[SOLVED] GTX 970 4GB .. or GTX 1060 3GB?

[yoji]

Without going into exact specs (think they both prettystd.. not boosted/overclocked etc) .. which of subject cards would you say is better?

Cheers

 

[NightHawkRMX]

1060 3gb.

The 970 only has 3.5gb usable vram, which isnt much over the 1060 3gb. And the 1060 3gb is newer and slightly faster overall.

 

[yoji]

Thanks, and apologies for delay in replying.
Please excuse my ignorence.. but can you (or somone) elaborate on the 3.5GB usable VRAM comment please?
Surely its not subject to the old 32bit can only address 4GB.. and it needs reserve some space for internal work? so if a 4Gb card can only make use of 3.5GB.. does that not impact a 3GB card at all (so it can only use 2.5GB .. or whatever)?
Thanks in advance

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I'm not the best to explain why, but even though the GTX 970 is advertised as 4gb, but only 3.5gb of this vram is usable.

In a nutshell, the GTX 970 has 4gb vram divided into a 3.5gb and 500mb section. When a game uses up to 3.5gb vram everything is good. However, accessing the remaining 500mb can only be accessed at a fraction of the speed of the 3.5gb.

Because accessing more than 3.5gb vram would kill performance, Nvidia basically made this last .5gb unusable via the driver.
This eventually ended in a lawsuit.

The GTX1060 3gb has 3gb of usable VRAM without strings attached.

 

[yoji]

OK - thanks very much for the explanation.