VRAM on WoW and possible GPU upgrades.

[Oncereborn]

Hi guys,

Today I was testing the VRAM usage on WoW at max settings and noticed that it went over 3GB, upto around 3.4GB. Anybody else have this and can confirm?


The reason is:

Hoping to buy a new GPU to get me through the next year or maybe longer as currently I'm in my last year of university and don't really want to spend much money.

Current build:

i5 4670k OC @ 4.0GHz
HD 6990 @ Stock
1920x1080

Was using 2x r9 290's however I accidentally spilled tea all over my PC and killed one instantly, then the other one died a month or so ago (sparked and burned out the board, maybe dust... not really sure.)

Managed to poach the 6990 from family that wasn't being used. It works OK I guess, however it runs super hot, like 85+ on WoW, sometimes higher, and doesn't really have great performance these days as it's so old. Not to mention the fact that it's probably louder than a fighter jet once the fans ramp up.

OPTIONS:
-At first I was eyeing off the 1060 3GB as I can get it locally for about $280ish new and delivered ($AUD). However, the 3GB could be a problem.
-Another option is the 1050ti which has 4GB VRAM which is about $230ish new and delivered ($AUD). However, Im having doubts this would actually outperform the 6990, the only benefits may be temp, power and sound related.
-Saw some people recommend the RX 470, however its only about $20 cheaper than;
-An RX 480 4GB which I can get for just under $300 new and delivered ($AUD).
-Another option is the 6GB 1060, however they start at around $370 new and delivered ($AUD), at this price, I'm not really sure I can justify the slight performance increase that people suggest for the $70+ price increase.
-At the moment 1070s are nearly $600 and probably out of the price range of what I'd like to spend (and may come close to bottlenecking my CPU).

I'm looking for some more opinions on what I should do. I'm really leaning towards the RX 480 at the moment. Older generation cards aren't really an option as they are all very expensive here in Australia, even second hand. Do you guys think I will see some good performance gains from the RX 480? Worth upgrading, or try and stick it out with the 6990 until I finish uni and can get full time work, thus affording a completely new rig?

[Akakishin]

It doesn't work like that , 1060 3gb is faster than 1050 and in equal circumstances requires less vram than 1050 or is affected less by drops in performance. I for example use a 1070 and my wow vram usage doesn't exceed 3gb at all, always less. Gta v is a good example here, it always welcomes more vram, but raw power is more important in these cases for next to each other products.

I'd suggest you to go with rx480. That's a beast and future proof card for your needs.

[Oncereborn]

It doesn't work like that , 1060 3gb is faster than 1050 and in equal circumstances requires less vram than 1050 or is affected less by drops in performance. I for example use a 1070 and my wow vram usage doesn't exceed 3gb at all, always less. Gta v is a good example here, it always welcomes more vram, but raw power is more important in these cases for next to each other products.

I'd suggest you to go with rx480. That's a beast and future proof card for your needs.

I've read alot of other people reporting over 3GB usage in WoW on 1060's and higher. Can you confirm your usage?

[Thunderball]

I've read alot of other people reporting over 3GB usage in WoW on 1060's and higher. Can you confirm your usage?

Completely plausible, especially on higher resolutions.

[Caelia]

Well at 1920*1080 I sat at a steady 3GB VRAM usage on my 1070 in the 10 minutes I was logged in, ran around some in Orgrimmar, Dalaran and did a world boss in that time.
If you run at 1440p or higher I can imagine the VRAM usage going a lot higher, raids where there's a lot of effects could alter the numbers as well.

[Akakishin]

I've read alot of other people reporting over 3GB usage in WoW on 1060's and higher. Can you confirm your usage?

Higher res like 1440p yes, you'll have higher vram usage. here are my pictures. first one as you see 1080p. that max 2225 on afterburner is in lfr.
I also turned on renderscale up to 200% which doubles the pixel count and it only went to 2170 in dalaran and orgrimar.



I can assure you, rx480 is enough for w/e you wanna do with WOW on 1080p.

[Oncereborn]

I can assure you, rx480 is enough for w/e you wanna do with WOW on 1080p.

Yes, thanks, I believe it will be aswell, however if possible I'd love to go with the 1060 3GB as its both cheaper and a better choice for what I do (blizz fanboy)

[Kagthul]

Yes, thanks, I believe it will be aswell, however if possible I'd love to go with the 1060 3GB as its both cheaper and a better choice for what I do (blizz fanboy)

The RX 480 4GB is cheaper (and yes, I set PCPartpicker to AUS) than the GTX 1060 3GB and faster, in general.

[Oncereborn]

The RX 480 4GB is cheaper (and yes, I set PCPartpicker to AUS) than the GTX 1060 3GB and faster, in general.

I found a place selling the 1060 3GB for $269 free postage here in AUS

Just as an FYI, don't rely solely on partpicker, the website is bugged and missing a lot of products. It's good to give a general idea, however, if your serious about buying something take a look at the vendor list to give you an idea of where they source the prices from and go to those vendors websites and take a look. I've found many discrepancies on my adventures. It also seems to be slow in updating for sales even though they claim to be near instant. You may miss out on flash sales and the like as it was slow in updating and someone already bought all the remaining stock.

[Pyrophobia]

Nvm ... too late i read wrong

[Kagthul]

I found a place selling the 1060 3GB for $269 free postage here in AUS

Just as an FYI, don't rely solely on partpicker, the website is bugged and missing a lot of products. It's good to give a general idea, however, if your serious about buying something take a look at the vendor list to give you an idea of where they source the prices from and go to those vendors websites and take a look. I've found many discrepancies on my adventures. It also seems to be slow in updating for sales even though they claim to be near instant. You may miss out on flash sales and the like as it was slow in updating and someone already bought all the remaining stock.

269$ on the RX 4804GB as well. And it's a better card all around.

[Rico9240]

https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rade...ct_top?ie=UTF8 Isnt it @239$ for the RX 480 8GB? I mean i know we're only talking about similar vram cards, but, cheaper and has much more to spare.


*Edit, sorry didnt see Australia, so i dont know what the price/availability is over there.

[Akakishin]

But isn't rx480 still better on dx12 games? If yes then it's better future proof vs 1060 3gb.

[Akainakali]

https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rade...ct_top?ie=UTF8 Isnt it @239$ for the RX 480 8GB? I mean i know we're only talking about similar vram cards, but, cheaper and has much more to spare.


*Edit, sorry didnt see Australia, so i dont know what the price/availability is over there.

There does seem to be a potential advantage with the Rx480 to the 8GB configuration vs 4GB, but that seems to be heavily dependent on the game. WoW probably won't benefit.

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/25...is-it-worth-it

In general, video cards with more than the stock amount of ram are almost always a scam to get you to pay extra for the card.

nVidia and AMD don't pick the VRAM amounts out of a hat and if there was a dramatic advantage to more ram on the cards, they'd have shipped them with that amount of memory to begin with. One of the dead giveaways is that they basically only ever do this on the lower end to middle end cards. These basically don't have the horsepower to deliver any useful performance at the resolutions/settings that would require the increased VRAM.