Buy a GPU? Here’s why you need a lot of VRAM

It’s tempting to focus on the GPU power of a new graphics card and ignore how much VRAM it has, especially if you’re not gaming at 4K. However, modern game engines and technologies like ray tracing are changing so fast.

What is VRAM and why is it important?

Video Random Access Memory (VRAM) is a type of memory used in graphics processing units (GPUs) to store and process the data needed to render images and graphics on a computer or other device. VRAM is specifically designed to handle high-performance, high-bandwidth graphics processing requirements. It is generally faster and more efficient than other types of memory, such as system RAM.

The more VRAM a GPU has, the more data it can access and process at once, which leads to faster render times and better overall performance. This is particularly important for gaming and other graphics-intensive tasks, which can significantly overtax a GPU.

Additionally, VRAM is important for high-resolution displays, as it allows the GPU to store and process the increased amount of data needed to render images at higher resolutions. This is why having a VRAM-heavy GPU can be especially important for users who want to run games or other graphics-intensive applications on a high-resolution display, such as a 4K monitor.

Ray tracing is a VRAM hog

Ray tracing is becoming more common as an option in today’s games, and you can expect to see it in many games in the coming years. Ray tracing is a rendering technique used to create highly realistic graphics by simulating how light interacts with objects and surfaces in a virtual environment. It involves tracking the path of light rays as they bounce off objects and calculating how they are absorbed, reflected, and refracted by materials in the scene.

Ray tracing requires a lot of VRAM as it generates a large amount of data that needs to be processed as each ray of light requires its own computation. This data must be stored in VRAM so that the GPU can access it quickly and efficiently.

The texture and quality of the assets is increasing rapidly

Texture and asset quality can significantly affect VRAM requirements, as they affect the amount of data the GPU must store and process.

Higher quality textures and assets generally require more VRAM to store and process as they contain more detailed information and larger file sizes. For example, a high-resolution texture used to render a character’s skin can be made up of thousands of pixels. By contrast, a lower resolution texture may only contain a few hundred pixels. The larger the texture, the more VRAM will be required to store and process.

In addition to the size of textures and assets, their complexity can also affect VRAM requirements. Complex assets with lots of complex detail and shadowing will require more VRAM to render than simpler assets with less detail.

Modern games quickly require much more VRAM than you might expect. For example, 1440p is a popular resolution among PC gamers, and common sense has held that 8 GB of VRAM is more than enough to play games at this resolution. However, the latest releases easily hit that limit at the highest texture quality settings and in combination with ray tracing, or when used with high-end VR apps, that amount of VRAM is insufficient.

Consoles have a smart memory advantage

One reason PC gamers may need more VRAM than expected is because consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X use a “unified” memory design. In other words, instead of the CPU and GPU each having their own dedicated pools of RAM, they both have a core pool.

This allows the console to perform various tricks that allow it to do more with its total memory allocation than a PC with the same amount of memory. For one, the data needed by both the CPU and GPU now only takes up the space that a single copy requires. On a PC, such data should be copied to VRAM and RAM and accessed separately.

Second, the console can dynamically allocate memory for graphical and non-graphical needs. So you can use 12 GB of the total 16 GB of RAM for texture memory and the other 4 GB for the operating system or other game features. A PC with 8 GB of RAM and 8 GB of VRAM has a hard limit on VRAM that the console does not have, even though the total amount of memory is technically the same.

So it stands to reason that if you want to play PC ports of console games, you should have as much VRAM as the console can realistically allocate. For the current generation of consoles, 12GB seems reasonable, but if you had a GPU with 16GB of VRAM, you’d be completely covered for console game ports.

VRAM matters beyond gaming

While the main reason most people buy a powerful GPU with plenty of VRAM is for gaming, having plenty of GPU memory is also useful for professional and non-gaming software. If you want to dabble in machine learning, video editing, 3D modeling, and other similar software, you need a fair amount of VRAM. With 4K video slowly becoming the norm, even those looking for a GPU solely to help with video editing and rendering will want at least 6GB of VRAM, and if you’re going to start layering effects and complex transitions, that number will increase.

A more recent application that is a surprising VRAM consumer is AI imaging. For example, Stable Diffusion requires at least 8 GB of VRAM to output a 256 × 256 pixel image. So if you want to get serious about local imaging, you’ll need to aim for a GPU with 12GB or even 16GB of VRAM.

Overestimating your VRAM needs

VRAM has rarely been a major concern for PC gamers over the years, largely being seen as a concern for those who want to game in 4K, which is a small minority of PC gamers (at least). least for now). However, modern rendering techniques, asset systems, and game engines are becoming VRAM hungry for reasons not directly related to output or even rendering resolution.

While it’s always hard to recommend a specific amount of VRAM for your next GPU purpose, we’ve got some handy tips. Look at the recommended VRAM requirements for the modern games you’d like to play, and consider buying a GPU with 50-100% more VRAM than that. If a game recommends 8 GB of VRAM at the resolutions you play, make your next card a model with 12-16 GB of VRAM.