Future proofing your GPU Upgrade: 12GB vs 16GB?

Steve and Tim discuss how much VRAM you are going to need moving forward to keep enjoying your gaming experience.

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Future proofing your GPU Upgrade: 12GB vs 16GB?

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[kaystephan]

How it should've been:
4060 & 4060Ti with 12GB (on 192 bit Bus!)
4070 & 4070 Ti with 16GB (on a 256 bit Bus!)
4080 & potential 4080Ti with 20GB

[stricknoob]

I have a feeling the next gen consoles will have a bigger impact on what vram will be needed for gpus for cards as they age.

[AndreFreitas]

In my perspective, if you are the type of person of upgrading your GPU frequently the VRAM issue doesn't matter that much, but for people who only upgrade after your gpu is barely usable the VRAM matters.

[parthibanspace]

4060, 4060 Ti - 12GB
4070, 4070 Ti - 16GB
4080 - 20GB
4090 - 24GB
This is how they should've launched the 40 series cards.

[subcon]

Ultra settings are only there to drive GPU sales. It's not that hard to optimise for both FPS and visual quality. It's also kinda fun and the benefit of PC gaming over consoles.

[xstefan]

Crazy to think that the gtx 1070 has 8gb of VRAM and the rtx 3070 has also 8gb of VRAM

[edwarda.tokash]

Up until a few years ago there was no constant discussion about the concept of "future proofing" regarding components. You just bought a new part when the time came because the prices weren't unreasonable. Now things have become so expensive that you really have to think it through just to future proof it long enough that it's not an outright ripoff.

[JosePineda-jnjk]

When I start running into *actual* issues with my RX 6600 I will then consider upgrading. I honestly am not the type of gamer to keep buying the newest thing, I have so many games in my back catalog that I could sit for months or years with them and still be happy with my current performance.

[CartGoBroom]

me still using my RX570 4G: hahahahahhahaha

[andrewbroadfort]

My EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3 is aging gracefully. I'm so glad it shipped with 11 GB of memory.

[Ignisan_]

Im glad I went with RX 7800 XT instead of 4070. Not only it is more powerful than 4070 but also cheaper and has 16 GB 256 bit bus. I upgraded from a pre-built GTX 1060 6 GB.

[sunkrest]

I still have RX580 8gb and I'm very happy I decided to go with this version. Its still perfectly usable in 1080p with mix of medium and low details in demanding games, especially with fsr 2, and that was a midrange card on release... I remember well that 8gb on this card was considered to be an overkill. Well, It wasn't. 1060 3gb and 6gb aged much worse.

That's why I'm about to buy 7900 XT or XTX to play Starfield in 4k. I'm pretty confident I will be able to lower resolution and details in 5 years and still enjoy new games. I would not be confident about that with 12gb 4070ti.

[eatsmemunch]

So refreshing to see a channel that uses new components, new tests, every time, every project with new data. Good job, Steve and Tim 👍

[everhigh]

Just sold my 3070 for 7900xt and wow. No more random stutters @1440p. VRAM was being maxed out way to easily. I didn't think I would love the Adrenaline software as much. It creams Nvidia and you don't have to log in like Geforce Experience.

[ChristopherPunton]

Got myself the 7900 XTX, got 24gb of Vram should be good for a while lol

[nDman]

It is funny, when I bought my 3060 12gb 2 years ago everyone was telling me it is wast of money there is no game to use VRAM higher than 8gb blah blah blah... but I bought it because I needed that 12gb VRAM for my creative works.
Now everyone wants 16gb of VRAM, 12 is not enough for them. 😄

[paulo..ferreira]

The best worse deal of my life was a GTX680 2GB back in 2012. Its being awhile since but I am confident situation today is the very same. Buying a 8GB today is everything vendors want you to do, so in 2 years time you have to buy another one with more vram.

[DavidWalker-kopo]

Extra VRAM on Nvidia cards would also be incredibly nice for AI and machine learning tasks - but I suppose that's why Quadros exist, and why they can charge so much for them!

[BogdanM]

It really depends on the performance of the card. VRAM should be sufficient for the GPU's performance. An RX 6700XT/6750XT is okay with 12gb while a 4070Ti is not. 8gb of VRAM do still have a use case, just not on a 4060Ti.

[Rintero_Pryde]

The R9 290X was I believe is the earliest consumer card to feature 8GB of VRAM, and I believe that variant launched in NOV of 2014-nearly 9 years ago. The Radeon lineup has had an 8GB card in the product stack ever since (R9 390 series, Polaris RX 580, Vega, RX 5000, and of course RX 6000 onward to today).

Time is definitely up for 8GB VRAM capacity.