fill rate

[MADe]

what is the projected texture fill rate of AH3 gonna be?

trying to decide between a gtx 960 and a gtx 970..............
960 has a better base clock MHz, the 970 has 20%+/- better fill rate capacity.
both have 4Gb ddr5 vram
big price difference.

for my purposes, if you said that AH3 would use a fill rate of +/-40GT/s, I would prolly settle on the 960, but if the fill rate was up to say 60GT/s I would opt for the 970.

[nooby52]

I don't know what it is in alpha, but I just installed the gtx960 with 4gb, it works flawlessly, with 45 - 60 fps.

[Bizman]

As your post shows, the base clock isn't the only factor in performance. Actually, for almost a decade the fastest stock clocks have been above 1000 MHz, Radeon HD 2600 and 2900 from 2007, GeForce GT 430 from 2010 being the first four digit ones I could find.

And I repeat, the alpha is still a work in progress. So far the only thing for sure is that the best card in the market will run AH3 very well. Most likely the second best would do equally well. Your question could be translated to: "What would be the cheapest card to run AH3 at my desired level of quality?" That question will remain unanswered until the release of the final product.

A known fact is that the new game will be more graphics intensive as the alpha shows, so the better card might be a better choice. Then again, until the release there will be changes in the video card market, too, maybe changing the pricing towards your budget.

If you can, wait. If you can't wait, get the best you can afford.

[MADe]

I can wait, waitings easy, ah3 has a bit more to go in alpha, so theres no rush.

I just started paying attention again to cards and prices and I am looking for good buys and sales daily now.....if the right price pops up I might want to bite before necessary. new egg is always offering me specials, I have used them a bit. never a disappointment, so far, knock on wood.

the big 3,
base clck mhz
texture fill rate gt/s
bandwidth gb/s

I did not include ram cuz with all modern cards its a given, a card with less than 1gb ram is old...............

then of coarse you need cpu ghz that can push it.


edit;
question, is there such a thing as to much vram? 
Would having a 4GB vram card where only 2GB are used cause a performance issue?
Would having a 4GB vram card in a system with a total of 6GB ram have a performance issue?
 

[bustr]

Band width and data paths are a good place to project outcomes with this game. Then shader processors since the game is shader intensive.

GTX 600 Series. I believe this is Hitech's video card.

660
Data Paths - 192bit
Band Width - 144.2 G byte sec.
Shader Processors - 960

GTX 900 Series.

960
Data Paths - 128bit
Band Width - 112 G byte sec.
Shader Processors - 1024

Read this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8935/geforce-gtx-970-correcting-the-specs-exploring-memory-allocation/2

970
Data Paths - 224+32 bit
Band Width - 196+28 G byte sec.
Shader Processors - 1664

[MADe]

ty
good read

I could just get the 2GB ver of 970 I like, have you heard if the vram is allocated the same way for less vram?
4gb is somewhat excessive but I was thinking down the road, maybe I just do not need that much.

but then.......
http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html

I will be using 1080p @ 60MHz, 1920x1080

[bustr]

Why not just get a 980 and not worry about the Godzilla level over kill.

[MADe]

Why not just get a 980 and not worry about the Godzilla level over kill.

purely a question of expense from the 960 and up.

1- I just need what will play ah3 with all settings and effects enabled.
2- I like some hardware overhead for aging purposes, hence 2d or 3rd level grade video cards.
3- on sale!

Since my pc is just a toy to play AH, I need to justify a bit, on what I spend money on with it.
ie: do I spend $500 to get a better vid card for "just" AH3?  this is essentially what I am doing........

I do not want to spend $500 on a vid card right now, I do want a card that will age well and handle some of the future changes, ie: a 4K screen
One thing I know, build for a high end game computer, it will work for anything else you need from it. looking for that balance. I got great mileage out of my gtx 260's, they are still in service, but things have changed so.......................

[Bizman]

I do not want to spend $500 on a vid card right now, I do want a card that will age well and handle some of the future changes, ie: a 4K screen

Hmmm... That might be a mission impossible. You are aware that 4K equals to four 1080's, aren't you? Same as adding one more to a triple monitor system. There's no cheap way to prepare for playable 4K. Probably when 4K is as common as 1080p today, the mid range cards will be up to the task with reasonable limitations.

[bustr]

The angst over the specs for a kiddy game seemed misplaced. Give it a few years and the 980 will be looked back on as an over priced Godzilla to the next guy angsting over the current Godzilla game play standards.

[MADe]

Hmmm... That might be a mission impossible. You are aware that 4K equals to four 1080's, aren't you? Same as adding one more to a triple monitor system. There's no cheap way to prepare for playable 4K. Probably when 4K is as common as 1080p today, the mid range cards will be up to the task with reasonable limitations.

yes/no, the 970 will do the job, its effective 3.5gb vram is plenty good. its got everything the 980 has minus 1 controller, for +/-$150 less. yes its not a 980 but its still way overkill for AH3 and 3 years from now 4K screens will be cheaper. It will handle 4K screens.
I'm interested in the DSR function. The card will render for a 4K screen, then scale it down to 1080p. At the cost of card performance???? Literature states that this is like an anti-aliasing technique......

I read up on what bustr linked in and I cannot see that as an issue for my purposes. I doubt the game will ever push that much. I'm good with 1080p. My eyes cannot see any difference anyways after 1080p.
I was looking at the Gigabyte G1 model, $358 bucks. I have gigabyte mobos and like them a lot. The G1 seems to have good reviews, but the price is my outside limit. I like the fan and heatsink layout. I always hated the evga encasement method, but luv the performance. I have several evga cards.

[MADe]

The angst over the specs for a kiddy game seemed misplaced. Give it a few years and the 980 will be looked back on as an over priced Godzilla to the next guy angsting over the current Godzilla game play standards.

not aingst. I like building things. I like to plan and then execute my projects. I was given some good links and spiked some watermelon man. 
Hopefully, if I did my homework, I will make a purchase and then not come back saying help me, it doesn't work. waaaaaaaaa. or how come.....
 

[Chalenge]

I'm interested in the DSR function. The card will render for a 4K screen, then scale it down to 1080p. At the cost of card performance???? Literature states that this is like an anti-aliasing technique......

It's technically supersampling, where you render the scene at 2 times, or 4 times the screen size, and then scale it down. I use this in Sniper Elite V2 without using the DSR function (it is part of the game's video options) and turn antialiasing off. When you do that on a 4k display the result is pretty amazing. DSR is something that will be nice if they ever get it working with SLI, or once the next generation of Nvidia video cards (Pascal) gets here. I'm hoping for some news on that soon, but even though I would like to see a new GPU within eight months every indication is that it will probably be another year, or even more.

Supersampling is another feature that could be added to AH3, but there has not been any talk about it that I have heard about. Hitech surprised us with a new antialiasing trick recently, so you never know what can happen before they finish.

[Bizman]

yes/no, the 970 will do the job

Ahh, 970 yes probably, depending on other variables such as polygon count. I was thinking about the 960 you mentioned as the lowest option:

purely a question of expense from the 960 and up.

[Skuzzy]

yes/no, the 970 will do the job, its effective 3.5gb vram is plenty good. its got everything the 980 has minus 1 controller, for +/-$150 less. yes its not a 980 but its still way overkill for AH3 and 3 years from now 4K screens will be cheaper. It will handle 4K screens.
I'm interested in the DSR function. The card will render for a 4K screen, then scale it down to 1080p. At the cost of card performance???? Literature states that this is like an anti-aliasing technique......

I read up on what bustr linked in and I cannot see that as an issue for my purposes. I doubt the game will ever push that much. I'm good with 1080p. My eyes cannot see any difference anyways after 1080p.
I was looking at the Gigabyte G1 model, $358 bucks. I have gigabyte mobos and like them a lot. The G1 seems to have good reviews, but the price is my outside limit. I like the fan and heatsink layout. I always hated the evga encasement method, but luv the performance. I have several evga cards.

The 970 is not going to be a good card for 4K monitors.  By the time 4K monitors are the norm, the texture sizes of games will have also expanded and the 3.5GB of video RAM is going to be a huge bottleneck for a 4K monitor.  Some games are already showing that to be a problem.

The 970 is the best bang for the buck card in the HD (1920x1080) market though.