2GB vs 4GB Video Cards for Second Life

[Chaz Longstaff]

 2GB vs 4GB Video Cards for Second Life ?

All things being equal -- assume great bandwidth, a great CPU, great power supply available. 64 bit system, great clocked speed on the video card in question you are looking at ..... I know there are a million factors, like a racing car, but just wanted to look at one, though I know someone will tell me I can't. lol. But here's my question:

If you pay 40 extra bucks to get an extra 2 GB memory on a video card, versus the same darn card in every way for 40 bucks less with only 2 GB memory (and like I said, with everything else about the machine being assumed great and the card assumed the same), will Second Life take advantage of that extra 2 GB or not be able to ?

I know all about the other factors so am really not looking for a discussion on those, though I'm sure it will end up that way anyway lol. Just wanted opinions strictly on the 2 GB vs 4 GB.

Does anyone know?

[Alwin Alcott]

59 minutes ago, Richardus Raymaker said:

 If it's for sansar as example i think a 4070 is better choice. It would be nice if sansar releases graphics card requirements.

wouldn't it be wiser to keep Sansar out of here?.. Last time i checked it was still Second Life.

[Bree Giffen]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-myths,3694-5.html

Here is an explantion of why you might need a large memory card.

You also need to consider that SL has some very different behavior from pretty much every game out there.

1. Textures stream from the internet until cached on your computer. 

2. SL is wildly unoptimized in texture usage.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Bree Giffen

[Nalates Urriah]

3 hours ago, Chaz Longstaff said:

 2GB vs 4GB Video Cards for Second Life ?

All things being equal -- assume great bandwidth, a great CPU, great power supply available. 64 bit system, great clocked speed on the video card in question you are looking at ..... I know there are a million factors, like a racing car, but just wanted to look at one, though I know someone will tell me I can't. lol. But here's my question:

If you pay 40 extra bucks to get an extra 2 GB memory on a video card, versus the same darn card in every way for 40 bucks less with only 2 GB memory (and like I said, with everything else about the machine being assumed great and the card assumed the same), will Second Life take advantage of that extra 2 GB or not be able to ?

I know all about the other factors so am really not looking for a discussion on those, though I'm sure it will end up that way anyway lol. Just wanted opinions strictly on the 2 GB vs 4 GB.

Does anyone know?

For $40 get the additional 2GB.

For SL you need an NVIDIA card. The newer the better. As things move toward VR NVIDIA and AMD are building more hardware support for VR into their cards. The first round of that tech appeared in the 1000 series cards. I have 1 VR capable game. My 1060 verses my older 560 is beyond belief. It is walking versus flying an F-16.

Bree is right. SL is different. It is even different depending on which viewer you are using. Firestorm has been allowing the viewer to use more VRAM. Other viewers are limiting how much VRAM can be used. With a 6GB VRAM card Firestorm allows me to use 2.5GB (if I recall correctly). With my 2GB 560 I am limited to 512... I think. I haven't tried the old machine lately.

Whatever card you are planning to buy, look it up on Amazon, New Egg, B&H, and eBay. The price variation may surprise you. Also, people are upgrading and selling their old cards on eBay. You can get some great deals.

A GTX1060 w/3GB is US$170 now. With 6GB it is $211... $41 difference, which is WAY cheap VRAM.

I have a section of my blog on hardware as it relates to SL here http://blog.nalates.net/category/hardware/

To compare NVIDIA and AMD see http://blog.nalates.net/2016/08/06/video-cards-gtx1060-vs-rx480/

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

37 minutes ago, Richardus Raymaker said:

It sounds more that you not want to hear about sansar and other people not get informed about things that can help with decision. Anyway for sansar look at the htc vive or oculus rift system requirments.

I'm confused, I thought this blog was about Second Life?

[Alwin Alcott]

51 minutes ago, Richardus Raymaker said:

No !, because if you want to use sansar

nobody here asked about sansar... OP asked for SL... you bring this other platform up for no reason.

SL is no Sansar, and wil be no Sansar.

 

[Chic Aeon]

YES

That's my answer.  I had a 2gb graphics card and got a 4 on my new system (the new system wasn't much different) and it made a huge difference.   I have a 16mbps download and here are my specs. If it means not eating for a week, then of course not, if it is just a should I get the stronger graphics card and not that new bikini (insert shirt if that works better) then go for the better card.  I can do whatever I want to do now and be in many programs. 

I will say that I am pretty much an SL "power user" if there is such a thing so if you are happy with lower graphics settings and slow framerates, then disregard this :D.  Oh, and I definitely disagree on the AMD card. I had one (the top rated card for the time) and had nothing but major issues. Second Life has always favored Nvidia. Hence many of us old AMD users now have Nvidia. 

Firestorm 5.0.1 (52150) Dec 10 2016 14:44:37 (Firestorm-Releasex64) with OpenSimulator support
Release Notes

Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz (3298.07 MHz)
Memory: 16286 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 14393)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 980/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 21.21.0013.7653
OpenGL Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 376.53

RestrainedLove API: (disabled)
libcurl Version: libcurl/7.47.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1i zlib/1.2.8
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.8
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.61
LLCEFLib/CEF Version: 1.5.3-(CEF-WIN-3.2526.1347-32)
LibVLC Version: 2.2.4
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
Settings mode: Firestorm
Viewer Skin: Firestorm (Grey)
Font Used: Deja Vu (96 dpi)
Font Size Adjustment: 0 pt
UI Scaling: 1.4
Draw distance: 152 m
Bandwidth: 2200 kbit/s
LOD factor: 2
Render quality: High-Ultra (6/7)
Advanced Lighting Model: Yes
Texture memory: 2048 MB (1)
VFS (cache) creation time (UTC): 2017-2-12T4:2:35 
Built with MSVC version 1800
Packets Lost: 1,103/1,424,722 (0.1%)
May 03 2017 13:00:25 SLT

[Nalates Urriah]

9 hours ago, Richardus Raymaker said:

For secondlife only. it does not matter right now if you have 2 or 4gb. seconlife only can use 512mb for now !. 

If you use Firestorm or,I think, Black Dragon, this is not true. FS will allow you to use more than 512k of VRAM.

The LL Viewer limits Texture Memory to 512MB. That isn't all the VRAM used.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Nalates Urriah
Added image

[Lillith Hapmouche]

No, you certainly don't need an Nvidia card for SL, an AMD card works just as well. You can run into gamebraking problems with both brands and with a bit of patience, there'll be fixes for either end.

All you really need is the best card for your budget and that certainly doesn't apply to the crippled GTX 1060 version with merely 3GB. It's not only limited in terms of VRAM, but it even has a different architecture than the GTX 1060 6 GB.

Currently, there might be good deals on some RX 470 cards due to the release of the RX 5x0 successors.

[Richardus Raymaker]

For secondlife only. it does not matter right now if you have 2 or 4gb. seconlife only can use 512mb for now !. But, if you want a card that is ready for new things, you better have 4gb. and i suggest nvidia card if you want to use it on new plstform 160 would be a budget card and not sure if that run well on new platform.

If it's only for secondlife i think it not so difficult. If it's for sansar as example i think a 1070 is better choice. It would be nice if sansar releases graphics card requirements.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Richardus Raymaker

[Richardus Raymaker]

2 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

wouldn't it be wiser to keep Sansar out of here?..

No !, because if you want to use sansar mabye and your system is ready for it except the graphics card that you wanted to buy for secondlife only. It can save you a pile of money to spend as example 100$ more now and have a card that is good for both. instead of saving money and then need to spend much more later.

It sounds more that you not want to hear about sansar and other people not get informed about things that can help with decision. Anyway for sansar look at the htc vive or oculus rift system requirments.