4870 1gig performance...bleh!

Well, I didn't want anybody to miss this after the beating I took last time I said there wouldn't be any difference to talk about regarding the difference of the 512 card vs the 1gig card. here it is........... suck it up boyz

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articl [...] 84&src=3rd

Sorry I missed that thread, I have too been saying for a long time that 1 gig of memory is useless on most cards.

256 bit wide memory buss. If you are going to make good use of more than 512meg of memory, the memory buss has got to be wider than 256 bit.
Adding more than 512 meg of memory to a card with only a 256bit wide buss is nothing more than a marketing ploy that believe it or not, works like a charm. Why not stick another 512meg of memory that cost $25 bucks on a card and sell it for $100 more. People snatch these things up right and left simply because they have a gig of memory. I have seen sales people push these cards in just about every retail store out there... "these are the best you can buy, 1 gig of memory!!!"

The 8800 series and 3800 series benchmarks with 1 gig of memory actually proved 90% of the time to be SLOWER than the same card with 512meg of memory. (of those cards with a 256 bit memory buss)

As proven over and over before...

Games do not benefit from extra gfx memory UNLESS they are being played at really high res (even then memory speed is still a limiting factor) or the game wants it. If a game has been designed for 512mb ram at max then 1024mb is pointless as the extra memory needs to be addresses and managed. This even caused slow downs.

However for somebody like me who plays at high res these make sense. Going from 3DMark06 runs at 1920x1080 8xAA 16xAF to 1920x1200 8xAA 16xAF (using 512mb 4870 Crossfire) I lose a good 30% mainly because of memory limitations.

no difference whatsoever.

however, i would like to point out that that is one review using games which may not actually need all that ram. it does not necessarily mean that it is not needed.

how about throwing in oblivion with the decent texture mods to make the game like it should have been at release, how will those 512MB cards do then at high res with AA?

i don't care either way but posting one review of extremely limited games and declaring your point of view the winner isn't a good way to do things.

indeed i am just going to laugh at you right now, hahahahahahah.

It's just like RAM today:

I had 2GB 3 years ago, and now i'm running kinda tight... If you don't want to upgrade that card for a LONG time (3-4years?) it's a very good deal IMO. More over if you plan to go the CF way, wich prolly means big-ass monitor with big-ass res.

And besides, the GTX280 comes in 1GB flavour. I'd say now the 1GB 4870 it's actually stepping over it's lawn.

Esop! XD

Except that you can't add VRAM to a graphics card, you have to buy a new one. 512MB seems to be sufficient in most games for RV770, even at really high resolutions, but if you're planning on keeping the card for over a year I think the 1GB version is a wise investment.

dude....u need 1GB when u wan to play the most demanding games at the highest resolution and AA humanly possible......i say the person who wants to buy 1GB 2 game on less than 25x16 is an idiot......and that site has no benchmark at that resolution.......but still, lets compare at 1900x1440......

almost 90% improvement......is say wen u go to higher resolution....we will get 100%+ gain......

I remember the times of the 8800gts 320MB and 640MB.
In benchmarks the 640MB version didn't show a lot of improvements over the 320MB version but it cost over 100$ more. About a year later I saw some benchmarks with new games and higher resolutions and the 640MB version was wiping the floor with the 320MB version.

I think the same applies here....with the current games (pretty much anything except crysis), you don't see a significant increase in performance even at 1900x1200 with AA and AF cranked up. But who says in 1 year games won't have system requirements similar to those of crysis today, and 512MB of memory will be enough?

Considering the 1GB version is only 40$ more (13% more?), and comes factory overclocked (for those who don't like overclocking) giving it a 5% bonus right off the bat, I think it's a wise investment if you game at resolutions 1900x1200 or more.
If it was 100$ more, I wouldn't get it, though.

Would be silly not to spend the extra for 1GB imho - games will very quickly start using it

I was wondering what your thought swere on 1g for rpg's such as WoW, EQ, where I run more than 1 instance of the game.

This 1Gb version is good pair for 4870X2, if you want to have 3 GPU cores in your machine. Allso that kind of combination allows some very high resolutions to be usedm where extra graphic memory is usefull. For those of us, who use normal lcd displays 512Mb is much better choice.
If you need more AA or high resolutions, go for 2, 3 or 4 of these RV770 cores. If two cores is not enough, one of these may be better than havin another 4870X2. Most benchmarks shows that there is very little advantage with 3 cores compared to two.

LOL Im not worthy heheh

, surprised that they didn't actually...