Video card memory: True or False

[Rail4Pete]

Hi, today I went to upgrade my video card from a HD4890 to HD6850, and ...to make a short story: the guy explained to me that having 2Gb instead of 1Gb does not make a difference if you use only 1 monitor. He said we need about 800mg to keep the 1900 X 1080 HD resolution on 1 monitor, you can't see more pixel even if you have more memory. He said everything above won't be used if I, as I said, use only 1 monitor. Is this true or false?

He also said that, above the memory, the important thing is the capacity for the card to make the polygon calculation faster and faster. . (I already knew that) The guy said Memory in such case is a marketing thing...''bigger is better'', but we might not need bigger.

I got the card HD6850 1gb but I will not open the box till I know the answer, because I might think about getting a 2gb card if what he said is false...but my budget is not ready for a more expensive card. I don't want to upgrade everything till 2 years so I though though upgrading only the card would be good. My processor is an intel 9550.
Rail4Pete

 

[gearhead2578]

Good upgrade It seems to depend on what resolution you're running - I recently upgraded (rebuilt my whole PC - see signature) and used the HD6870 with 1GB DDR5 from the wheezing slow HD5450 (also 1GB but DDR3) I guess what I'm saying is that the memory only matters in the case of a GPU that can use it, as well as what resolution you're running. Here's a tech article on just that - http://techreport.com/articles.x/14230 that explains it better than I can. Oh and this HD6870 claims to be able to run games like MW3 on 3 monitors with Eyefinity - too bad I'm too broke to try it!

Mike

 

[William0d0]

I don't where he came up with 800 megs. It all depends on what games or other software you run.

The more memory your video card has, the more textures and meshes it can hold. Which means having to fetch them from system memory less often, if you fill up the video cards memory.

I'd go with a 2 gig card if the price fits your budget.

 

[Rail4Pete]

Good upgrade It seems to depend on what resolution you're running - I recently upgraded (rebuilt my whole PC - see signature) and used the HD6870 with 1GB DDR5 from the wheezing slow HD5450 (also 1GB but DDR3) I guess what I'm saying is that the memory only matters in the case of a GPU that can use it, as well as what resolution you're running. Here's a tech article on just that - http://techreport.com/articles.x/14230 that explains it better than I can. Oh and this HD6870 claims to be able to run games like MW3 on 3 monitors with Eyefinity - too bad I'm too broke to try it!

Mike

Thanks for the report link. I tried the hd 6850 and there was an improvement on fps for sure, but now I understand what I need is a ssd drive because stuttering is the main issue. In large region I get some pause at 6fps so I decided to return the card to the store till I get the budget to make a major upgrade.

But I'm still not sure about the title of this thread if the answer is true or false.

Rail4Pete

 

[RRSignal]

Here's a debate, but it's got a number of reputable sources:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/319910-33-vram-enough

in short, it the amount of memory really doesn't seem to make much difference at 1900x1080 and below and, regardless, Trainz tends not to use cutting-edge technology anyway e.g. DX11. (which is often a good thing!) so I wouldn't sweat it.