a new computer with DX10 and high res textures in mind

[flyinion]

Hi guys. Planing out a major computer upgrade here in the next couple of months. Will be moving from a slightly OC'd i7-860 and GTX560Ti to one of the new "Devil's Canyon" i7-4790K Haswell chips that is releasing in a few weeks. Due to Paul's numerous recommendations of the GTX780 over the 770 I originally was going to go with, I'm going to go that route. I'm undecided on whether I should get the 3GB or 6GB version though. I use a lot of OrbX scenery and also use REX4 Texture Direct. I'm using the 1024 texture in REX right now but wouldn't mind stepping back up to 2048 or even 4096. If I understand correctly the video RAM on the card is most affected by this? Or is that not correct? Anyway that was why I was thinking of the larger VRAM model but possibly 3GB is more than enough anyway?

I ask because I'm planning on getting an EVGA card and because I have a $95 credit with them from Folding@Home for their team and helping out in their forums and getting "blue ribbon" awards I'm most definitely buying direct through them. Problem is they're currently out of the 6GB models and I don't know when they'll be back in. So I was kind of thinking of grabbing a 3GB card now before the model I'd want goes out of stock as well (with my luck lol).

I wanted to ask this as DX10 specific because I know in DX9 the VRAM being used is shadowed in normal RAM by the sim (from what I understand at least) and that can be responsible for some of the DX9 OOM problems people have with large textures/etc. So I wasn't sure if on some forums people might lean towards recommending a lower VRAM card because of that or something. Yeah I know I'm probably overthinking it way too much, I just get like that when major purchase time comes around though.

[RockStarofRust]

I know this probably no help, but I've always regretted not building with the BEST! Right now I'm regretting not building with the best 1366 board at the time!

[flyinion]

Well, I guess I'm going to wait for the 6GB to get back in stock. The 3GB model I'd have bought is out of stock now. Was hoping I'd get some more advice , I guess in the end $40 more for double the VRAM is probably a good choice for "future proofing".

[lownslo]

I guess in the end $40 more for double the VRAM is probably a good choice for "future proofing".

I long ago stopped worrying about "future proofing" computer builds. In that biz the future is now...

The larger VRAM won't do as much for FSX as we'd like, even when running DX10. My 770 2GB only uses a maximum of 40%-50% of its memory. Where the VRAM will come in handy is with larger displays, and of course other (and more modern) games.

But as you said $40 for double the VRAM ain't a bad deal, especially from EVGA.

The first reviews of Devils Canyon are in and it isn't as promising as we had hoped. Early testers are having difficulty getting the OC past 4.8GHz. Certainly that will change as more folks gain access to the chips, but I had hoped for more in early testing. Evenso, anybody building an FSX build today would be crazy to not go with the Devils Canyon. DC is an easy choice. Throw in some fast memory, work on getting a fast and stable OC, and have fun!

Greg

[flyinion]

I long ago stopped worrying about "future proofing" computer builds. In that biz the future is now...

The larger VRAM won't do as much for FSX as we'd like, even when running DX10. My 770 2GB only uses a maximum of 40%-50% of its memory. Where the VRAM will come in handy is with larger displays, and of course other (and more modern) games.

But as you said $40 for double the VRAM ain't a bad deal, especially from EVGA.

The first reviews of Devils Canyon are in and it isn't as promising as we had hoped. Early testers are having difficulty getting the OC past 4.8GHz. Certainly that will change as more folks gain access to the chips, but I had hoped for more in early testing. Evenso, anybody building an FSX build today would be crazy to not go with the Devils Canyon. DC is an easy choice. Throw in some fast memory, work on getting a fast and stable OC, and have fun!

Greg

Thanks for the info. Good to know about the VRAM. I wasn't sure how high res textures from REX, ORBX, and hi detail airplane addons from PMDG/etc. would benefit from it. I may end up with a 3GB card after all. EVGA still doesn't have the 6GB back in stock in their store yet and I really need to buy from them because of that $95 credit I have with them. This thread combined with a post I made on their forums is convincing me that while the 6GB would definitely be nice for a bit of futureproofing for newer games, it may not necessarily benefit me anytime soon especially since I'm not playing any really new cutting edge stuff right now (FSX, maybe X-Plane eventually, WoW, and SWTOR). I just wasn't sure how much usage I'd be pushing trying to run larger textures, antialiasing, SGSAA, etc. all together in DX10 on FSX.

[flyinion]

Well, I finally committed yesterday. EVGA still didn't have the 6GB cards in stock in their own online store so I went with the 3GB version. Now just waiting for my motherboard, cpu, and RAM and maybe I can finally enjoy FSX + tons of mods at a decent framerate lol.

[mjrhealth]

I have a 680 2gig card. I have as yet never seeing the vram go over 1.05 gig. Usually averages around 700 to 900 meg.