More RAM = less VRAM load?

[RyuujinKaito]

I have 32GB of RAM and 6GB VRAM, Far cry 6 says I am a fraction closer to exceed my VRAM capacity on ultra settings but the game runs over 100+fps without stuttering or texture glitches, and it's installed on an HDD, so what is the determining factor in my case? Since I can play ultra 100+FPS? (CPU: Ryzen 5 3500, GPU: Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB VRAM, RAM: 32GB 3600Hz)

[aDoomGuy]

As long you have enough VRAM you're good. Having more System RAM generally don't reduce VRAM requirements if that's what you're asking.

 

12 minutes ago, RyuujinKaito said:

so what is the determining factor in my case?

Everything in your case. CPU, VGA etc. It all has to put a shift in for your frames to pop up on monitor.

[mariushm]

VRAM is the ram on your video card, very close to the chip. If the chip needs it, the data can be retrieved super fast and used. So the game wants to have ALL or almost all the data that will be used to generate the picture in the VRAM of the video card

From the video card's point of view, the RAM in your system is like reading data from hard drive instead of ram, it's slower.

If you don't have enough vram, the video game engine will constantly have to swap stuff between video card and ram... the game can prepare stuff into your computer ram in some chunks ex 64 MB / 128 MB / 256 MB / 512 MB chunks and when th video card needs some stuff that's not in VRAM, the video card can "drop" some stuff from vram to make room for new stuff, and then the stuff is transferred from ram to the video card vram through pci-e slot. That's where the number of pci-e lanes and their version can help, because it reduces the time it takes for that chunk of data to be transferred through the pci-e lanes into the vram.

More ram can help the video game prepare in advance and keep more stuff in ram and just constantly swap chunks of vram contents. More ram could also help by giving the memory controller more bandwidth (ex dual channel vs single channel , single rank vs dual rank sticks etc)

[RyuujinKaito]

27 minutes ago, mariushm said:

VRAM is the ram on your video card, very close to the chip. If the chip needs it, the data can be retrieved super fast and used. So the game wants to have ALL or almost all the data that will be used to generate the picture in the VRAM of the video card

From the video card's point of view, the RAM in your system is like reading data from hard drive instead of ram, it's slower.

If you don't have enough vram, the video game engine will constantly have to swap stuff between video card and ram... the game can prepare stuff into your computer ram in some chunks ex 64 MB / 128 MB / 256 MB / 512 MB chunks and when th video card needs some stuff that's not in VRAM, the video card can "drop" some stuff from vram to make room for new stuff, and then the stuff is transferred from ram to the video card vram through pci-e slot. That's where the number of pci-e lanes and their version can help, because it reduces the time it takes for that chunk of data to be transferred through the pci-e lanes into the vram.

More ram can help the video game prepare in advance and keep more stuff in ram and just constantly swap chunks of vram contents. More ram could also help by giving the memory controller more bandwidth (ex dual channel vs single channel , single rank vs dual rank sticks etc)

I see, so if i'd had my old 16GB RAM it would most likely have stuttered and texture glitches, but because i have 32GB (which then probably is more than enough to supply my Graphics card with enough data) be enough to allow for a smooth gaming experience even if my VRAM struggles to keep everything in it's cache

[WereCat]

53 minutes ago, RyuujinKaito said:

I see, so if i'd had my old 16GB RAM it would most likely have stuttered and texture glitches, but because i have 32GB (which then probably is more than enough to supply my Graphics card with enough data) be enough to allow for a smooth gaming experience even if my VRAM struggles to keep everything in it's cache

no

 

The moment you need to use RAM instead of VRAM is when you start having performance issues and that's when you run out of VRAM.

 

RAM feeds CPU with data and everything CPU related goes from RAM and everything that needs GPU computing goes from VRAM. If you need to move data from RAM to CPU to GPU you're creating a massive bottleneck as that takes a lot of time and creates huge latency so your performance will nose dive.

 

So the fact is that as long as you have enough RAM and VRAM you don't get any benefit by adding more. The problem starts once you don't have enough.