New Graphicscard Ati 7950 vs Nvidia 670 and ENB/Skyrim

[Kahlgott]

Hi there!

So i want to buy me a new shiny graphiccard, because my old one is capping my modded skyrim + ENB. I play primary Skyrim with ENB (thanks for it, its awesome!) and Mods.

I'm currently undecided between the Nvidia 670 and the Ati 7950 (sapphire oc).

For the 7950 speaks its high VRam (3 Gig), while the Nvidia only has 2 Gig. So i have huge space to install some high detailed texturemods.

For the Nvidia 670 speaks that Boris' ENB series usally run better on Nvidiacards. But I'm afraid that the 2 gig Ram wont be enough in the long run.


So my questions are
1) How huge are the benefits of Nvidia Cards vs Ati Cards when using ENB? (<- my primary question)
2) Is it possible that the 2 Gig Ram of the Nvidiacard wont be enough in the long run?

Thanks!

[mindflux]

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with ATI, but perhaps you could also consider a 4GB GTX670? The availability is pretty limited at the moment, though, and as far as I know there are only a couple of boards available, sadly only with reference design.

That said, I guess you get get away with 2GB card for now unless you're using very high resolutions. With typical resolutions I don't think there's much point going over 2048x2048 textures since they will only make a miniscule difference in the image quality. However, if you're not planning to switch to another card in near future it's always good to be future-proof as well, so it's not an easy decision.

[Kahlgott]

hey, thanks for the answer.

yes, i considered a 4 gb version of the 670 but like you said, they are extremly rare and sadly ridiciously overpriced atm.

[ENBSeries]

You wrong, Skyrim require a lot of video memory, but only for antialiasing enabled, it's not 64 bit application, so all high-res texture mods will be in system memory also, so with this game you are always limited to 2 gb for mods. Game can't use more than 3 gb memory, patch 4 gb (and all latest game versions have largeaddressaware enabled) not work with it above 3 gb limit, it crashes (internal engine issues) and own game memory manager eat about 1 gb. So, amount of texture or geometry in video memory can't be above 2 gb limit, it's simply impossible in this game. But for game and enbseries render targets (which are similar to textures) you need additinal video memory and amount depends from antialiasing (fxaa is not in count, it's not antialiasing) quality, size of screen and amount of effects turned on in enbseries (parameters of ssao also matter). I can't compute for sure without spending 10 minutes to summ resources of the mod, but for 1920*1080 without antialiasing it's about 100-150 mb of memory and with antialiasing x4 about 200-250 mb (not linear, because not all render targets use antialiasing). The only reason to get videocard with greater amount of video memory is to wait for new my patch for Skyrim, but i'm lazy to finish it, tired from problems and angry users.

[Kahlgott]

Hey Boris, thanks for the info. I thought the "ram usage cap" was only relevant for system ram, not for vram.

so if i understand you right atm it shouldnt be a huge difference if i take a card with 2gb vram or 3gb or even 4gb vram?


and btw dont get upset because of some stupid internet trolls. you know the internet, there will be always people who complain, no matter what you do. sadly they are always the vocal majority because the satisfied people will usally just be happy and play

[ENBSeries]

Difference will be huge only when you install high resolution texture mods and will set antialiasing to x8 with huge display resolution, but not much, just a bit more lagging when moving to new area fast (to copy textures from ram to vram). Of course better to get more memory, but to when choice is between nvidia with 2 gb and ati with 3 gb (at same performance) i prefer nvidia and it is faster in Skyrim.

[Creatormaster]

От себя добавлю, что интерфас винды и т.п не кешируется на диск/память, за счет чего переключения во время игры на рабочий стол и обратно происходят намного быстрее. Также, нельзя ли переложить тени, АА и АФ на плечи ENB? Неплохо бы было, если бы юзалось более 3Гб видюхи. Сам хочу купить эту или вот эту, но вторя пока ещё не появилась в продаже

Также, види ведь до сих пор умеют только 32х битные расчеты выполнять, не делает ли это ограничение на 3,25Гб на одно приложение? :?

[enb]

Creatormaster
Вкратце, выбросьте из головы все то, о чем написали, от действительности это очень далеко.

[Johnny5srv]

gtx 670 owner here, and I can say that 2GB vram is not enough if you plan on going all out with the textures. I get CTD's and stuttering when in game now that the usage is maxed out. Check EVGA's store for the 4GB version. It's only a few more dollars there than the regular 670. I don't know if they will ship to wherever you are located though. I'm only playing at 1920x1200. I'm done with ATI for the forseeable future so I can't recommend that brand. An SSD and at least 6GB of system memory will also help keep things running smoothly.

[CosmicBlue]

because my old one is capping my modded skyrim + ENB

You know that the CPU is the bottleneck for Skyrim in most cases?
So if you have 3GB Ram and a GPU with 1024 MB vram and you use all different kind of mods (not only high resolution texture mods), the it might be your CPU capping.