 1920 x 1200 all high now, but my framerate would seem to double with this card. Thanks for your input.

 



Message edited by soldier37 on 08-14-2008 at 02:03:01 AM
------------------------------ Phen 2 955 @ 4 GHZ MSI 790FX AM3 Gskill 8Gb DDR3 1333 ATI 5870 1 Gb 2 x Velociraptors 600Gb Gateway 24" 1920 x 1200 DVI 32 GB Iphone 3GS and Blu Ray...life is good!
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teh_boxzor   08-14-2008 at 01:51:46 AM
- 0 +

i think because each gpu uses only 1gb or ram therefore 2 gpus use 2 gb's?

------------------------------ | Athlon x2 5000+ @ 3.2 | Biostar Tforce 570 sli | Sli 9800GT | 2x 512mb Corsair xms ddr2-800 | 2x 512mb Crucial Tracers ddr-800 | Antec 900 | 22" HannSpree | Creative Itrigue 3000 | PS triple
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invisik   08-14-2008 at 01:56:55 AM
- 0 +

it could be true that 1gig is dedicated to each core. If they were to combine 2gigs for the cores it would be pointless. 1gig of video ram is more then enough with current games. oh ya and then ppl r gonna mention crysis lol

------------------------------ intel core 2 quad q6600 @3.2ghz msi p6n diamond (X-FI Extreme sound) 6gig of OCZ+CoRSAIR oc 900mhz Nvidia gtx 260 sli @ 730/1465/1250
Lite-On Blue-ray Western Digital 7200rpm 500gb Antec 500 Earthwatt Window vista 64-bit
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soldier37   08-14-2008 at 02:05:49 AM
- 0 +

Yeh with Crysis now i get 18 fps on average, all high settings 1920 x 1200 in win xp. With the new Crysis warhead coming in September maybe this card will actually let me play it and Crysis over 30 fps on the same settings I have now, that would be different for a change, since I dont like to downgrade graphic settings in games.

------------------------------ Phen 2 955 @ 4 GHZ MSI 790FX AM3 Gskill 8Gb DDR3 1333 ATI 5870 1 Gb 2 x Velociraptors 600Gb Gateway 24" 1920 x 1200 DVI 32 GB Iphone 3GS and Blu Ray...life is good!
 Reply to soldier37
georgy   08-14-2008 at 02:30:58 AM
- 0 +

It's like a crossfire inside one card. If you crossfire 2 4870 (512 mb) you won't have 1gb.

Reply to georgy
warezme   08-14-2008 at 02:42:28 AM
- 1 +

don't understand why these X2 cards aren't marketed with their true max GB usage size. It think its very misleading to people and false advertising

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ Evga X58 3XSLI : i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz :GTX295+ x 2 :12GB XMS3 Dominator 8-8-8-21 1600 :XFi Fatal1ty:150GB WD VelociRaptor: 150GB Raptor: 4TB WD 32MB x4: Monsoon Vigor III: Lian Li P80 (black): BFG 1Kw PS: 37" Westinghouse 1080p 8ms :Vista64bit
 Reply to warezme
aznguy0028   08-14-2008 at 02:47:03 AM
- 0 +

warezme wrote :

don't understand why these X2 cards aren't marketed with their true max GB usage size. It think its very misleading to people and false advertising


yup that's how business is. it's misleading and it bends the truth quite a bit because generally people think the more, the better. all part of advertisement.

another instance can be said when the 3870x2 came out. it was labeled as PCI-e 2.0, but in reality the connector bridge on the card was only PCI-e 1.1 :)

the claims on the cards specs are true, but you have to know what it is specifically and what is referring to.

------------------------------ http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/590311.png
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cow_moo   08-14-2008 at 03:00:03 AM
- 0 +

yea like all others said it dosent use all 2gb of video ram it's false advertising

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macer1   08-14-2008 at 03:14:26 AM
- 0 +

its not false advertising by any means.


educate yourself before you make such "FALSE" accusations.

Reply to macer1
eklipz330   08-14-2008 at 03:16:11 AM
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cow_ moo, im pretty sure it utilizes both gigs of video ram, but each core is using its own gig... its not like they slap a gig in the corner of the pcb and say its two gigs, its not false advertising, im pretty sure a company knows whats illegal and whats not

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Reply to eklipz330
MafiaAce   08-14-2008 at 06:06:21 AM
- 3 +

It absolutely is not false advertising, this card has 2GB of RAM physically installed on it. Therefore it is a 2GB Card. However, because of the nature of Crossfire, the framebuffer of each GPU is not shared; therefore each GPU has its own independent 1GB of RAM, for a 2GB total. Yes, this is essentially the same as having a single 1GB Card, but that is part of the price you pay when stepping up to multi-gpu technology. Besides, even at high resolutions most games don't even fill 512MB of video memory. The only thing I can think of that actually uses more is Oblivion with texture mods like Quarl's Texture Pack 3, I've seen that run and use ~700MB of video RAM at some points. Crysis isn't even close.

Reply to MafiaAce
cjl   08-14-2008 at 06:59:46 AM
- 0 +

Crysis can easily use >700MB of video RAM at 1920x1200 4xAA.

Reply to cjl
hhahaahyea   08-14-2008 at 07:02:59 AM
- 0 +

eklipz330 wrote :

cow_ moo, im pretty sure it utilizes both gigs of video ram, but each core is using its own gig... its not like they slap a gig in the corner of the pcb and say its two gigs, its not false advertising, im pretty sure a company knows whats illegal and whats not



seriously.

Reply to hhahaahyea
macer1   08-14-2008 at 07:12:25 AM
- 0 +

I smell nvidia fanboy thread

Reply to macer1
sarwar_r87   08-14-2008 at 08:57:48 AM
- 0 +

this is wat i understand bout the 2GB memory....

4870x2 is ment for the highest resolution with highest settings, so 512MB memory might become a bottleneck for games live crysis. hence 1GB of ram for each gpu
however, x2 cant share memory. hence they have to copy the same data twice for each gpu. thus we have 2GB ram on them

Reply to sarwar_r87
Rwayne   08-14-2008 at 10:07:49 AM
- 0 +

2 GB could just be a selling point or it could be ATI's attempt to make the card future proof and if you are paying $500 for a card that is exactly what it should be.

 

ATI may have plans for future versions of Catalyst drivers that would make the 48XX utitlize a higher amount of memory for performance gains.

 

This would be smart on their part because if Nvidia counters with faster hardware the only thing ATI would have to do is just release an enhanced driver that they may be holding back.

 

Solider, I am surprised to see the move to ATI. I thought you were Nvidia all the way. You are going to have to redo the stickers on your case window now if you get this card.


Message edited by Rwayne on 08-14-2008 at 10:10:07 AM
Reply to Rwayne
zenmaster   08-14-2008 at 02:40:20 PM
- 0 +

I can say I'm honestly shocked by the complete lack of understanding on how the 4870x2 Operates.

"x2" Technology is not new in the graphics market and it has not changed in quite a while. If it was just one poster who did not understand, I could see that. But there are so many names on here that are not new to this board.


------------------------------ If its good in theory but not in practice,
its not good theory.
 Reply to zenmaster
strangestranger   08-14-2008 at 02:47:43 PM
- 0 +

i think the reason is maybe because of all the hype about shared memory between the two gpu's early on in the rumour mills. true it has been a few weeks since those hopes were dashed but it can take a while to filter through.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
 Reply to strangestranger
rfatcheric   08-14-2008 at 03:46:41 PM
- 0 +

cow_moo wrote :

yea like all others said it dosent use all 2gb of video ram it's false advertising



It does use it all...

Are you people dense?

Reply to rfatcheric
shaundwm   08-14-2008 at 04:04:59 PM
- 0 +

Doesnt it indeed use it all but because of the way the card works it effectivly works like 1gb with a 1gb backup cache?
That's still 2gb of ram
If you buy 2 10gb hard disks and RAID them so one backs up the other, you still have 20gb is storage, just only 10gb is effective.
Still it's perfectly fine to advertise the system if you sold it to have 20gb of storage, because it does!

Reply to shaundwm
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