Regarding GPU RAM

[Black Thought]

Hello everyone I am considering the 7970 and 680 and have a question regarding the RAM. Assuming no issues with supply and price which card would be better for a dual monitor setup at 1920 by 1080. I had planned on gaming only one monitor at once so the question becomes is the extra ram on the amd cards beneficial even though I only plan to game on one monitor or is the 2gb's offered by 680 more than enough. Once again thanks and i look forward to discussing the answers.

 

[e56imfg]

The 7970 is better for multiple 1080p monitors.

The 680 is still a great performer for any resolution on one monitor.

Both have similar performance.

 

[photonboy]

The GTX680 hands down.
The GTX680 can handle up to THREE monitors with a FOURTH for non-gaming.

The advantage of the HD7970 is only realized with triple-monitor support at HIGH resolution and even then you'd need a CROSSFIRE/SLI setup in most cases for playable frame rates.

SUMMARY:
The GTX680 2GB is not only FASTER for any single monitor than the HD7970 but it's 2GB is sufficient. The purpose of the 3GB of VRAM for the HD7970 is for CROSSFIRE with two or more graphics cards because VRAM is cloned, not added in Crossfire/SLI.

 

[refillable]

Both single 7970 and 680 will play 3x1920x1080 gaming fine, with similar performance, because of the VRAM difference. Seeing the 7970 dropping from $550 to $480, it maybe a good choice for you because of the $20 cheaper and always on stock, where 680 is never on stock until now.

 

[HugoStiglitz]

the 7970 supports 4 monitors. and you can game across all 4 if you wish.

If it's for gaming across multiple display's id reccomend the ATI as Eyefinity is currently much better than Surround

Crossfire 7xxx scales better than SLI 6xx currently so thats another factor to consider.

the effective limit is somwhere between 1 and 2gb of VRAM for 1080P gaming. after that point it makes no difference unless you go to higher resolutions.

 

[Black Thought]

the 7970 supports 4 monitors. and you can game across all 4 if you wish.

If it's for gaming across multiple display's id reccomend the ATI as Eyefinity is currently much better than Surround

Crossfire 7xxx scales better than SLI 6xx currently so thats another factor to consider.

the effective limit is somwhere between 1 and 2gb of VRAM for 1080P gaming. after that point it makes no difference unless you go to higher resolutions.

Interesting. I was planning on doing crossfire/sli at some point so this may be an issue. Is this problem inherent or will nvidia likely close the gap soon?

 

[Gman450]

Maybe better drivers for the GTX680 can result in better performance. There is currently a beta 301.10 drivers for the 680.

 

[Black Thought]

Best answer selected by Black Thought.