Video Ram, 5 Boxing, 512vs1GB

[zanthor]

As I've posted before I'm considering an upgrade path for my current machine and have run into an issue earlier than I hoped. Basically my 7900gt is failing for the 3rd time since I got it. I'm going to be sending it in for warranty replacement, however I really don't feel the burning urge to sit around waiting on the card to be replaced using a lower end card in the meantime...

I'm considering:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150252

It's only a 512mb card instead of the 1gb Asus, however from what I'm seeing most benchmarks don't show a notable increase in the 1gb card... I've also been unable to find any benchmarks that are geared towards multiboxing .... something about us being abnormal i'd guess.
Anyone have feedback on the amount of video ram? Would it be worth the extra $50 for a 1gb card?

Thanks,

[krum]

I run four instances of WoW on a GeForce 6600LE with 256MB. Getting around 18FPS in each window.

[-silencer-]

In most situations, no, the extra $50 for 1GB video memory won't help. You're better off having higher clock/memory speeds, larger bit path, and more shader units than extra video memory. Asking for videocard advice without knowing what monitors & resolutions you're trying to power doesn't help though.. what are your display(s)?

[zanthor]

19" @ 1280x1024
22" @ 1680x1050

Right now I'm only running two clients, I've got 2gb of system ram and it gets choppy if I run 4, a little laggy @ 3, 2 runs fine. The end goal is 4-5 clients, I recognize that my X2 6000 and 2gb or ram means I'll probably need to upgrade that to run smoothly, and the dual core may not be up to the task.

One thing I find frustrating is that I used to know video hardware inside and out, I knew what was best, what was awesome and what would suck... now i'm in a whole new ocean .

[Notes]

Better put the 50 bugs into some system memory, if not already maxed. I did it to be able to multi box and the difference is just blowing me away. From 5 WoW's crappy running to 5 WoW's running smoothly, just using my 256 mb grafics card.

(And believe it or not, I had 3gb, added 1 so got 4 in totall ... Man I'm so glad I did )

Good luck getting yer grafics card!



Edit: You just posted a reaction, states you got 2gb .. Get more! If you have Vista, get 2 more, if XP, 3gb is max I think... Also, I've read the extra memory has more effect under Vista then XP, because of the way Vista addresses the memory when the system gets a big load to handle, like 3 or more WoW's

[zanthor]

Yea, I'm thinking that the immediate upgrade is going to be the video card since it's tanking on me, however in the near future I am looking at 2gb of ram as well...

[-silencer-]

Honestly, I think the biggest improvement would be to have a 2nd 22" (or just 20") display at 1680x1050 so you can run horizontal span mode. The 22" would look better (same pixel pitch), but either in that resolution would be better. The performance improvement for hoizontal span over dual-view is huge in WinXP. My 8800GTX has disappointing performance in dual-view mode at 1920x1200 & 1680x1050, but I borrowed my roommate's 24" 1920x1200 to test out horizontal span on my machine and it was an unbelievable difference. I ordered a 2nd 24" at 1920x1200 and hope to have it sometime this week.

Memory is so cheap now though.. first maxing out memory to ~3.2GB in 32-bit Windows would be ideal, then plan on your next step from there.

[zanthor]

Running vista so span isn't an option or an issue.

[Taipan]

Zanthor,

I agree with your question and there is little available serious testing out there (if any) for us multi-boxing on a single PC with 2 wide-screen monitors.

I run a Quad Core 6600 2.4ghz, bios O/C to 3.0ghz, with 4 Go ram under Vista, with GFX 512mo (3870 or 8800 GT).

What I've found, and this is no bullet-proof testing so take it as such, is that I never max out on QuadCore nor the 4Go (actually 3.5go under Vista) : I barely ever reach 50% of max CPU power and 65% of MB ram.
In other words, I don't feel like a bottleneck there.

Using Riva Tuner, I found that my 3870 is running at 50% of its GPU usage on average, so no obvious bottleneck from the GPU raw power either.

But ONE thing I haven't been able to look into yet is the load on the GPU Ram (ie. the 512mo) and I'd love to investigate that when I have the time.

In summary, while Mbxing 5 clients on a single PC with 2 wide-screens 1680*1050 monitors under Vista :
- Quad Core 6600 : 50% usage
- 3.5Go Ram : 65% usage
- GFX GPU : 50% usage
- GFX Ram : no idea

My gut feeling tells me there might be something about GFX Ram usage for us MBoxers on single PC.

/salute

PS : any link for a GFX Ram usage applet most welcome.

[zanthor]

Just threw 2gb more ram into my box, can run 5x wow now @ 90-100% cpu (city spikes it) and 2.5gb ram used... tolerable framerates but still not outstanding.

The more I look into this the more I am sure it's textures being paged to system memory.