• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Daniel Owen: How bad is 8GB of VRAM in 2024?

How much vram you have?

  • 6GB

    Votes: 22 7.1%
  • 8GB

    Votes: 65 20.8%
  • 10GB

    Votes: 27 8.7%
  • 12GB

    Votes: 70 22.4%
  • 16GB or more

    Votes: 128 41.0%

  • Total voters
    312

Bojji

Member
Daniel Owen created excellent video comparing the same GPU with 2 different vram versions:



HRYUojh.jpeg
IXtsduB.jpeg
JtCJRok.jpeg
EIfEt04.jpeg
leNCWQW.jpeg


DLSS Frame Generation is basically unusable on 8GB GPUs, many games can be played on higher settings on 16GB version but are unplayable on 8GB one. I bet Nvidia will release 5060 with 8GB of Vram for the lolz.
 

Barakov

Member
Still trucking along with my 2060 super and 8GBs. I'm also playing playing at 1080p and I'm mostly playing games I can run/old games so it's less of an issue for me.

Seems like if you're doing 4k on PC you need at the least 12GB. Although, 16gb seems like would be the better choice.
 

Bojji

Member
This and the OP giving out some really good information. How VRAM did 3090 cards come with?

24GB. At launch of 30xx series you only had 8GB 3070 for 500$, 10GB 3080 for 800$ and 24GB 3090 for 1500$. You had to pay more than 2x to have card with actual future proof VRAM pool (and slightly better performance overall).

They somewhat fixed that later with 3080 12GB and 3080ti (both more expensive than 3080 of course).
 

simpatico

Member
What's the highest anyone has seen vRAM usage in a game? Just curious. I'm on 8 GB now and my next card will have 16 GB as a floor.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
What's the highest anyone has seen vRAM usage in a game? Just curious. I'm on 8 GB now and my next card will have 16 GB as a floor.
Think I’ve seen 20-ish in Cyberpunk 2077 at native 4K+path tracing+ultra settings with frame generation.
 

Bojji

Member
GTX 1070 has 8GB so the same for next generation cards always sucked.

This was the only time Nvidia gave people more vram than they needed in 2016. I had 1070 and it was fine for 4 years (changed it in 2020). They are always giving "enough for now" but they clearly fucked up with 4060 and 4060ti (8GB)- 3060 is better GPU than 4060 thanks to 12GB of vram. 8GB absolutely wasn't enough in 2023.

I guess the people that really wanted that extra 8GB on the 4060ti are getting value from it after all.

It was much better to get 600$ 4070 vs 500$ 4060ti 16GB but between 400$ 4060ti 8GB and 500$ 16GB version, yeah - there is no contest.
 
Last edited:
Think I’ve seen 20-ish in Cyberpunk 2077 at native 4K+path tracing+ultra settings with frame generation.

Really? I have 12 gb card that I run at 1440p with all that on and it's fine.

Good news is UE5 games are demanding as hell but actually haven't been that bad with vram. Good sign for the future.
 
Last edited:

Guilty_AI

Member
What's the highest anyone has seen vRAM usage in a game? Just curious. I'm on 8 GB now and my next card will have 16 GB as a floor.
Think I’ve seen 20-ish in Cyberpunk 2077 at native 4K+path tracing+ultra settings with frame generation.
Really? I have 12 gb card that I run at 1440p with all that on and it's fine.

Good news is UE5 games are demanding as hell but actually haven't been that bad with vram. Good sign for the future.
VRAM usage isn't necessarily a fixed number, really depends on how each game manages resources. Cyberpunk for example usually will max out whatever amount of available VRAM you have, which is the correct approach since it means better utilization of the hardware specs.
 
Last edited:

StereoVsn

Gold Member
24GB. At launch of 30xx series you only had 8GB 3070 for 500$, 10GB 3080 for 800$ and 24GB 3090 for 1500$. You had to pay more than 2x to have card with actual future proof VRAM pool (and slightly better performance overall).

They somewhat fixed that later with 3080 12GB and 3080ti (both more expensive than 3080 of course).
Note that 3080 had MSRP of $700! It was quite a good card for what it was… if not for the crypto boom fucking everything up.
 

Roxkis_ii

Banned
Boy I be pushing my little laptop to the limit playing games at 2560 x 1440 with a 3060 and 6GB of vram.

Mostly just Overwatch (it works now), Diablo 4, Cyberpunk, Forza Horizon 6 (Which is optimized af) and Forspoken (Muhahaha).

I tried star citizen during a free weekend and yeeeahhh, that was not a good idea. I didn't even make it out the space station lol.

Really wish I would have bought helldrivers 2 on playstation. I have to crank down a lot of stuff to just touch 50 fps.

Since Nvidia has been skipping on vram so much, you would think AMD would have a lane to offer their customers more vram to be more competitive.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Boy I be pushing my little laptop to the limit playing games at 2560 x 1440 with a 3060 and 6GB of vram.

Mostly just Overwatch (it works now), Diablo 4, Cyberpunk, Forza Horizon 6 (Which is optimized af) and Forspoken (Muhahaha).

I tried star citizen during a free weekend and yeeeahhh, that was not a good idea. I didn't even make it out the space station lol.

Really wish I would have bought helldrivers 2 on playstation. I have to crank down a lot of stuff to just touch 50 fps.

Since Nvidia has been skipping on vram so much, you would think AMD would have a lane to offer their customers more vram to be more competitive.
You know that HD2 runs at 1080p on PS5, right?
 

Leonidas

AMD's Dogma: ARyzen (No Intel inside)
I upgraded to 12 from 8 over a year ago, but realistically, I mostly stick to older games and indie games anyway, so I'm not even sure the VRAM thing would have affected me at all to this day...
 
Still trucking along with my 2060 super and 8GBs. I'm also playing playing at 1080p and I'm mostly playing games I can run/old games so it's less of an issue for me.

Seems like if you're doing 4k on PC you need at the least 12GB. Although, 16gb seems like would be the better choice.
This right here. 3060ti and won't pay more than 350 - 400 on a gpu ever. Also 1080p on my pc and my ps5/xbx/switch.

I didn't realize this forum has so many wealthy people as 4k monitors with a 4k card is 1000s of dollars. I got bills and inflation is a bitch

Never had an issue with 8gb.of course the most demanding games on pc I run are bg3, starfield, metro exodus, cdpr, rdr and no man's sky.

Acording to steam survey most people don't ha e 4k displays. 1080 is still most used.
 
Last edited:
This and the OP giving out some really good information. How VRAM did 3090 cards come with?
We got 24 GB on deck. Sitting pretty, still. However, the 5090(Ti) is coming. Once I slot that beast with a fucking framework to hold it up, I'm not even going to look to upgrading for at least 3+ years.
 

londontko

Member
It’s basically the difference between running your textures on high vs very high/ultra, which in 4K makes very little difference anyways. It’s not as big of an issue as people think and the video really shows that as soon as you drop that they run almost identical.
 

Soodanim

Member
The intentional shittiness of nVidia's mid-range puts me off upgrading at all. At this point I might build a new PC but keep my 1660ti and its 6GB until I absolutely have to or the market changes. My CPU is my bottleneck these days anyway.

This is why people should hope AMD gets its act together. Not everyone is a whale with more disposable income than self respect.
 

b0uncyfr0

Member
If you have to ask - you're probably under.

I went with 16GB just to stay on the safe sidd a year ago, one of the better decisions I made.
 

Nankatsu

Member
If you're in the market for a graphics card (new build) should I aim 12GB or 16GB VRAM? Budget for the graphics card is 600€.

I leaning towards 4070 Super, but even after watching a bunch of benchmarks, that 12GB GB VRAM seems a bit short?
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
I'm in a period where I'm not as obsessed with performance as I used to be. Many games run smoothly at 1440p with a 3060 Ti. DLSS and G-Sync have contributed significantly, of course. I've also come to realize that 8GB won't be enough if I want 4K. I gave in to the 32GB ram FOMO, so the 8GB vram FOMO didn't affect me much.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom