Is it true? 512MB Graphics

Just bought an Asus F8Sn-B1 with a 512MB GeForce 9500M GS and then I read this:

512 MB graphic memory

At moment, only few games benefit from 512 MG graphic memory (for large texture maps). Examples are Doom 3 and Call of Duty 2. Other current games gain an increase of 10% performance with 512 MG graphic memory with a resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels and quadrupled antialiasing. Nevertheless this affects only high end video cards like NVIDIA Geforce Go 7900 GTX or the new 7950 GTX.

LINK:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/How-much-graphic-memory-makes-sense.2558.0.html

All this true?

 

keyword: At the moment....

Future games will benefit more. gpu memory is only useful in today games to a certain extent

 

It is true that most games don't use up to 512MB of graphics memory. Only highly demanding games, or games run in a highly demanding way, will benefit from the large on board memory.

 

So in order to use all I got and feel like I have not thrown my money away is to set all games to highest settings/resolution?

 

Yes, but Doom3 is no longer the only game that uses lots of vRAM.

Pretty much ANY current 3D game can benefit from more vRAM at higher resolutions. If you are working at or below 1024x768, you wont see much improvement, but above that you surely will.

 

If you did that for all games, then chances are you will be bottlenecked somewhere else and the game won't run very well. More graphics memory is good in case you come across something that can benefit specifically from a lot of memory, such as CoD4.

 

Part is true, at the resolution that we can play games at notebooks 256mb
is enough. Need 512mb when turning af/aa on and going higher resolution.

Most ppl play 1024x178 max 1280x1024 or their widescreen version.
Don't think ppl can use high af/aa and still get 25+ fps.

If we could play 1680x1050, 1920x1280 with af/aa on then the 512 would be used out for sure.

In desktop cards 512mb is getting minimum since af/aa almost always set high.
And now they go 1Gb on the newest cards since they getting ready the 2xxx resolutions.

Saw somewhere a form how to calculate resulution with different aa and how much ram used.

 

This is a mid-range card limited by 128-bit memory interface, and can't use that memory.

The text you posted is about high-end card which yours certainly isn't...

Next time read the GPU Guide before making threads.

 

I like the analogy the guide uses: If an office worker can use at maximum 3 computers then giving him 6 gives no advantage over giving him 3. So basically it was a marketing trick about the 512mb to make people think it was a batter card than it is. Now all other things equal I would rather have the 512mb version of a 256mb card but if I had to chose between a much faster 256mb card or a slower card with 512mb then the choice would easily be the faster one (256mb DDR3 8600gt vs. 512mb ddr2 8600gt argument comes to mind)

 

i c. So will this card at least use 256mb? Or at least play Cod4 on medium settings?

 

I'm pretty sure you can play CoD4 at high settings, no AF, at WXGA [1280x800] with your DDR2 9500M GS. Or at least a mixture of medium-high.

 

http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801_video_ram_-_how_much_do_you_really_need/

Interesting article...It states that 256MB isn't enough for some modern titles even when not at the highest settings....Check out the CoD 4 page----it can make use of over 400MB of V-RAM even at 640X480.


---edit of course, CoD4 and other titles are playable with less, but it looks like, even at lower settings, they would benefit from more memory.

 

256MB of GDDR3 1400 is better than 512MB of DDR2 800 -period.

 

i play CoD4 at high settings in 1280x800 w/ 256 megs of vram. (no aa, some af)

 

The 9500M GS =8600M GT, and it can play COD4 at 1280x800 , all med/high.