eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 41,188 (6.57/day)
- Location
- Republic of Texas (True Patriot)
System Name | PCGOD |
---|---|
Processor | AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz |
Motherboard | Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios |
Cooling | Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED |
Memory | 16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V) |
Video Card(s) | AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X |
Storage | Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB |
Display(s) | NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter) |
Case | AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition |
Audio Device(s) | Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR |
Power Supply | Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3) |
Mouse | Roccat Kone XTD |
Keyboard | Roccat Ryos MK Pro |
Software | Windows 7 Pro 64 |
It can't directly address anything outside of 32-bit virtual address space (includes system RAM and VRAM). Like RAM, VRAM can use a physical address extension like system to get around that but performance is terrible so not generally viable for games.
Point is, the reason why 1, 2, 3.5 GiB was okay for long is because games were developed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that only had 512 MiB of memory. Everything was kept 32-bit because AAA games had to fit in such a tiny footprint anyway on consoles. With the transition to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 having 8 GiB of memory, 64-bit games are everywhere and with it a "smoke it if you got it" approach to memory usage. That's why the GTX 970 has aged poorly and so many in this thread scoff at 3 GiB variants of graphics cards. 3 GiB was more than enough several years ago. It isn't anymore because the 32-bit/512 MiB RAM veil has finally been truly lifted.
Even the 3GB 7970/280s are getting that way, 6GB variants are doing better.