Factorio Forums

Hi,
I've played Factorio for years and it's for me the game number one I had no problems playing it with gtx950 (2GB VRAM) on fullHD.
Now, I have the opportunity to get cheaply 4K monitor and GTX 970 GPU. Should it be fine together? Are there any limitations on VRAM size (gtx970 has effectively 3,5 GB)?

Should be fine, maybe if you get a super zoomed out scene with lots of trees and decorative it might drop frames a bit

970 is a great card

jelinekp wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:28 pm Now, I have the opportunity to get cheaply 4K monitor and GTX 970 GPU. Should it be fine together? Are there any limitations on VRAM size (gtx970 has effectively 3,5 GB)?

yeah that's not enough VRAM for some mod packs like Pyanodon or Bob+Angels+Omnimatter, Space Exploration, etc.. not without running in low-res mode. i've got 60% of my 8GB VRAM used with SE.

Okay, thank you, I'll go for it! In the future, I can upgrade in case the fps drops on modpacks

jelinekp wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 7:26 am Okay, thank you, I'll go for it! In the future, I can upgrade in case the fps drops on modpacks

you can also just disable high res graphics. i can test that for you if you like, to see the difference in VRAM use.

the VRAM use shouldn't change much with resolution, 1920x1080x4(32bit)x3(triple buffer)=~25MB to ~100MB with 3840x2160x4x3, the rest is effectively the same since the sprites are already loaded at the lower resolution.

I've played with a 970 in 4k. From my experience I had noticeable frame rate drops when zooming all the way out with forests in view or when a lot of biter corpses were visible. Other than that it was fine.

cbhj1 wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 4:09 pm the VRAM use shouldn't change much with resolution, 1920x1080x4(32bit)x3(triple buffer)=~25MB to ~100MB with 3840x2160x4x3, the rest is effectively the same since the sprites are already loaded at the lower resolution.

even though the size of the bitmap as a whole is only 400% greater from 1080p to 4k, that's really not the point at all (though pushing 400% the data through the same bus is definitely going to be noticeable at 60Hz)

with 8GB of VRAM, my modpack is using 87% of the VRAM to hold all of its sprites. that doesn't matter whether they're trying to play at 1080p or 4k. it's a function of the 3.5GB limit on the card hardware. they're going to be short by a few GiB of VRAM if they were to try playing K2 and SE. this would be better if they play in low resolution / low quality compression, which would use 37% of 8GB VRAM, or roughly 3.1GiB.

jelinekp wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:28 pm Hi,
I've played Factorio for years and it's for me the game number one I had no problems playing it with gtx950 (2GB VRAM) on fullHD.
Now, I have the opportunity to get cheaply 4K monitor and GTX 970 GPU. Should it be fine together? Are there any limitations on VRAM size (gtx970 has effectively 3,5 GB)?

I would choose a monitor like Philips. Or some other. Here in the review https://homemakerguide.com/best-gaming- ... under-300/ there are several decent models of modern monitors that do not require any super-powerful resources.