4GB VRAM isn't cutting it anymore says AMD
Well, if AMD says it. In my reviews I've been telling for a year or two now that 4 GB VRAM on graphics cards is barely enough in this day and age, and only up-to a gaming resolution of 1920x1080. AMD just posted a blog where they feel the age of a 4GB graphics card has passed.
AMD on its blog calls it in a writeup 'Game Beyond 4 GB', where they conclude testing their 4 GB RX 5500XT & 8 GB RX 5500XT to see how much of a difference VRAM can make on gaming performance. Tested on multiple games and 1080p high/ultra settings an 8 GB card performs almost 20% better than its 4 GB counterpart, which is not unheard of if you tick all the game setting boxes, textures eat memory.
-- AMD -- A few of the newer AAA games benefit greatly from having more VRAM available to store assets needed, play at higher resolutions, and to enable the latest visual effects. For those looking at making sure they have enough Graphics memory for games that are pushing the limits of 4GB, AMD RadeonTM RX graphics cards provide a wide set of solutions in 6GB or 8GB capabilities that include: RadeonTM RX 570, RX 580, RX 590, and RX 5000 Series GPUs.
Recent releases have shown marked performance increases when switching from a RadeonTM 5500 XT 4GB to a RadeonTM 5500 XT 8GB. In DOOM Eternal, the 8GB card runs the game at Ultra Nightmare settings at 75FPS (1080p), while the 4GB card can’t apply the graphics settings with that level of VRAM1. Looking at titles such as Borderlands 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Forza Horizon 4, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, there is a performance improvement on average of up to 19% across these games when using the same card and increasing the amount of VRAM from 4GB to 8GB2. AMD is leading the industry at providing gamers with high VRAM graphics solutions across the entire product offering. Competitive products at a similar entry level price-point are offering up to a maximum of 4GB of VRAM, which is evidently not enough for todays games. Go Beyond 4GB of Video Memory to Crank Up your settings. Play on RadeonTM RX Series GPUs with 6GB or 8GB of VRAM and enjoy gaming at Max settings.
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Normally from super duper ultra to normal the difference is rather small and to really notice you need to put pictures side by side in most games ...low/lowest is where suddenly you enter the blurry city and is when i look for an update my self , on normal the gains on fps are big most of the time and the vram demands ...well ... normal!
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There are some game where VR and 4K like more than 8GB when maxing out.
Some quick numbers for 4K with the highest quality preset used in games: Assassin's Creed Odyssey: 8.1-8.2GB, Battlefield 5 MP: 9.7-9.8GB, Call of Duty Black Ops 4: 10.5GB, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 8.1GB, Star Wars Battlefront 2: 8.2-8,4 GB
So 8GB does not cut it anymore when going 4K max. and probably even worse when hitting 8K.
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Depends on game engine and what Ultra covers, shadows, anti aliasing, ray tracing and other settings can have a huge impact on visual quality.
Some games so much that a performance hungry setting is best to have completely off to avoid flickering caused by using a lower quality.
Or when some games only offer low quality methods like fxaa, I tend to disable fxaa in most games these days, since it tends to get really annoying while playing, rather a bit of aliasing than the shimmer it adds under movement.
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Depends on game engine and what Ultra covers, shadows, anti aliasing, ray tracing and other settings can have a huge impact on visual quality.
Some games so much that a performance hungry setting is best to have completely off to avoid flickering caused by using a lower quality.
Yeah i generalized a bit too much the most demanding game i played recently is m&b 2 and with a mix of medium and high i would say i have great experience no stuttering etc and that on 1440p with a 1060 6gb , and yeah raytracing is a whole different thing , literally from max to medium settings i had to stick my face against the screen and then i was like oh yeah this is not so sharp on some finer details on the scales on a scale mail, considering on the game i am spending my time mostly on the map ....or on a horse rushing with my polearm around cleaving heads like an orc i could not care less :p
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Many of my games regularly fill the 8gb of my 2070S especially now that I have a VR headset.