Ram vs Internal Res.

[slickshooter]

Hello gentlemen,

I'm buying a laptop soon and have the option of buying one with a 1gb ram 6750m graphics card or a 512mb gt 650m card. I am not worried about cpu speed, but I usually play at very large internal resolutions. I read somewhere that AA is more dependent on ram than anything else but the gt 650m is objectively the better card. So, if I want to just play pcsx2 games at really high resolutions since their both good cards, which one should I go with?

I am also confident I can overclock the 6750m to a higher clock and ram as well.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

Normally I avoid advising about hardware and this one is the case is being asked advise for what I deem wrong reasons. So I'll tell you one single thing: Know that a huge pool is useful but you shouldn't forget you need a pump able to fill it quickly.
I don't know how the memory is distributed in this laptop, maybe that low value for the 650m means VRAM, if is the system memory I don't see why it can't be increased to higher values.

No amount of overclock possible with the 6750m will get it neat the processing power of the 650m but may help it to fill the memory quicker. So, if the dedicated video memory can't be increased for the 650m and PCSX2 high internal resolution is your goal, the 6750m would be your card of choice even because PCSX2 is not that video hunger, it is primarily CPU bound what makes your statement about not being worried with CPU speed incomprehensible to say the least.

[rama]

From experience I can tell you that GSdx currently fills 512MB easily even on moderate settings.
Pick the 1024MB option.

[Eloris]

From experience I can tell you that GSdx currently fills 512MB easily even on moderate settings.
Pick the 1024MB option.

Hm. Just from messing around with a couple of games the highest I've seen was around 550mb at 1920x1200 internal with 8xMSAA ... average seemed to be around 100-150 with no MSAA at the same res. Maybe I've just picked the wrong games, though, plus there's another 200mb or so just from Windows. So the point still stands I guess

[rama]

Yep, the important thing is the spikes though.
At times games make GSdx allocate 3x the usual average.
With too little memory you'll get issues then.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

Yet is still nebulous if the OP is talking about VRAM or system RAM, if is the last the laptop with the 650m may be lacking RAM as a whole.

[slickshooter]

Hm. Just from messing around with a couple of games the highest I've seen was around 550mb at 1920x1200 internal with 8xMSAA ... average seemed to be around 100-150 with no MSAA at the same res. Maybe I've just picked the wrong games, though, plus there's another 200mb or so just from Windows. So the point still stands I guess

That's really helpful, which games did you test?

Yep, the important thing is the spikes though.
At times games make GSdx allocate 3x the usual average.
With too little memory you'll get issues then.

I've always noticed the spikes when playing on a friend's laptop, the card can run it better than fine, but at higher resolutions it will spike sometimes. Thank you, 1 gb it is.

Yet is still nebulous if the OP is talking about VRAM or system RAM, if is the last the laptop with the 650m may be lacking RAM as a whole.

Yep, was talking about vram. I'll have around 8gb system ram. Not sure if they (both) are fully dedicated, but some is probably used for windows.

[Eloris]

That's really helpful, which games did you test?

Romancing SaGa, Persona 3 FES, Harvest Moon: Innocent Life, Grandia Xtreme and Grandia 3. And then just basically some areas where I had saves in, so it's not really a useful sample rate
Amusingly enough, Grandia Xtreme uses about 100mb more than G3, so as usual, crappier graphics don't necessarily mean lower requirements as well. Although of course, G3 is a lot more demanding, just in other areas - and MSAA glitches the character models there anyhow.

[Saiki]

definitely want as much vram as you can get. a 1gb can isn't holding up most of my PS2 games. (PC games are another story, but that's beside the point)

[Topken]

Want to see the vram fill quickly try games like Xenosaga and Zone of the Enders 2 on 6x internal res.