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2GB VRAM with heavily modded Skyrim: Has anybody had issues?

post #1 of 67
Thread Starter 
Well, the ol' GTX 460 Hawk just isn't cutting it any more with the amount of mods I've thrown onto this game. I get low frame rates and constant stuttering, especially when I turn around, dropping down to single digit fps for a few seconds. So I'm looking into purchasing a GTX 670, which I know has enough gpu horsepower for this game. I am wondering if anybody on here who plays heavily modded Skyrim has had any issues where they noticeably max out their 2GB VRAM.

I am not talking about using MSI Afterburner or another monitoring utility where it says your vram is maxed. I am well aware that the game may allocate more VRAM than it actually needs, so this does not concern me.

I am talking about noticeable stuttering, texture loading, or other symptoms of not having enough VRAM. I ask because I would like to avoid spending extra on a 4GB card if I don't have to.

And my resolution is 1080p.
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post #2 of 67
The 670 would be fine at that resolution, even with 2GB. Part of VRAM is having enough, and another part is having the horsepower to get through the data in VRAM. The 670 has both.
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post #3 of 67
Thread Starter 
I know the gpu has the power to get through it and that 2GB is a lot for 1080p. I just wanted to see if someone using the card with multiple high-res texture packs, enb, AA and AF has experienced any issues. If I'm gonna be spending at least $400 on a graphics card, I want to make sure I'm not limited by something that I could have changed. I'm sure it's fine, but there's that voice in the back of my head that wants me to check biggrin.gif
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post #4 of 67
I was just looking into getting a GTX 670 for Skyrim too redface.gif

I have all the high-res mods etc which are maxing out my 560Ti and its paltry 1GB VRAM. Like you, I get stuttering, especially outdoors with trees etc.

A GTX670 with 2GB VRAM will definitely be enough. I know some people with hundreds of mods that only use about 1.5GB VRAM total.
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post #5 of 67
Also worth noting that I have Skyrim installed on my SSD which really cuts the load times and large texture loading issues. I'm sure it helps a bit when my VRAM is maxed biggrin.gif
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post #6 of 67
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tedman View Post

A GTX670 with 2GB VRAM will definitely be enough. I know some people with hundreds of mods that only use about 1.5GB VRAM total.

This is the kind of response I was looking for!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tedman View Post

Also worth noting that I have Skyrim installed on my SSD which really cuts the load times and large texture loading issues. I'm sure it helps a bit when my VRAM is maxed biggrin.gif

I used to have mine on my SSD as well, but after a few more steam games, I was running out of space. Unfortunately on a HDD now (still performs pretty well). I think a future upgrade for me is going to be another SSD (larger than my 90GB one), so I'll put windows and all my other programs on that, and then use my current one as a dedicated steam drive.
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post #7 of 67
So far there has not been one shred of evidence 4gb will do anything in any game at any resolution over a 2gb version.

At least I would like to see this proof if it exists.
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post #8 of 67
Quote:
Originally Posted by icehotshot View Post

So far there has not been one shred of evidence 4gb will do anything in any game at any resolution over a 2gb version.
At least I would like to see this proof if it exists.

+1
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post #9 of 67
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by icehotshot View Post

So far there has not been one shred of evidence 4gb will do anything in any game at any resolution over a 2gb version.
At least I would like to see this proof if it exists.

This is partially the reason I started this thread:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/22235-test-palit-geforce-gtx-680-4-gb-jetstream.html?start=16 (yes it's in German)
I know they are using 2560x1600, but it still demonstrates an area where 4GB helps. I knew mods increase vram usage, so I wanted to see if someone had experienced this at a lower resolution.
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post #10 of 67
Quote:
Originally Posted by bgineng View Post

This is partially the reason I started this thread:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/22235-test-palit-geforce-gtx-680-4-gb-jetstream.html?start=16 (yes it's in German)
I know they are using 2560x1600, but it still demonstrates an area where 4GB helps. I knew mods increase vram usage, so I wanted to see if someone had experienced this at a lower resolution.

This is interesting. I wish I could read gernman to see what they were saying.

This is honestly the first time i've seen there be any difference between a 2gb version and 4gb version. Thanks for the find. Although it has nothing really to do with the game, just antialiasing. And it does actually appear to be a vram bottleneck as the performance is crushed on the 2gb card.

I mean sure if you cranked BF3 up to 5000000x MSAA I'm sure the 4gb version would do better....lol

And I have no clue what SGSSAA is lol.....is that just to take up more vram than MSAA does?

+rep for the find.
Edited by icehotshot - 6/21/12 at 9:44am
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