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nVidia or AMD and how much VRAM for a 4k display?

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  • Laptops
  • Alienware
  • AMD
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 11, 2014 6:49:16 PM

I am looking to get an Alienware laptop (I move around a lot so better for me than a PC) and I currently have a laptop with a GTX chip but what about AMD this time or stick with GTX? Also, I want to be able to put games onto a 4k external display so how much VRAM would that need? I have seen that the AMD chips Dell offer in their Alienware come with 4GB and nVidia come with 8GB. Oh and also would it work if I tried to connect a TV to my laptop and play stuff through that or does it have to be a monitor?

More about : nvidia amd vram display

September 11, 2014 8:02:17 PM

You need 4GB and more for 4k gaming. What is your AMD or nVidia GTX choice ?
And It's hard to do gaming on 4k resolutions, as you need SLI and crossfire setups with 4GB on each card and still not all cards can handle that with a constant 60 fps with AA on, and i'm talking about PC rigs not laptops.
September 12, 2014 7:15:46 AM

iAboodz said:
You need 4GB and more for 4k gaming. What is your AMD or nVidia GTX choice ?
And It's hard to do gaming on 4k resolutions, as you need SLI and crossfire setups with 4GB on each card and still not all cards can handle that with a constant 60 fps with AA on, and i'm talking about PC rigs not laptops.


Options are the 880M or the M290X. The 880M comes with 8GB and the M290X comes with 4GB
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September 12, 2014 7:50:49 AM

The 880M is more powerful than the M290X and it comes with double the vram too. So that would be my choice :) 
September 12, 2014 4:37:06 PM

iAboodz said:
The 880M is more powerful than the M290X and it comes with double the vram too. So that would be my choice :) 


What if I were to spread a game across 1-3 1440p display(s)? Something like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Crisis or Far Cry?
September 12, 2014 5:14:06 PM

I think to play that you need nvidia surround which needs sli to run. I don't think you can run 3 1080p monitors with one card. And even if you could you would not get good results at all even with a 780 ti. So 3 1440p monitors on one 880m is not gonna give you a smooth and satisfying experience.
September 12, 2014 5:47:36 PM

iAboodz said:
I think to play that you need nvidia surround which needs sli to run. I don't think you can run 3 1080p monitors with one card. And even if you could you would not get good results at all even with a 780 ti. So 3 1440p monitors on one 880m is not gonna give you a smooth and satisfying experience.


Then whatabout a single external monitor at either 1080p, 1440p or 4k? Could one 880M with 8GB VRAM handle that?
September 13, 2014 6:19:10 PM

With playable fps and ultra settings you could play at 1080p, on 1440p you might pull it with high settings. On 4k i'd guess medium to high and might be some lows too. That if you want playable fps.
September 14, 2014 3:12:20 PM

iAboodz said:
With playable fps and ultra settings you could play at 1080p, on 1440p you might pull it with high settings. On 4k i'd guess medium to high and might be some lows too. That if you want playable fps.


I consider playable FPS 50+. 50 FPS is choppy but I don't mind it. Baring that in mind, you said I could do 1080p with a playable FPS at 1080p, could I then spread it over 2 or even 3 displays or just the one?
September 14, 2014 6:16:15 PM

If you want 50 fps i'd say just one 1080p monitor :) . You spread it to two 1080p monitor as surround requires 3 monitors. And you could only view the battleground on bf4 without surround.
September 15, 2014 6:13:28 AM

iAboodz said:
If you want 50 fps i'd say just one 1080p monitor :) . You spread it to two 1080p monitor as surround requires 3 monitors. And you could only view the battleground on bf4 without surround.


So basically if I want to play an intense game at at least 60FPS across a few displays of 1440p or even 4K I gotta have a desktop
September 15, 2014 10:37:27 AM

Even two or three 780 ti on sli cannot handle 4k with high end resolutions with high end games, it won't give you a stable 60+ fps on ultra settings in bf4 for example. 4K isn't really here yet as it still requires a lot of power to handle. We are waiting for the 9xx series to see how they will perform with 4K resolutions. If you want to build a pc which will definitely be WAY stronger than a laptop at the same price, just wait for the 9xx and then start building, or get everything and wait for the gpu :) 
September 15, 2014 2:45:08 PM

iAboodz said:
Even two or three 780 ti on sli cannot handle 4k with high end resolutions with high end games, it won't give you a stable 60+ fps on ultra settings in bf4 for example. 4K isn't really here yet as it still requires a lot of power to handle. We are waiting for the 9xx series to see how they will perform with 4K resolutions. If you want to build a pc which will definitely be WAY stronger than a laptop at the same price, just wait for the 9xx and then start building, or get everything and wait for the gpu :) 


Unfortauntely I am not in a position to build a desktop, but say I was, would 2/3 780 ti's be enough for a triple 1440p display?
September 15, 2014 5:09:46 PM

it depends on the games you are playing. For normal games two 780 ti can handle them. But for high end games like bf4 for example it wouldn't be enough doing 7680 x 4320 as that resolution is CRAZY, and you'd need crazy amount of power to run ultra details on that resolution.
September 15, 2014 5:17:07 PM

for desktop gpus, the 295x2 is alot better than two 780tis at higher resolutions. amd cards scale better to higher resolutions, and have more vram.

also, usually a third card doesnt add much to sli/crossfire setups. the third card's performance gains isnt justified by price.

heres some benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7930/the-amd-radeon-r9-29...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-295x2-rev...

this is also only possible with a desktop computer, there is no 295x2 for laptops.
September 15, 2014 6:28:11 PM

Yes I agree, the only way in this time to play at 4k is having two 295x2 on crossfire that would give you smooth gameplay on ultra. 4k is 3840 x 2160 which is less than what you are asking for.
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