GTX 770 4GB vs 2GB Showdown
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7-3770K reference 3.50 GHz/Turbo to 3.7GHz, overclocked to 4.5 GHz; HyperThreading is on, supplied by Intel.
- EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (latest Beta BIOS, USB/PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x), supplied by EVGA
- 16 GB DDR3 HyperX Kingston “Beast” RAM (2×8 GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
- EVGA GTX 770 SC 4GB (factory overclocked to 1111/7010MHz but clocked to Boost to 1162MHz) on loan from EVGA.
- Nvidia GTX 770, 2 GB (reference base clocks of 1046/7010MHz, overclocked to Boost to 1162MHz), supplied by Nvidia
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- Genius SP-D150 speakers, supplied by Genius.
- 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive
- 240GB HyperX SSD, supplied by Kingston
- Cooler Master Platinum Pro 1000W PSU, supplied by Cooler Master
- Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.
Test Configuration – Software
- NVIDIA GeForce 326.19. High Quality; Single-display & multiple-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- EVGA PrecisionX 4.21 overclocking and monitoring software
- Latest DirectX
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is forced off in the control panels.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average frame rates
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
The Benchmarks
-
Synthetic
- 3DMark 11
- 3D Mark 2013 – Firestrike/Firestrike Extreme
- Heaven 4.0
- Valley 1.0
DX9
- Serious Sam 3 BFE
- Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
- The Witcher 2
- Borderlands 2
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
DX10- Crysis
DX11- BattleForge
- Alien vs. Predator
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- Metro 2033
- Civilization V
- Lost Planet 2
- Total War: Shogun II
- Crysis 2
- Dirt 3
- DiRT: Showdown
- Batman: Arkham City
- the Secret World
- Battlefield 3
- Max Payne 3
- Sleeping Dogs
- Sniper Elite V2
- Far Cry 3
- Hitman: Absolution
- Assassin’s Creed III
- Crysis 3
- Tomb Raider 2013
- BioShock: Infinite
- GRID 2
- Metro: Last Light
Using EVGA’s PrecisionX
Before we get to the performance charts, let’s see how we equalized the GTX 770 2GB reference version and the EVGA 770 SC 4GB version clocks for identical performance. We used the EVGA tool, PrecisionX, to set the clockspeeds of each card to equalize performance.
Here are the specifications for the reference GTX 770: 
The reference GTX 770 is clocked at 1046MHz with a guaranteed Boost to 1085MHz. In the case of our own reference GTX 770, it boosts to 1136MHz with the Power and Temperature sliders maxed out. In the case of the EVGA card, it is clocked at 1111MHz or +65MHz higher than the reference GTX 770.
However, things are still not equal as the EVGA card will boost to 1162MHz. So we downclocked the EVGA card to 1046MHz base clock, and overclocked the reference version +26MHz so the boosts were identical at 1162MHz. Since our cards never throttled, the performance became effectively identical between the two cards with the amount of vRAM being the only potentially differentiating factor.
Let’s head to the performance charts to see how the now performance-equalized EVGA GTX 770 SC 4GB card compares with the reference GTX 770 2GB card when we attempt to stress the framebuffers with maximum settings, high AA, and super-widescreen resolutions.
I wonder if the 4gb might have a more pronounced advantage when it comes to the Oculus Rift?
Oculus Rift is 1080p (half that resolution per eye) on the current HD version…sooo doubt it? Maybe when they make a higher res version
This was great. Almost time for BF4 and I was wondering if it would be a big difference. Looks like at 1920/2560 these two guys are on par.
I realy hope it’s no deference more than one fps in BF4, because I just buy today new 770 with 2GB video memory. :
So you dont need more than 2 gb… except on those games that having 4 gb’s in sli will make unplayable games, playable…You kinda skim over that pretty quick.
I know that on Crysis 3 I have seen it idle at over 2000 mb’s at 1080p. I doubt Its going to be long before it will go over 2048 mb’s, even at 1080p…
I should say that I have the 4 gb evga ftw 760’s. I went with 4 gb versions because I am going to be picking up a couple more monitors and game at 5760 x 1080 at some point.
1 FPS wouldn’t be noticeable anyway.
Indeed for only one monitor, and btw, most of them are 1920×1080, there’s no need in hell to choose the 4gb version. Unless you’re an enthusiast… but them you’d go for a better vga, like 790 when it comes out.
I don’t think it was at 1080 2 months ago. Just a goal. Pretty sure it was only 480 720
I got the 4gb version only because I was able to get it for $6 more than the 2gb. $6 is worth bragging rights alone.
What about people who mod there games with high res textures and do pass 2gb’s of ram at 1080p? I do and I no longer get the issues it caused since upping my vram, this review doesn’t cover all the bases and for that reason it isn’t a very good review in my opinion. Sorry, I realise it’s a few months old now but i was passing 2gb’s when modded a year ago, And now if Battlefield 4 does in fact hit 2gb’s as claimed (I haven’t tested that myself) then this is already outdated and inaccurate and giving bad advice. I know you say how you don’t take possible future changes into account in the review but it’s not a possible change it’s something that is guaranteed and the industry knows and accepts that, Thumbs down.
it also uses stereoscopic 3D which means it will render the frame twice. i went with 770 4gb and in some games it does go over 2gb and still at a playable frame rate.
Please check GTAIV too. It’s the most memory consumer game that i know.
How are you going to do this comparison without posting minimum frame rates…that is where you will see the difference. Check out anandtech or toms hardware for people that actually know what they are talking about.
You should revisit vram in the future with newer games like watch dogs, bf4, star citizen and maybe gta5, if ever it comes out on the pc. I think it would be also nice to test it with the future direct x 12 once its out.
Thanks for posting this… so sick of people wasting their money on cards that have more VRAM. There’s a reason that GTX 780 Ti only has 3GB and doesn’t even offer 6GB… because the card is designed with the appropriate amount of VRAM for its performance! Why would a GTX 770 use 4GB if a 780 Ti doesn’t cap 3GB?
In any situation that would normally use above 2GB of VRAM, the card will give out due to other issues regardless, so throwing more VRAM won’t make a difference since the memory bandwidth, ROPs etc. are unchanged.
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