Questiongpu vram amount
Questiongpu vram amount
Hello everyone
My PC is a 6-year-old machine (i3 8350k, 32GB DDR4, GTX 1060, 6GB VRAM) and it's performing well for the games I play. However, it's starting to struggle with some tasks, so upgrading seems necessary.
I'm not aiming for a long-lasting system but just something decent for 3-4 years of gaming. The question is, is an 8GB GPU VRAM enough for this period, or should I really consider more, like 12GB or even 16GB VRAM, despite the higher cost?
Appreciate any suggestions!
Thanks for the response. It's less about the current specifications and more about whether I should skip 8GB VRAM cards and focus on higher VRAM options instead.
I'm using a 1440 monitor with the GTX 1060, it works fine. Looking ahead three years, what’s the better choice? I’ve read some articles saying 8GB VRAM is a big no in today’s gaming PCs. But is that really true, especially since I’m planning to upgrade from the GTX 1060 to something like an RTX 4060 or higher?
You need more than 8GB for sustained performance at 1440p. Increased resolutions paired with demanding textures push VRAM usage into the 16GB range for some recent titles. For games released before 2020, 8GB works even at 1440p. A minimum of 12GB is recommended. Options like the 4060 Ti 16GB, 5060 16GB, 5070 12GB, 7900 XT 20GB, 9070 16GB, 9070 XT 16GB, or the upcoming 9060 XT 16GB are suitable choices. Older mid-tier cards with at least 12GB VRAM are also viable if they offer good value.
When using 1440p resolution, 8gb memory will likely become a constraint sooner than expected. The specific motherboard you own may influence whether you need to replace components like the i7 8700 with an older board and upgrade the CPU cooler, or if a GPU upgrade such as the 9060xt 16gb or 5060ti 16gb can extend your system's lifespan while you save up.
VRAM is located in the graphics card and has become a topic of marketing concern. My belief is that VRAM mainly affects performance rather than functionality. A game should ideally contain most of the data it uses, which is somewhat similar to how real RAM works. If a game needs information not present in VRAM, it must retrieve it across the PCIe boundary, preferably from actual RAM and hopefully not from a hard drive. It’s not useful to know exactly how much of the available VRAM is filled. It’s possible that much of the space remains unused. We don’t know the speed at which VRAM is swapped out. The graphics card driver manages VRAM, along with the game, and there may be variations in effectiveness between AMD and NVIDIA cards, as well as differences among games.
Here is an older performance test comparing 2GB and 4GB of VRAM:
Video Card Performance: 2GB vs 4GB Memory
Many similar video cards are available in multiple memory sizes. For example, the GeForce GTX 680 comes in both 2GB and 4GB versions. While having more components can be beneficial, does doubling the memory on such a card actually improve game performance?
For more details, see: www.pugetsystems.com
Spoiler... there isn’t a significant difference.
A newer set of tests confirms this:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1114-vram...page5.html
And... no game developers intend to restrict their audience by demanding large amounts of VRAM. The VRAM available will suit the specific card.