GTX 580 1.5 GB vs. 3GB

T}{OR · #1 05-09-2011, 10:11 AM

Having a 3GB card for CloD is definitely an advantage. But, those 3 GB cards are way more expensive than the 1.5 GB versions.

Instead, I am looking into MSI GTX 580 Lightning - which is marginally more expensive than the reference version and offers significant boost in performance, cooling and quietness. Not to mention the completely custom PCB with a 16 phase PWM (and separate power regulation for memory).

Here are a couple of reviews:

No.1 & No.2

Thoughts?

EDIT: Resolution: 1920x1080 / 1920x1200, depends on which monitor I decide later on.

Flanker35M · #2 05-09-2011, 11:39 AM

S!

That card will be more than enough as you won't run 16x AF or quadzillion times FSAA on that resolution. Really the maximum FSAA at 1920x1200 would be around 4x and Anisotropic filtering is usually Application controlled. I ran a 580GTX before going AMD and can say it had no problems whatsoever with ANY game at 1920x1200. That 3Gb is only for very high resolution and when using high amount of FSAA/AF.

T}{OR · #3 05-09-2011, 12:12 PM

Thanks for the feedback. Especially since you tested both flavors - 580 and 6970. While I do know that 580 1.5 GB can chew up any game out there and then some, we are talking about CloD here. And with its massive textures in huge resolutions (can be turned down with latest patches I know), but still... I've seen reports that CloD eats up to 1.7 GB if VRAM from people that have tested it.

What prompted the change to AMD if I may ask? 580 is generally a faster card, and leaves 6970 way behind when OC-ed.

janpitor · #4 05-09-2011, 03:58 PM

I have GTX480 (1.5G) and on original textures I had some problems with performance (bad stutters). On high it is ok. But it is possible this will be resolved in the optimalisation process

Flanker35M · #5 05-09-2011, 04:45 PM

S!

I had no particular reason to go AMD, just for the fun of it. I had before 5870HD, 480GTX, 580GTX and now 6970HD. Another one is coming for CrossFire for IL-2:CoD. Really no problems with any of them except the original IL-2 issues in OpenGL that eventually got fixed by AMD.

It is true that CoD might eat up VRAM as snack, but again will Luthier optimize it even more? I am not doing any assumptions on which brand runs CoD better as the code is clearly not yet optimized and after that both brands need driver updates. So we can talk about 2 months or more before we see how it will be.

As of textures. I have not played with High, using Original. But is there any noticeable difference in them unless you really stare at something? Same applies to other options, are the changes subtle at most or really noticeable visually but performance greatly affected? In this case if a notch lower setting produces the same, or minimally different IQ, with better performance then I see no point getting a 3Gb card if the 1.5Gb is enough. Maybe in future when CoD expands and for sure the new cards pour out then taken into consideration.

Just a few thoughts

Pitti · #6 05-09-2011, 05:07 PM

I have a GTX 580 with 1.5 GB and CoD runs smooth on maximum settings at 1920x1200 on the last offical patch, didn't tried the beta.

T}{OR · #7 05-09-2011, 05:09 PM

Thats the info I wanted to hear. Thanks for the feedback gents.

I thing I will save that money and use the difference to get myself a proper cooler, i.e. Noctua NH-D14.

Plt Off JRB Meaker · #8 05-11-2011, 01:57 PM

Looking at a GTX580 myself at the moment,was thinking of getting an ATi 6970 but COD just does'nt seem to be working well with these as per the forums.

This does seem to me,anyway,the way to go,at the moment I am running duel ATi 5570's and although fps are ok,they ain't great,and certainly can't run COD on max settings which is my ultimate goal.

O_TaipaN · #9 05-16-2011, 02:24 AM

I have a GTX580 1.5gb, and CloD is not smooth over land and I must turn down settings to prevent using more than 1.5gb.

My resolution is 2560x1600, 30" screen.

So, if you want the option to upgrade your monitor at some stage, go for the 3gb.

Edit: Note however that CloD is the ONLY game/sim that uses more than 1.5gb... so maybe one day it will be optimised to use under that I don't know..
I play ROF and DCS:A-10C with most things maxed and HDR on and still < 1.5gb.

Blackdog_kt · #10 05-16-2011, 05:40 AM

The original resolution textures are very big in size, someone mentioned the Buckingham palace alone is 20MB or so, add all the other buildings, ground textures, pilot models and so on and it gets huge pretty fast.

Also, the higher the resolution you run the more strain on your GPU.
If you want to run max texture resolution at 30" resolutions i expect that there's probably no GPU under 2GB that would take it, regardless of optimizations. Unless some kind of texture compression comes into effect, which would probably mean a lower vRAM usage but the need to do compression/decompression calculations that might affect the frame rates.