Dear Sam [3GB GTX 580]

[Bollwerk]

I'm not using all 3GB.

Right, but they don't make a 2.5GB card. =)
Seems like only 1.5GB would be a bottleneck, based on your screenshot.

[MiRai]

Right, but they don't make a 2.5GB card. =)
Seems like only 1.5GB would be a bottleneck, based on your screenshot.

As far as I know nVidia does not make a 2.5GB 5xx card and from a quick Newegg search the top dog choices are 1.5GB, 3.0GB,
and 4.0GB for any thing current from ATI or nVidia. I guess what I'm showing in that picture is that even with the main screen
using 4x Multisampling I still have headroom meaning I can continue to crank up my settings if I really wanted to.

[AgentSnipps]

Thanks for the info think I'll pay the extra $100 bucks and upgrade. I've pretty much got all parts ready to order now I just need to finalize monitors and pick a server to play on and I'll be all set.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ok excellent info's.

Clearly there is no 2G limit of some kind on the video card usage so basically the more video ram you can get the better (there were some articals stating that more then 2G is only used when you multi monitor, guess they are wrong).

I do wonder why the extra .5G is not in use. Maybe there just isnt more then 2.5G of textures in a single zone with only one side characters. That would also be some super information if that were the case. Where you on at prime time?

If you ever have the time and inclination run this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb896646

and see if you are still loading textures after a bunch of passes through SW like you did. If not then we would know that people with 3G video cards don't need SSD ....

[MiRai]

Clearly there is no 2G limit of some kind on the video card usage so basically the more video ram you can get the better (there were some articals stating that more then 2G is only used when you multi monitor, guess they are wrong).

Technically speaking I was using 2 monitors for the Window Layout. I'm assuming the articles you read weren't
exactly referring to multiboxing when the mentioned that limit. I can do another test like my original and stack
the windows on top of each other to see if the results will be the same.

I do wonder why the extra .5G is not in use. Maybe there just isnt more then 2.5G of textures in a single zone with only one side characters. That would also be some super information if that were the case. Where you on at prime time?

It was prime time. Also, I could've used all 3GB if I wanted to by just increasing some more video settings. I
was really just testing out how well MSAA x4 was going to be handled by the main window while boxing with
this card.

If you ever have the time and inclination run this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb896646

and see if you are still loading textures after a bunch of passes through SW like you did. If not then we would know that people with 3G video cards don't need SSD ....

Maybe...

[Sam DeathWalker]

Check this out:

http://www.hwcompare.com/9280/geforc...e-gtx-580-3gb/


Now if I can only find a 440 3G card for sale.

Just won an ebay auction for that 440 3G cards at $112. Now to see if its not junk lol .... Gonna hurt to go from a 460 to a 440 but going from 1G to 3G well ....