I currently have an AMD HD6970, and I am ready to ditch it. I am running an eyefinity setup with three 24" monitors @ 5760x1080.

 

I was wondering if the EVGA GTX 670 with 4 gb video ram would be a good choice for a surround setup? It is only $25 cheaper than a 2 gb GTX680, so I am wondering if the 680 with only 2 gb video ram would be a better choice at realitively the same price point?

 

From what I have read, there is not a huge difference in the performance of a 670 and 680, and FSX is the only thing I run. Would the extra 2 gb VRam make much of a difference in a multi-monitor setup in FSX?

 

I am really unsure of which way to go.

 

Anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?

 

Bill

I don't think that the 4GB is worth it. Most users even with 3 monitors, don't saturate all of the 2GB of VRAM. I'd go for the 680 2GB.

Bill

I would wait for the 685, according to the gurus the 680 is equivalent in performance/specs to a 570 or even 560. The extra VRAM is useful for running very large or multiple monitors.

Just a thought.

pH

Bill

I would wait for the 685, according to the gurus the 680 is equivalent in performance/specs to a 570 or even 560. The extra VRAM is useful for running very large or multiple monitors.

Just a thought.

pH

 

Which reviews? My understanding is that the 680 is not as good at certain tasks, like running calculations and certain benchmarks (and that sacrificing this performance was a conscious decision by Nvidia),, but that it shreds everything out there when it comes to practical application.

 

I run triple monitors, and I would go for the extra VRAM. On my GTX590 I see the 1.5 GB per GPU maxed out quite frequently. As FSX isn't particularly GPU intensive, I think the VRAM is probably more important than having the additional power of the 680. Or EVGA is offering a 4gb 680...

RR

It was just various guru statements on other forums with them opining that the 685 would be the card to have. Don't get me wrong the 680 is still very powerful.

pH

My current shabby system has a Geforce GTX560 with 2GB VRAM and I see that the GPU doesn't exceed 35% utilization. But not sure how to see the Video memory usage.

 

Is there a tool to see how much of the Vram is being used at anytime?

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

Bill

Is there a tool to see how much of the Vram is being used at anytime?

 

Don't quote me, as I stopped tweaking long ago, but I believe Nvidia Inspector allows you to see a whole host of diagnostics like VRAM usage in the moment.

 

I personally suspect, though without significant evidence, that at ultrahigh resolutions in FSX VRAM will limit you before GPU power will.

RR

It was just various guru statements on other forums with them opining that the 685 would be the card to have. Don't get me wrong the 680 is still very powerful.

pH

 

It probably will do very little to nothing in FSX compared to the GTX 680. The difference between the 580 and 680 is around 50%, but in FSX the difference almost isn't there. |

 

And I read this card might at first not even be released for the consumer market. And if it is, it's probably gonna cost well over 700$.

 

Not worth it imo. There is always something new coming, you can always wait 6 months till the newer hardware. And in 6 months from now, when the GTX 685 is out, people will start saying that they'll wait another 6 months for the GTX 780? Well, you can wait forever. Save yourself this waiting, and just get the GTX 680 now.

Don't quote me, as I stopped tweaking long ago, but I believe Nvidia Inspector allows you to see a whole host of diagnostics like VRAM usage in the moment.

 

I personally suspect, though without significant evidence, that at ultrahigh resolutions in FSX VRAM will limit you before GPU power will.

 

The Nvidia Inspector does display the GPU Usage and few other details..but I don't remember it displaying the VRAM Usage. ..unless I am missing something.

 

Manny

 

But I see this tool. Not sure how old this is and if it still works or not

 

http://pcforalla.idg.se/2.1054/1.127411

 

Manny

The Nvidia Inspector does display the GPU Usage and few other details..but I don't remember it displaying the VRAM Usage. ..unless I am missing something.

 

Manny

 

But I see this tool. Not sure how old this is and if it still works or not

 

http://pcforalla.idg...2.1054/1.127411

 

Manny

 

It does, click on the Sensor Monitoring button in the top left corner of the GUI, that should open the graphs. By default the VRAM usage graph is disabled, so right click anywhere in the graph, and tick Monitors -> Memory usage

 

Alternatively you can use MSI Afterburner for example

I currently have an AMD HD6970, and I am ready to ditch it. I am running an eyefinity setup with three 24" monitors @ 5760x1080.

 

I was wondering if the EVGA GTX 670 with 4 gb video ram would be a good choice for a surround setup? It is only $25 cheaper than a 2 gb GTX680, so I am wondering if the 680 with only 2 gb video ram would be a better choice at realitively the same price point?

 

From what I have read, there is not a huge difference in the performance of a 670 and 680, and FSX is the only thing I run. Would the extra 2 gb VRam make much of a difference in a multi-monitor setup in FSX?

 

I am really unsure of which way to go.

 

Anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?

 

Bill

 

Why are you ready to ditch it, what´s the problem?

 

If you think you´ll get better performance, better FOV, etc. with a 670 or 680 I really, really doubt it...

I'm planning on using 3x 2560x1440 27" LED LCDs on my 2GB 680, I'll let you know how it goes. Will be able to report as soon as they're in stock again at my local Micro Center.

Why are you ready to ditch it, what´s the problem?

 

If you think you´ll get better performance, better FOV, etc. with a 670 or 680 I really, really doubt it...

 

I have NVidia cards in one networked computer, and AMD cards in the other. I have a five monitor view setup, with the front three AMD Eyefinity, and the two sides NVidia, networked with WideView. All five monitors are new 24" Samsungs.

 

The problem with running cards from two different companies is that the colours don't match up, and there is a drastic transition from the front to the side monitors. Also it is a pain having different drivers, configs, shader mods etc....for each computer.

 

I had to make a decision as to what company I was going to go exclusively with.

 

I have had nothing but headaches with AMD drivers. Eyefinity constantly crashes, flips monitors out of the configuration, looses monitors etc...

 

The FPS tank in heavy weather, even with the shader mods. My NVidia GTX280 handles weather better than the HD6970, and that was my wakeup call.

 

So I decided to go with NVidia now that they have a one card surround solution. In a worse case scenario, it shouldn't be any worse than it was with AMD.

 

Bill

 

I'm planning on using 3x 2560x1440 27" LED LCDs on my 2GB 680, I'll let you know how it goes. Will be able to report as soon as they're in stock again at my local Micro Center.

 

I'd be very interested to see how it works out!

 

Bill

Bill

I would wait for the 685, according to the gurus the 680 is equivalent in performance/specs to a 570 or even 560. The extra VRAM is useful for running very large or multiple monitors.

Just a thought.

pH

 

I don't know what I am more concerned by, recommending a non-existent card or the fact that these "gurus" believe a 680 is equivalent to a 570 or 560.