5 replies to this topic

[Jrb]

Hello all,

I've got a video card, namely the ATI 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 edition, and I have a question about it's 2GB of memory. The card is designed for 6 monitor support, hence the extra RAM. It's not an important task, but I'd like to max out my settings on particular games, but it only uses 1GB of the memory.

Now, I bought this thing because I got it for the same price as the standard 1GB edition. I'm currently on a 19 inch, 1440x900 LCD monitor. Apparently, you can only utilize the entire 2GB of memory if your screen resolution is set at a certain resolution (Mine won't go that high).

Does anyone think you could somehow "trick" the card into thinking that the screen resolution is higher than what it actually is? I have a feeling it would mess up the card, or corrupt the pixels in someway, but I'm open to ideas.

Otherwise I'll have to buy a new, larger monitor or setup a multiple monitor system.

Thoughts?

[WingedPanther]

You do realize that at lower resolutions, you simply require less memory, right? You're wasting energy trying to use memory for no purpose.

[Jrb]

Yeah I understand that. The problem I'm having is noticable FPS drops while gaming. I have a six core CPU along with 8gb of RAM, so I'm pretty sure my it's the card and not anything else bottlenecking it.

[Flying Dutchman]

Your video card is pretty solid, and I seriously doubt that it's the cause for bottleneck. If you have access to another video card, swap them and check results.

[Alexander]

Video memory is to store textures and over a gigabyte of texture memory seems a little overkill for most games (which are not even that), you are always at the mercy of the game and what it utilizes including its engine.

[Jrb]

Makes sense. It was just a thought.

I'll most likely end up buying a larger monitor anyway. It's the eyefinity 6 edition, and can run up to six monitors by itself. I may end up setting up dual monitors, then I'll definitely be able to use the full 2GB. Thanks all :thumbup: