Sapphire R9 290X VAPOR-X leaked - an 8GB 290X!!

I've yet to see any review anywhere of the regular 290X where anyone has said "Lovely card, but needs more VRAM" at any resolution, including 4k and triple screen.

So I'm with SuB in thinking this is an epeen bragging card.
 
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Pricing remains unknown at this point.

I'd imagine adding 4GB more VRAM would cost a lot, and then there will be the price for buying a higher binned chip etc.

From memory it was like $250 extra for the 7970 6gb version over the 7970 3gb version but that would push the 290x pretty high.
 
Triple screen 4K is the only thing I can think of that would take that up easy. Maybe triple 2650x1600 too lol.

But you'ed need 2 3 or even 4 of them for x3 4k gameing and people overestimate what actualy use's the most vram, higher resolutions shure it use's more vram but not as much as people seam to think the main killer of vram is filters and AA and at those kind of resolutions those filters are uneeded.
Hell you can display 4k on intel HD intergrated.

 
But you'ed need 2 3 or even 4 of them for x3 4k gameing and people over-estimate what actually uses the most vram, higher resolutions shure it use's more vram but not as much as people seam to think the main killer of vram is filters and AA and at those kind of resolutions those filters are unneeded.

You realise AA is "supersampling" which just means it renders the actual frame at X times whatever the screen size is right?

4k is literally, 4 x 1080p which is *exactly* the same resolution as would be rendered by 1080p with 4x AA. This is then scaled down and a bunch of stuff run on it so you get sub-pixels colour change smoothness so you don't get 'jaggies'.

If you have a 4K screen, chances are the pixel density is high enough that you don't *need* 4k. The pixels are so small, that you don't need to go into sub-pixel colouring to stop getting jaggies. This is why the high dpi phone screens look so smooth!.

This said, if you DID put AA on, it would, again 2x or 4x the resolution and create the sub-pixels stuff required to remove the jaggies.

So no, resolution isn't the 'main' killer of vram, but the memory required for 4k is still roughly the same as 1080p @ 4x AA or so. (probably slightly less due to no processing requirements).
 
You realise AA is "supersampling" which just means it renders the actual frame at X times whatever the screen size is right?

4k is literally, 4 x 1080p which is *exactly* the same resolution as would be rendered by 1080p with 4x AA. This is then scaled down and a bunch of stuff run on it so you get sub-pixels colour change smoothness so you don't get 'jaggies'.

If you have a 4K screen, chances are the pixel density is high enough that you don't *need* 4k. The pixels are so small, that you don't need to go into sub-pixel colouring to stop getting jaggies. This is why the high dpi phone screens look so smooth!.

This said, if you DID put AA on, it would, again 2x or 4x the resolution and create the sub-pixels stuff required to remove the jaggies.

So no, resolution isn't the 'main' killer of vram, but the memory required for 4k is still roughly the same as 1080p @ 4x AA or so. (probably slightly less due to no processing requirements).

This is true alltho the straight up 'oversampleing' or 'Supersampling' method is fairly old these days generaly MSAA or Multisampling is the more commonly used method that require a fair amount of framebuffer or vram and then on top of that its useualy backed up by AF as well.
I still mantain 8gbs of ram on a card that can not game @ 4k by its self is still kind of pointless and the same as the titan with its 6gbs of vram.

Here is vram usage tested @4k even with x4 MSAA enabled (completly uneeded)

kOoKBO4.png
 
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Thing is though you don't need AA at 4k.
I don't think 8gb is going to be needed for a long time, not for the current generation of games anyway.

But you guys do realise the main reason this card has 8gb of Vram is because the Titan Black has 6gb, right?
 
Well it could also be used to advertise... "As much memory as a Console!" or something of the sort to help make it earn more money. Which is impressive but not really needed as nothing will hit above 4GB as of now.
 
But you guys do realise the main reason this card has 8gb of Vram is because the Titan Black has 6gb, right?
Put like that, it's the product of a bit of a dick waving contest between AMD and Nvidia. ^_^

Although dick waving contests, if they drive down prices of either teams cards (unlikely) is welcome.
 
Well it could also be used to advertise... "As much memory as a Console!" or something of the sort to help make it earn more money. Which is impressive but not really needed as nothing will hit above 4GB as of now.

I've seen a Titan go past 4GB in BF4 at 1400P/1600P and also go to nearly 5GB in Skyrim with mods.
 
BF3/4 maxed out my 2gb GTX680 at 1080p no AA. Skyrim can max out 2gb with very little graphic modding and in some instances will max out 2gb with no mods at 1080p no AA. Crysis 3 I have seen it hit 2gb as well with no AA. 3gb is is mandatory now this gen for the higher end games like 2gb was last gen.

One thing people forget is with DX11 a lot of companies LOVE the tessellation, more tessellation and more detailed tessellation with the mixture of DX11 lighting shows more jagged edges than non tessellated games, so you will be more inclined to bump the AA to make the tessellation look cleaner. Of course the reason for this is because you have more "edges" than before and rounder objects. Play Metro LL on 1080p with max tessellation and you see a HUGE difference between no AA and 4x AA. More so than say Left 4 Dead.
 
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