Difference between a 1GB graphics card and a 2GB graphics card?

Question

I'm building a gaming PC (desktop) and was wondering what would be the performance difference between a 2GB graphics card or a 1GB graphics card. From what I read online it seems that you never really need more then 1GB but it's all so confusing. The games that I play on a 512MB Nvidia 310M (which has worked for a few years now) are World of Warcraft (good--high settings) at about 30FPS. Starcraft 2 (low-medium) at about 35FPS and Diablo 3 (medium-high with anti aliasing) with about 35 FPS. The games that I plan on playing with the gaming rig are CoD, Battlefield and Skyrim etc. So would I ever need a 2GB or could I get by with with just a 1GB? Or for a few extra bucks I could upgrade to a 1.25GB graphics card? Please help.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I would consider the 2GB one more future-proof, but it really comes down to wich cards you're choosing between. The ammount of memory isn't the only thing that matters.



Here's a link to someone who has the exact same question as you:



http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/328213-15-video-card

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=1GB+or+2GB+grapics+card

Answer 2

the difference is the amount of vram the card have to save the textures it uses,

too little vram and you will get FPS drops and perhaps game freezes (just for a half a sec or so) when the graphic card is loading different textures from the harddrive.



currently if you have a 1080p screen you want more then 1GB, 1.5GB or 2GB is what you would like then

under 1080p for example 720p or such then 1GB is enough.



For example battlefield 3 in 1080p on ultra uses about 1.5GB vram.

The performance do not change, its still the same card however the difference is the vram (how many textures it can have loaded in to its memory at any given time)



so under 1080p resolution 1GB is fine, 1080p or higher then 1.5GB or 2GB would be helpful



ofc that depends on the card too, a card will not be faster becouse it have more vram, like a 6950 1GB vs a 6950 2GB will still performance the same in lets say 720p resolution, but if we go up to 1080p and a game that uses a lot of vram (over 1GB) then the 2GB card will run better.

most modern graphic cards have 1.5GB or 2GB vram now as well its needed these days as 1080p (and higher resolutions) become more and more common.

Answer 3

Never buy something that you are not going to use unless in the coming future you are going to use it.Modern games are going to need alot of graphic memory so having your graphic card 2gb instead of is not a waste if the difference in price is not so much.If your games doesn't use such high memory go for the 1GB from what you said is more than enough.

Answer 4

No longer really, the essential factor to remember is that 1gb helps 1 monitor so having 2gb manner you've gotten the likelihood of having 2 monitors. It does alter the performance abit too, however nothing drastic.

Answer 5

The second one is better for you to play games dears. As there are 2 kinds of high setting for you to play games. for the details you could have a look at http://www.hid3gold.com/