VRAM is my amount good for popular games in 2024

[lizziemc12]

I currently have a RTX 2060 with 6 GB of VRAM and I was wondering if this is a good amount of VRAM for current high end games or if it is not enough these days in 2024. Also if I run out of VRAM will it just stop working or will it pull from my ordinary RAM in my computer. I don't play games on ultra settings or anything crazy like that but it seems like it is getting to the high end of utilisation when on medium to some high settings. 

[goatedpenguin]

5 minutes ago, lizziemc12 said:

I currently have a RTX 2060 with 6 GB of VRAM and I was wondering if this is a good amount of VRAM for current high end games or if it is not enough these days in 2024. Also if I run out of VRAM will it just stop working or will it pull from my ordinary RAM in my computer. I don't play games on ultra settings or anything crazy like that but it seems like it is getting to the high end of utilisation when on medium to some high settings. 

6gb is fine for Anything under 4k gaming. 

[Eigenvektor]

21 minutes ago, lizziemc12 said:

Also if I run out of VRAM will it just stop working or will it pull from my ordinary RAM in my computer.

Depends on the game. Some crash, some load lower resolution textures, some may start to "swap" to RAM (which kills performance)

 

As long as the card works and you're happy with the performance you get, you're good. However, when looking for a replacement in the future, I'd not get anything with less than 12 GB.

[SkilledRebuilds]

9 minutes ago, lizziemc12 said:

I currently have a RTX 2060 with 6 GB of VRAM and I was wondering if this is a good amount of VRAM for current high end games or if it is not enough these days in 2024. Also if I run out of VRAM will it just stop working or will it pull from my ordinary RAM in my computer. I don't play games on ultra settings or anything crazy like that but it seems like it is getting to the high end of utilisation when on medium to some high settings. 

You can use lower resolutions (NOT DLSS based, actual reductions to native res) to aid in lasting longer with VRAM concerns.

DLSS still has to input/output TO THE output res (DLSS Targets) so it doesn't always save the amount VRAM that you'd expect it to.

Where reducing native resolution does typically. It also depends game to game, techonlogy to technology..

You can activate NIS (Nvidia Image Scaling) in the driver (forcing say... 600p/720p/900p native render) it will render natively at the lower resolutions and output' at your monitor panel, but different to DLSS methods and has a much better chance of using less VRAM in its operation.

[goatedpenguin]

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I'd not get anything with less than 12 GB.

frfr I regret getting a 8gb video card. Thankfully OCing the memory clock sorta compensated but not quite... 

[Salted Spinach]

44 minutes ago, lizziemc12 said:

...wondering if this is a good amount of VRAM for current high end games or if it is not enough these days in 2024. 

You will know its not enough when you see horribly low res textures, obvious texture popping, or poor performance when cranking up LOD or texture resolution.

 

44 minutes ago, lizziemc12 said:

Also if I run out of VRAM will it just stop working or will it pull from my ordinary RAM in my computer

The latter

 

Here's an article from a year ago about 8GB being insufficient at 1080p

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/8-gb-of-vram-is-not-enough-even-for-1080p-gaming.1655259/

 

Next card you buy, just ensure it has at least 12GB for 1440p and 16GB for 4k

[lizziemc12]

5 minutes ago, Salted Spinach said:

You will know its not enough when you see horribly low res textures, obvious texture popping, or poor performance when cranking up LOD or texture resolution.

 

The latter

 

Here's an article from a year ago about 8GB being insufficient at 1080p

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/8-gb-of-vram-is-not-enough-even-for-1080p-gaming.1655259/

 

Next card you buy, just ensure it has at least 12GB for 1440p and 16GB for 4k

So what your saying is I should keep going with what I have and then when it no longer works in my preferred games then upgrade to a card with at least 12 GB of VRAM or get more if I want to future proof it. 

[Blue4130]

57 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

frfr I regret getting a 8gb video card. Thankfully OCing the memory clock sorta compensated but not quite... 

No it doesn't. Not even a littlle bit...

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, goatedpenguin said:

frfr I regret getting a 8gb video card. Thankfully OCing the memory clock sorta compensated but not quite... 

If you don't have enough memory, you don't have enough memory, there's no real way around it. If the game requires more VRAM and can't get any, it either means a game crash, horrible performance due to latency when swapping to system RAM, or lower res textures. Most well made games should go for the last option. Which means you don't really notice any performance dips, but you might notice some textures looking much lower res compared to others.

 

The primary use of VRAM is textures, not screen resolution. Some games may scale texture resolution based on screen resolution (so high on 4K is actually something else than high at 1080p) but overall, screen resolution is fairly irrelevant when it comes to VRAM usage. It's all about texture resolution. Another thing that's fairly VRAM hungry is ray tracing.

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, lizziemc12 said:

So what your saying is I should keep going with what I have and then when it no longer works in my preferred games then upgrade to a card with at least 12 GB of VRAM or get more if I want to future proof it. 

Correct.

 

But I'd honestly go for 12gb+ as you can already see games even at 1080p go to 10gb.

 

Yes sure lower the texture res and that will do a whole lot to save vram. But eventually that going to also run into limits or end up lookin real bad

[Salted Spinach]

3 hours ago, lizziemc12 said:

So what your saying is I should keep going with what I have and then when it no longer works in my preferred games then upgrade to a card with at least 12 GB of VRAM or get more if I want to future proof it. 

Let your eyes decide if the 2060 is no longer good enough.

 

Visibly bad textures? Visibly bad frame performance? Time to change

[starsmine]

dont upgrade pre maturely. 
is 6gb good enough for new games later this year or next year? Probably not. Should you upgrade before you run into said games? No.

upgrade when and only when you have a handful of games NOW, that you are unable to play at a satisfactory level. 
When in Q4 or in 2025, if and only if you find yourself in that situation, then you should look at cards that have at least a minimum of 12GB of VRAM

[Qrdello]

Depends on the title. Definitely you won't be running ultra or sometimes even high textures, but medium presets as a general rule should be just fine - and, tbh, in 9 out of 10 games medium textures do look good enough for 1080p or 1440p screen - which is ideal for a 2060 gpu anyway.

[Mark Kaine]

On 5/9/2024 at 6:37 AM, goatedpenguin said:

6gb is fine for Anything under 4k gaming. 

the notion that vram is dependent on resolution.... that's gotta be one of those "internet youtube influencers truths", right?

 

op, depends on the games,  most games will run just fine with 6gb, but not all.

 

also there are no "high end games" that doesn't really exist lol. 

[goatedpenguin]

idk why everybody is laughing at my post but I have 8gb video card and on most games it barely goes above 3-4gb max on low to medium competitive settings @1080p, even if you are playing on 1440p low settings 6gb will just be enough to get you through.  

[goatedpenguin]

12 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

the notion that vram us dependent on resolution.... that's gotta be one of those "internet youtube influencers truth", right?

 

I completely agree in terms of saying that the higher you go in res the more vram is needed. I don't see how that is a myth....

 

EDIT: Made what I am saying is clearer. 

[Mark Kaine]

6 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

idk why everybody is laughing at my post but I have 8gb video card and on most games it barely goes above 3-4gb max on low to medium competitive settings @1080p, even if you are playing on 1440p low settings 6gb will just be enough to get you through.  

its because you said "anything under 4k" 

 

 

also you're contradicting yourself when you say its fine under 4k, but also your card generally uses way less, why would you even need more? 

 

wanna jump on the 4k train? then depending on games a 6gb card probably won't cut it, but probably more because its old or really low end...

[goatedpenguin]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

its because you said "anything under 4k" 

 

 

also you're contradicting yourself when you say its fine under 4k, but also your card generally uses way less, why would you even need more? 

 

wanna jump on the 4k train? then depending on games a 6gb probably won't cut it, but probably more because its old or really low end...

I have used 1440p on my tv and the games like god of war run smooth as butter, please educate me since I am very dumb and I have no idea how I am contradicting myself, and if I am I apologise your majesty. 

[goatedpenguin]

Guess after all these "laughing comments" I am gonna be a clown on this forum

 

@Mark Kaine You care to react this post too? 

[DanteCoal]

All depends on what you're playing, and what your desires are.  "Popular" games fall into many areas, some of which are very demanding and basically demand 12gb+ vram to even work right, while others can play fine on a workstation from 2003.

Personally, I won't even consider a card that's under 12gb, but that's because I beta a ton of games which aren't tuned well yet (Palworld as a recent example), so the extra vram often keeps me going while others on 8gb vram systems are crashing out of the tutorial.  Not to mention that I run 3 screens, so I need a little more from my GPU than a more budget friendly card will afford me.

[starsmine]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:13 AM, Mark Kaine said:

its because you said "anything under 4k" 

 

 

also you're contradicting yourself when you say its fine under 4k, but also your card generally uses way less, why would you even need more? 

 

wanna jump on the 4k train? then depending on games a 6gb card probably won't cut it, but probably more because its old or really low end...

The larger the resolution, the larger the frame buffer, the larger the frame buffer, the MORE vram the frame buffer takes up. 
Yes, resolution maters in terms of VRAM usage. Always has. 

[Mark Kaine]

53 minutes ago, starsmine said:

The larger the resolution, the larger the frame buffer, the larger the frame buffer, the MORE vram the frame buffer takes up. 
Yes, resolution maters in terms of VRAM usage. Always has. 

yes... but its not really significant in most games i tried.  so its gonna use 5 at 1080p and 7.5 at 4k? probably don't need a 16gb card then...

 

but as i said (a gazillion times) it depends on the games and optimization... more gives you more headroom obviously,  but i haven't run into a game where vram specifically was the limiting factor,  typically all you need to do is turn "volumetric lighting" or similar down and you're good to go!