So the 8600GT that I've had driving my second monitor and my TV (and being a PhysX card) just died on me. All that leaves me now is my 8800GTS 512 that sadly isn't up to snuff for three monitors and gaming at high settings. I've been looking to upgrade for a while now but kept putting it off so I guess now is the time. Right now I'm looking at: 5870 Vapor-X 2GB for $480. 5870 Vapor-X 1GB for $430. 5870 Eyefinity 6 for $500. Is the 2GB version worth $50 more money than the 1GB version? EDIT: I just noticed that the Eyefinity 6 version only requires passive adapters, and that they're included in the box. So it has also been added to the list.
Just read the review of the Eyefinity 6 all the way through and realized that it can still only output 2 things besides Displayport at once. So it's off the list. Now I'm back to the question of whether the extra 1GB of memory is worth $50.
if your gaming at 1920x1080 or less 2GB of RAM will have the same performance as 1GB so it not worth it. gaming above 1920x1080 however will impact performance so its worth it for silly high resolutions.
if youre planning on using eyefinity then the 2 gig version would benefit you (according to reviews, but only by 3/5fps). Other wise just the 1 gig. The six screen card is for just that, six screens and features six mini display ports.
Thanks for the help. I play games at 2048x1152 (just the main monitor), but I leave the other monitors at the desktop/firefox/what ever. Eyefinity would be great, but I doubt I'll be using it. So it looks like the 1 gig is the way to go. I just wasn't sure if I would see any real benefit for the extra $50/if the 2 gig would help future-proof it a little bit.
I would strongly recommend getting a 2gb card. If you plan on keeping it for longer than 12 months, it will allow the card to age that much more gracefully. You don't want the framebuffer to run out of legs before your gpu does. The cheapest bog-standard card you can find is the way to go. They will oc to approx. 950mhz anyways, with expensive pre-overclocked ones not making much more at all. Really 2gb is the way to go.
I don't plan on overclocking the card right when I get it. My plan is to leave it at stock speeds to keep the heat down, until the card can't keep up anymore. Then I'll overclock it to get some more life out of it. Looking at the review of the Eyefinity Edition on Anandtech, it looks like the 2GB only gains about 1fps over the 1GB when using 3 displays (5760x1080).
The 1GB version should suffice, I can't see it being worth $50 more. IIRC there isn't too many improvements from 1GB to 2GB in almost all games on the HD5870, it seems that card is more clock bound.
They aren't needed, just another thing I've been putting off. I just have the stock fans still in my Cosmos. I doubt I'll end up getting any until they break, just so I can save the money. The bigger priority is the graphics card.
Hmmm hardocp.com had a very different opinion http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/12/ati_radeon_hd_5870_eyefinity_6_performance_review/7 If you have a single card with 3 screens well then your overwhelming it with pixels that its gpu casn't push. Double 'em up and the 2gb is worth it. As a single card I really think time will be kinder to the 2gb version
I'm definitely leaning towards the 2GB card just to be on the safe side (you can't have too much memory). But the way I read the review was that the 2GB card was only worth it in multi-GPU configurations. The only game there was a difference between it and the 1GB was in AVP.
I'm a triple 19x12 user on a single 5870 1GB Lightning. Arguements against the 2GB version: - 1GB works fine, and by the time it becomes unplayable, it'll also be unplayable on the 2GB. - As for future-proofing: dont. By the time you need to upgrade, something better will be available. Arguements for the 2GB version: - works better in CF, as the GPU's become memory-bound if you have 2 of them - i have a theory that more memory might unlock better AA levels. I don't have much trouble running pretty much any game with reasonably high settings on the one card, but as soon as i enable any form of AA the FPS pretty much tank. I have yet to see my theory confirmed by benchmarks though.
Yeah precisely in for a penny in for a pound.... This is how I see it, G92 hardware got a 1gb framebuffer and it made a worthwhile difference. That is the gts 250 1gb > gts 250 512mb. When the 8800gts 512mb and 9800gtx launched the few 1gb versions reviewed (they were custom versions you see) were deemed by one and all as not worth it. They were relevant performance wise for LONG ENOUGH that the extra memory became worthwhile. Reading through the comments on those early custom 1gb models the same comments you recieved for your forum topic were mirrored back then. If you plan to hold onto your card for say 2 years, really get your money's worth out of it, the 2gb version will be worth it in the end. It's inevitable and has happened before. You could even get 3 years out of it.
You have a good point Parsnip, but if he's not planning to keep it that long.... Still 2GB might be worth it once they make Eyefinity with 2560x1600 screens.
I'm going to try and keep the card for at least a year and a half, preferably closer to two years. The only real performance increase that I'm seeing between the 1GB and 2GB version is a few FPS extra when enabling AF (which I'd like to do); but I'm still not convinced it's worth it. This quote from Tom's Hardware pretty much sums it up I think.
