Eyefinity Testing: 1GB vs 2GB
As a slide showed us on the first page, one potential area for the 2GB frame buffer to come in handy would be with larger resolutions than a single monitor can give us. For example, though the 2560×1600 30-in displays about 4 million pixels a frame, a basic three-panel Eyefinity configuration with a 5760×1080 resolution pushes out 6.2 million pixels. We tested a few games on three 1920×1080 monitors to see how the two AMD HD 5870s stacked up.
Our testing in HAWX saw identical performance going from the 2GB card to the 1GB offering. What we don’t see though is the advantage of the 50 MHz overclock; so we can assume that the extra memory is actually making up for that difference here.
The same can be said for Metro: 2033 – performance between the stock speed 2GB card and the slightly overclocked 1GB card identical.
Here is a case where the 1GB card just couldn’t cut the mustard – running Batman at “High” settings at 5760×1600 with 4xAA enabled in the control panel. The standard HD 5870 was unplayable with something under 10 FPs though you can see the 2GB model produced a strikingly different result. So even though most games might not see the advantage of the 2GB frame buffer, it is quite apparent that some will.
