Is 8GB VRAM Enough for 4k Gaming

fan8956 on 22/07/2022 - 21:17

I recently got a RTX 3070 TI with 8 GB of VRAM and today just started playing Forza Horizon 5 on my 4k monitor. The game decides I can pick the extreme setting so I went with it. I can see from task manager that Dedicated GPU memory (8GB) is almost full 99%, but the shared GPU ram (64GB) still have plenty. The total was only 9.8GB. But all of a sudden I got this low video memory warning… So my 1st question is if I need to pick a different card? I can still return and change card if I want.

2nd question, I found it very interesting that all AMD cards have much bigger VRAM like 12-16GB, while even RTX 3080 only has like 10-12GB. I pick Nvidia because I want to play both PC and Ocular VR games. I was told Nvidia has better encoding for VR games. Why there is a huge RAM diff between AMD and Nvidia?

Gaming Computer Component Nvidia Video Card

Comments

  • plmko on 22/07/2022 - 22:11
    +10

    No

    • fan8956 on 22/07/2022 - 22:49
      +2

      Thanks for the detailed reply. What is the recommendation for 4K PC/Xbox gaming + VR oculus gaming?

      • Morien on 22/07/2022 - 23:38
        -1

        Recommendation for 4K Xbox gaming is an Xbox Series X. Sorry I can't give you an answer for the PC or Oculus requirements.

  • FireRunner on 22/07/2022 - 23:15

    As you can see from your own experience 8GB is either tight or not enough. Future titles will need more VRAM so it's just going to get worse.
    And yeah, shared GPU RAM is too slow to be useful.
    AMD is more generous than NVIDIA with VRAM on the cards, just the way things are.

  • scrimshaw on 22/07/2022 - 23:27

    You can get a Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB for less than $800 now.

    I'm still using a 3070 (non-Ti). Unless you're a video game journalist or reviewer it's a bit silly to be playing every game at Ultra or Extreme settings — your car will be going so fast it's unlikely you'll notice every little detail that exists in the world.

    Try custom settings instead of the "ultra" pre-set and manually dial the settings in until you hit the point where VRAM is nearly fully utilised (but not exceeded) and your eyes are okay with the image quality.

    Note that you will hit a point of diminishing returns where increasing the graphical settings to the extreme end won't make a huge difference visually, but it still costs you in terms of framerates. See this video for an explanation

    You can also toggle DLSS or FSR on — this basically makes the game render at a lower resolution but the Nvidia GPU will 'upscale' the image and fills in the gaps to create a 4K image (via machine learning). There is usually a trade-off in image quality but the benefits normally outweigh the downsides.

    • fan8956 on 22/07/2022 - 23:53

      Thanks for the info. I found from here that 3070 Ti has the same performance as 6800XT. Does that mean the only difference is the VRAM which will let me play 4k games more nicely?

      Also do you have any suggestion of doing VR gaming with this 6800XT?

  • PensionerXXL on 23/07/2022 - 08:08

    6800XT does not have raytracing like the 3070, which saves a lot of VRAM in itself
    my 3080 on cyberpunk with everything maxed takes like 9gb of vram, if i turn off ray tracing i can save like 1 - 1.5gb of vram

    also 4k does not hammer the cpu as hard as 1440p / 1080, so the card is doing all the heavy lifting. just wait for 4000 series that is going to be 2x the performance according to leaks

  • 7ekn00 on 23/07/2022 - 09:09

    Turn on DLSS and the 3070Ti will be fine!

    Otherwise buy a 3080 Ti, 3090 or 6900XT (prices are reduced at the moment, but won't stay that cheap)

  • FrankGrimes on 23/07/2022 - 09:48
    +1

    Wasn't that a bug in Forza? I know I used to get that message a bit even know I was using 4gb out of my 8gb of vram

    • Topdog on 24/07/2022 - 09:17
      +1

      ^^ this. It's a known bug in Forza, few posts in Reddit about it.

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