Question regarding GTX660 memory

Hardware Hub GPU
1

I have been looking for a replacement for an AMD 7790 in a Dell Precision T3500. My son plays Skyrim with a lot of mods, I dunno, there could be about 45 or so, and the MSI on screen display reckons it uses 1.82GB of ram sometimes. Originally I saw on Bit Tech that a 1GB 7850 is all you need (which if my vram usage is reliable, looks like nonsense), so have been looking at 2GB 7850 and the 2GB GTX660.

However, the GTX660 has some kind of issue with using more than 1.5GB Vram according to Anandtech...where is you use over 1.5gb the final 512mb uses a bandwidth of 48GB/S (this is what it says in the review).

 

Obviously that is going ot be useless for us...particularly in Skyrim.

Anyone got any background info on this and would the 7850 be a better buy ?

On BF4 we get 100% GPU usage at 1920x1080 everything maxed except the deferred AA is off, using about 1.6-1.7 of VRAM and CPU usage never goes over 70% on any given core.

The rest of the machine is 12Gb 1333 DDR3, Intel Xeon X5650, 6 cores, 12 threads, Vertex 4 on SATA 3 PCI-e Card, 2GB Toshiba HDD and currently the MSI 7790 2GB. Monitor is Samsung S24C570L and is calibrated for photo work.

 

thanks

2

Just wondering, what price point are you looking at, $100-$200?

3

I'd just go for the Gtx 760 instead, its not much more and it's 10% faster

4

Thanks, i'm in the UK and the cheapest 660 is about £130 and the cheapest 760 is about £200. 

I looked into the 1.5GB issue on the 660 by purchasing one from a local store called PC World at a rip off price and just taking it back...for a refund. 

 

I can confirm that if you play Skyrim with lots of textures and mods and stuff, the same setup that netted 1.8gb of ram use on a 2GB 7790, it basically stutters like hell and dips to 15fps all the time.

So in essence a much cheaper 7790 GPU will wipe the floor with a 660 in this instance because the 660 seemingly can't use the vram needed. It never went over 1519gb of ram use on the on screen display of afterburner and I verified it with GPU-Z.

I managed to located a 7850 2GB, Powercolor PCS+ with 1000Mhz clock speed for £113, which is very cheap, so it will be with me soon.

 

Thanks for all the input...hopefully anyone who mods Skyrim and wants a decent card will avoid the 660 !

 

 

5

Also you get all this free with it , for £113.