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AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5 or the 1GB version? Help!
- Thread starter hhaydenn
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It does list that actually, click the coloured blocks w/ the fps on it to see it drop down with more info.
I'd like to know this too.
Of course all those apps, besides AE, are probably getting a major rewrite soon so it's hard to predict the future.
Any gamer dropping the big bucks on the iMac with 6970M needs to BTO with 2GB VRAM. Okay, maybe it's not needed right now, but in a year your going to be playing games like Battlefield 3 and better. The iMac's resolution is insane so the last thing you need is being forced to go to a resolution that isn't native to get a better framerate because you don't have enough VRAM. You've spent all that money, spend the extra $100 and make your machine faster for longer. I don't think anybody spends $2k on a machine with the intent of using it for a year.
The thing with the 2GB VRAM is the same as with Apple care: When spending 2k$ on a computer, what does it matter if you pay a 100 more for future proofing?
2GB VRAM is wasted in the iMac. Why? You only need that much VRAM if you run games at max settings, and even current games like Portal 2 do not use up the 1GB in max settings. Now you're asking "But future games might?". Yes you are correct, however the 6970m will be too slow then, so in future games you will have to reduce the texture quality/resolution anyway and thus won't be using more then 1GB VRAM even if your card has more. If anything at all you will see an FPS improvement in the 2-5% area. However the extra 1GB certainly won't make your iMac slower, so if you want to bow your money away knock yourself out 
TLDR version:
The 6970m is a great mobile GPU, however it's simply too slow to run games in settings that utilize more then 1GB VRAM.
But Thunderbolt is basically an external PCIe connection so external high end GPUs are quite a possibility.
TLDR version:
The 6970m is a great mobile GPU, however it's simply too slow to run games in settings that utilize more then 1GB VRAM.
But Thunderbolt is basically an external PCIe connection so external high end GPUs are quite a possibility.
I went with the SSD option:
Specifications
3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
2TB Serial ATA Drive+256GB SSD
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (International English) and User Guide (English)
The only problem is that once you configure the iMac with an SSD the estimated shipping time drops to 4-6 weeks!
I wanted to pull the trigger on the + SSD option but 4-6 weeks hurts.
I'm sure it will be worth it, or at least I hope that's what the delay is for.
I don't know much much difference you'd see except for more extreme conditions, but it's a cheap upgrade that "you" can only do at order time and should keep at least that chip "above board" for a while longer.
2GB VRAM is wasted in the iMac. Why? You only need that much VRAM if you run games at max settings, and even current games like Portal 2 do not use up the 1GB in max settings. Now you're asking "But future games might?". Yes you are correct, however the 6970m will be too slow then, so in future games you will have to reduce the texture quality/resolution anyway and thus won't be using more then 1GB VRAM even if your card has more. If anything at all you will see an FPS improvement in the 2-5% area. However the extra 1GB certainly won't make your iMac slower, so if you want to bow your money away knock yourself out
TLDR version:
The 6970m is a great mobile GPU, however it's simply too slow to run games in settings that utilize more then 1GB VRAM.
But Thunderbolt is basically an external PCIe connection so external high end GPUs are quite a possibility.
Same limitations if up you're gaming in boot camp?
2GB VRAM is a ton!
This should help a lot of people sitting on the fence....
http://en.expreview.com/2010/08/08/exclusive-review-of-zotac-geforce-gtx-460-2gb-edition/9041.html/8
http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/GTX 460 ANALYSIS/P1.html
6970 is not really gonna handle 8xAA at native..... the GPU is going to be the bottleneck long before the memory.......
http://en.expreview.com/2010/08/08/exclusive-review-of-zotac-geforce-gtx-460-2gb-edition/9041.html/8
http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/GTX 460 ANALYSIS/P1.html
6970 is not really gonna handle 8xAA at native..... the GPU is going to be the bottleneck long before the memory.......
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2GB VRAM is wasted in the iMac. Why? You only need that much VRAM if you run games at max settings, and even current games like Portal 2 do not use up the 1GB in max settings. Now you're asking "But future games might?". Yes you are correct, however the 6970m will be too slow then, so in future games you will have to reduce the texture quality/resolution anyway and thus won't be using more then 1GB VRAM even if your card has more. If anything at all you will see an FPS improvement in the 2-5% area. However the extra 1GB certainly won't make your iMac slower, so if you want to bow your money away knock yourself out
TLDR version:
The 6970m is a great mobile GPU, however it's simply too slow to run games in settings that utilize more then 1GB VRAM.
But Thunderbolt is basically an external PCIe connection so external high end GPUs are quite a possibility.
And yet portal 2 isn't a demanding game and it's using around 98% of the 1gb vram. Doesn't take much more to push it over. I run all my games at native res and crank the settings as high as possible. If 2gb allows me to push some settings higher then i'm a happy camper.
As far as external GPU's, thunderbolt is still too slow, it would effectively function as a PCIe 4x connection.
That's the thing though. Portal 2 isn't demanding so it can run at native resolution and utilize the extra GB for textures.
But what happens a year from now when you are running Battlefield 4. The GPU won't be powerful enough to run it at native resolution so you crank down the resolution to 1080p (or even less if it is much more demanding) and the textures to medium or low. Then what does the extra GB do as far as textures?
Even Dragon Age II has a DX11 texture pack you can download and even without using AA or AF it can use 1gb of vram just on textures alone.
Having additional vram may not need a fast card to take advantage of it but rather can extend slower cards by allowing them to load these high rez textures into vram and achieve better performance.
Having high amounts of ram, as we know, can help with high resolutions and AA and AF(which I use now) but even without that it can help with high textures which get loaded into Vram. You don't necessarily need a faster video card to make use of those textures. Most people look at benchmarks of games that can't make use of more than 1gb vram and then seeing the point of having more only for AA and AF. There aren't that many games that can use 1gb plus for textures alone. Some games do have "ultra" settings for textures that I would like to test.
As I posted before I would measure it and post how much is actually being used if atmonitor was working properly. And ultimately we can't say for sure until we do comparisons from one imac to another on games that are capable of using more vram. Give me a working monitor and i'll start posting some numbers!
So far the 6970m 2gb card that I have is running very well. And I dare say it runs better at native resolution than my 460GTX 768mb does at 1920x1200.
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2GB VRAM is wasted in the iMac. Why? You only need that much VRAM if you run games at max settings, and even current games like Portal 2 do not use up the 1GB in max settings. Now you're asking "But future games might?". Yes you are correct, however the 6970m will be too slow then, so in future games you will have to reduce the texture quality/resolution anyway and thus won't be using more then 1GB VRAM even if your card has more. If anything at all you will see an FPS improvement in the 2-5% area. However the extra 1GB certainly won't make your iMac slower, so if you want to bow your money away knock yourself out
TLDR version:
The 6970m is a great mobile GPU, however it's simply too slow to run games in settings that utilize more then 1GB VRAM.
But Thunderbolt is basically an external PCIe connection so external high end GPUs are quite a possibility.
Actually guys, the 2GB model is very likely needed.
According to Barefeats Portal 2 tests (in OS X), the 5870 1GB bottlenecked at 2560x1440. At 1080p it had double the frame rate of the 6970M 2GB, but at 2560x1440 it was several FPS less.
Also Kendo: It's true that we won't be able to play high end games at high settings in a few years, but that's because the graphics are becoming much better, and the same should be true of lower settings. What might push our GPU over 1GB on high now, might be on low or medium in the future. Just look at Crysis 2 as an example, it's got high min. requirements.
The only reason Portal 2 was able to bottleneck the 5870 1GB was because it used 8xAA, if it didn't it very likely wouldn't have.
Just to correct myself here:
There was a patch released for Portal 2 which improved performance with MSAA, and the 5870 now has a higher frame rate than the 6970M in that same test. So, it may not have been the VRAM bottlenecking it.
There was a patch released for Portal 2 which improved performance with MSAA, and the 5870 now has a higher frame rate than the 6970M in that same test. So, it may not have been the VRAM bottlenecking it.
I think the simple solution is to buy the 1GB version. BTOs are a pain in the pants, at least in my experience.
I know I'd be kicking myself if I got a crap (read:yellow) screen (again) and had to return it without the guarantee of being able to replace it quickly and easily in the store, or indeed getting a satisfactory screen in the subsequent replacement.
I know I'd be kicking myself if I got a crap (read:yellow) screen (again) and had to return it without the guarantee of being able to replace it quickly and easily in the store, or indeed getting a satisfactory screen in the subsequent replacement.
I went for the high end 27 without any BTO options, so I'm hoping a 1gb video card will be enough for me to handle Diablo 3 when it comes out. That's really the only game I can see myself playing on my computer, anything else would be on my PS3 (whenever they get their **** together).
Look here....
http://www.barefeats.com/imac11c.html
"You don't even need the Core i7 version of the 2011 iMac to run games well. The 3.1GHz Core i5 iMac has the same Radeon HD 6970 as the 3.4GHz Core i7 model -- and it runs games just as fast."
1G and 2G have pretty the same results even at native resolutions....
http://www.barefeats.com/imac11c.html
"You don't even need the Core i7 version of the 2011 iMac to run games well. The 3.1GHz Core i5 iMac has the same Radeon HD 6970 as the 3.4GHz Core i7 model -- and it runs games just as fast."
1G and 2G have pretty the same results even at native resolutions....
Thank you so much for this post, these are the exact benchmarks I wanted to know running at native resolution.
For that game. Even a non demanding game like portal 2 is using 97% of that 1gb of vram. Some games can make use of more vram such as dragon age II with the high res texture pack.
You won't see a difference from 1gb to 2gb of vram until you actually run a game that can make use of more vram for textures. And of course we need a working monitor to measure it.
Chances are they are also running the 3.4ghz i7 with hyperthreading on which hurts gaming. It would be interesting to see how the games perform if they turn hyperthreading off.