Using a single GTX 670 card with 2 GB VRAM, and using RAGE as a test game. 3 30 inch Dell U3011 monitors.  Testing in 7680x1600 with all settings maxed out, except for AA.   With no AA, plays smoothly. With 2 x AA, smoothly. With 4x AA still smooth. Suddenly, when go to 8x AA  comes to a complete crawl. Using GPU-Z to monitor memory usage, going to 8 x AA is exactly when the memory shoots up to over 2 GB!  So this confirms it - those planning on super high resolutions need a 4 GB card unless you turn down AA a lot!    Jeff
 
 

Why on Earth would you want to run 8x AA on that high of a resolution? Your FPS would plummet with an imperceptible visual improvement. On my 3x 30" setup I've found anything above 2x AA a waste.   

omfg!! whata surprise. the ****ty skyrim consumes more than 2300mb at 2560x1440 with hd pack with standart 8msaa and no additional mods. Well, I have selected 8x transparency AA from the nv cp too. And that's it - a single display.

In many scenes, especially outdoor ones, in objects in the background like cranes or building, or in any type of hanging wires such as power lines, the pixellation is very noticeable without AA, even at 7680x1600!
 

callsignvega


Why on Earth would you want to run 8x AA on that high of a resolution? Your FPS would plummet with an imperceptible visual improvement. On my 3x 30" setup I've found anything above 2x AA a waste.   

 
 There's so much disinformation out there right now about 2 GB vs 4 GB memory usage, I had to test
it for myself.  A lot of people are arguing against the need for 4 GB because they say the
processing power of these cards will be maxed out before you will need more than 2 GB.
Well, that is totally false!
 

kingofsorrow


omfg!! whata surprise. the ****ty skyrim consumes more than 2300mb at 2560x1440 with hd pack with standart 8msaa and no additional mods. Well, I have selected 8x transparency AA from the nv cp too. And that's it - a single display.

Absolutely - my single 680gtx 4gb struggles at skyrim at that resolution but it still consumes 2300mb, and that's not the limit I guess! I just run the game for couple of minutes just to test the memory consumption. I'm sure there are locations where it would hit 3gb with the above stock settings... lol

Any other current titles you have tested? I run 3 x 28" monitors and have 2 x 4gb Evga 670's sitting in my cart at newegg..can't decide to buy or wait for the 680 4 gb's.

 
 Metro 2033 runs very slow at 7680x1600 at high quality with 16x AA (not playable), but the memory usage surprisingly did not jump above 2 GB. The main thing I wanted to confirm is at what level of AA the memory usage jumped above 2 GB, and just for RAGE,  what I said in my above post doesn't necessarily apply to other games of course.
 
I'm tempted to get the 4gb 670 SC's. But I was one of the unfortunately ones who got one of the bad 2gb 670 SC's, and I ended up returning it to Newegg instead of doing the evga RMA.  (Props to EVGA for being so helpful and courteous though). The 2gb 670 SC had a very loud fan which emitted this very annoying whine that I could hear constantly even at idle.  I don't know if the 4gb 670 SC uses the same reference small 670 PCB, or uses a larger 680-type PCB with a better fan (like on the 670 FTW). I wish I could find that out, but I can't find it anywhere!  Can anyone confirm if the 4GB 670 SC has the small reference 670 PCB or not??
 

raw2dogmeat


Any other current titles you have tested? I run 3 x 28" monitors and have 2 x 4gb Evga 670's sitting in my cart at newegg..can't decide to buy or wait for the 680 4 gb's.

check the upper left corner

 
that's 2321mb