VRAM Explained: How It Works & How Much You Need For Gaming

Want to know how VRAM works and how much you need for gaming? Watch this video and Keith will explain what VRAM is, how you determine performance, and more.

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#gpu #pcgaming #vram

00:00 - Intro
00:29 - What Does VRAM Do?
01:05 - How VRAM Performance Is Determined
04:26 - How Much VRAM Do You Need?
05:57 - Hitting VRAM Limits
07:05 - Wrap Up

[MegaLolxd]

3:15 I've heard it uses 2GB modules but on both side of the PCB.

[PSXman]

3:14
that's wrong. there are not even GDDR6 Modules with a 4GB Capacity.
it uses a clamshell design with 2GB modules on both sides of the PCB just like the 3090.

[kyleslabbert]

Very informative, no useless information and down to the point to help you understand in simple terms. 11/10 explanation. Thank you PCWorld.

[greenbow]

7:14 did learn something. I didn't know that each memory memory module consumed thrity-two bits of the memory bus. Now I fully understand how the memory bus determines how many memory modules can go on a video card. E.g. the RTX 4080 has a 256 bit memory bus. Which means 256/32 = 8 memory modules.

Since the RTX 4080 has 16GB of vRAM, then it's using 2GB memory modules. That leaves me with another question though.

In my opinion the 4080 should have about 20GB of vRAM. I think that 16GB of vRAM is not quite enough. For example I had one, and only one D3D crash when playing Resident Evil 4. (That was at max settings, and RT on, at 1440p.) This is the same crash that people with 12GB 3080 Ti, and 4070/Ti users were getting, with RE4. They had to either turn off ray-tracing or reduce settings. Those cards clearly did not have enough vRAM. Same with the RTX 3080 10GB and Dead Space remake, etc.

My question is, how could the RTX 4080 have been equipped with enough vRAM? Are there 4GB memory modules. If so could a graphics card e.g. the RTX 4080 have used two 4GB memory modulem, and six 2GB memory modules. I think not because, full 4GB modules of data would take longer to unload to the GPU than the 2GB modules. If this were possible then Nvidia et al, would already have done it. The only way to increase memory on the 4080 would be a larger memory bus. However that might not be possible on the GA 103 die, but I don't know.

[serred]

How much VRAM you need?
The best answer : *Depends* . You want go to ultra max 4K graphic? Yeah, you going to need a lot but if you prefer 1080p just high quality setting, suprisingly 8GB VRAM should be enough for most application. If you want to budget its, then 4GB VRAM is also decent.

The truth is, this high usage of VRAM is just basically game developer don't want to optimized their game to justify their incompetency or lack of time.

[johndoh]

Same figures I gave months ago for memory based on resolution.

I said 8GB for 1080p
12 - 16GB for 2K gaming
16GB+ for 4K


If a game dev can't make that work they have a problem because in spite of the handful of consumers who are spending $1500+ on a GPU, most people are shopping based on low price. It's the whole "most people" thing that matters. The companies who MAKE GPUs have to actually SELL them.

[Phlash_Foto]

Great video. Someone should send this to Nvidia.

[luckemi]

So I have 8GB GPU but 32GB RAM. When the Gpu runs out does it use my regular ram?

[craigdeeter]

Thanks man, this really lays out how GPU memory works nicely.

[jedimindtrickonyou]

This information about 4060ti using 4GB modules is wrong. It uses 8x 2GB modules in a clamshell layout, 4x on top of the PCB and 4x on the bottom. It makes me hesitant to trust this video, seeing as they don’t know that 4GB modules are not even available at this time.

[EinSwitzer]

It’s very rare / there isn’t a test program or standard form to gauge / some chips may display themselves but try your best and we are coming up with methods to improve and activate deeper parts to upper 90% on average

[OmarNAJA-pisr]

in rtx 4080 memory specs ive found this :
memory bandwidth vs memory bus width
716 gb/s vs 256 bit
what's the difference ?

[linuxlover_]

Thank you for this info. I am curious about this topic in the context of APU's. I have a weak mini-pc (2 core 4 thread, with max of 32GB DDR4 I added) that via its UEFI allows up to 16GB of its ram to be used as VRAM. I've anecdotally seen that the consensus in general regarding APU's is that anything more than 4 or 8 GB of it dedicated to VRAM basically makes no difference. I'm mostly a retro gamer so I don't need much in the way of powerful pc's but it would be nice to eek out a little more performance from any APU based pc since I'm a fan of running efficient PC's and pushing them to their limits. Most of the time I running games like Strider 2014 or Street Fighter 5, I've noticed the limiting factor of my mini-pc is more CPU constrained and the VRAM I set in the UEFI (16GB MAX) never seems to use more than around 7GB of the remaining 16GB for system usage. I haven't tested lowering the VRAM since I'm unconvinced increasing the system ram to say around 24-28GB would help the cpu side of things much at all so I just leave as is in case the max apu side vram is helping running games possibly just a little bit better. Lastly, I wonder if APU'S based pc's are optimized to their full potenial via things like Windows updates or UEFI updates (which I imagine are much less offered for dedicated mini-pc's like mine). Another train of thought regarding this potential optimization is whether vendors of mini-PC's can, or do work with the APU manufacturers to eek out more performance. I'm guessing for consoles like the Switch, this may be the case but an exception and most other mini-pc's are not going to receive further substantial optimizations post-launch.

[IfAndOnlyIf_]

Memory clock is also important.
Memory type, memory clock, and memory bus width all determine VRAM performance.

[LawatheMEid]

Hi,
If the VRAM is ECC for workstation graphics card, does the system RAM and the motherboard must be also ECC or it does not matter ?

[Skrywex]

Bro help me this video didnt help i was planing to buy rtx 3070 8gb for 4k as i saw it runs games what i play on like 50-60fps which is fine for me like vram effect fps?

[engomar]

If i set the gpu the default for opining a 3d design program, in this case it will use the vram and the ram does not matter if it's speed was 1600 or 3200? Or it will use the ram while using the program?

[driver]

8GB of Ram isn't enough anymore, not even for 1080p, specially if you add RT to the mix

[isaac]

My hardware reserve always increases when i increase my vram...is that normal??

[ArnoldSmithFergusson]

Thank you for the explanation.

How about L2 cache? If the card have more L2 cache, did they still need huge VRAM?