VRAM VS DDR4

[WildCAt]

Hello! ^^

I want to buy a graphic card and I am thinking about 4GB vs 2 GB version

 

There is an example situation:

For example, I have graphic card with 2GB VRAM

For example, I play a game and it requires 3GB of memory

And that 1 GB is saved to the RAM

From DDR3 textures are loading really slow.. 

So

Does the situation changes with DDR4? is it OK, or it is not good idea at all    and I should get an 4GB VGA?

[Manny Calavera]

same stuff, if you have 2gb, lower settings

[Stefan1024]

Due to the latency of the PCI-e bridge the system RAM will allways be to slow for the GPU....

[Shoob]

Erm, just tell your budget and we'll suggest you something. Low end cards don't need a lot of vram so don't get fooled by things like 4GB 750 Ti.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

VRAM and RAM that your Processor use are two separate things. The game you want to play may require 2GB's of RAM (DDR3 / DDR4) and 2GB's of VRAM, which is where your graphics card stores the textures and such as well as pre-rendered frames. You can't combine VRAM and RAM, otherwise I'd have like 4GB's of VRAM.

[don_svetlio]

VRAM and RAM are not remotely connected. Give us a budget and we'll give you a suggestion

[minibois]

Hello! ^^

I want to buy a graphic card and I am thinking about 4GB vs 2 GB version

 

There is an example situation:

For example, I have graphic card with 2GB VRAM

For example, I play a game and it requires 3GB of memory

And that 1 GB is saved to the RAM

From DDR3 textures are loading really slow.. 

So

Does the situation changes with DDR4? is it OK, or it is not good idea at all    and I should get an 4GB VGA?

It truly does depend on the specific GPU, but I am assuming you are talking about the GTX 960 or R9 380.

GDDR5 (VRAM) is still faster than normal RAM (that being DDR3 or 4).

 

Usually the game is not going to use more than what you have in terms of VRAM, only in 'extreme' scenarios (that being you playing a 1440p or 4K game on a 2GB card.. Playing Shadow of Mordor with those huge textures on a 2GB card.. etc.) so you won't often have the issue.

 

I would personally suggest getting the R9 380/GTX 960 4GB version, as it will help in a couple games

[pokechat8978]

Hello! ^^

I want to buy a graphic card and I am thinking about 4GB vs 2 GB version

 

There is an example situation:

For example, I have graphic card with 2GB VRAM

For example, I play a game and it requires 3GB of memory

And that 1 GB is saved to the RAM

From DDR3 textures are loading really slow.. 

So

Does the situation changes with DDR4? is it OK, or it is not good idea at all    and I should get an 4GB VGA?

Only the new LGA 1151 and LGA 2011-3 socket board support DDR4.

[don_svetlio]

It truly does depend on the specific GPU, but I am assuming you are talking about the GTX 960 or R9 380.

GDDR5 (VRAM) is still faster than normal RAM (that being DDR3 or 4).

 

Usually the game is not going to use more than what you have in terms of VRAM, only in 'extreme' scenarios (that being you playing a 1440p or 4K game on a 2GB card.. Playing Shadow of Mordor with those huge textures on a 2GB card.. etc.) so you won't often have the issue.

 

I would personally suggest getting the R9 380/GTX 960 4GB version, as it will help in a couple games

960 has a hard time using more than 2 GB of memory due to the extremely low bandwidth

[WildCAt]

It truly does depend on the specific GPU, but I am assuming you are talking about the GTX 960 or R9 380.

GDDR5 (VRAM) is still faster than normal RAM (that being DDR3 or 4).

 

Usually the game is not going to use more than what you have in terms of VRAM, only in 'extreme' scenarios (that being you playing a 1440p or 4K game on a 2GB card.. Playing Shadow of Mordor with those huge textures on a 2GB card.. etc.) so you won't often have the issue.

 

I would personally suggest getting the R9 380/GTX 960 4GB version, as it will help in a couple games

Yep, It is R9 380

Thanks for suggestion!

[don_svetlio]

Yep, It is R9 380

Thanks for suggestion!

Get the 4GB version - no reason not to.

[Glenwing]

6GHz 256-bit GDDR5: 192 GB/s

2-Channel DDR3 1600: 25.6 GB/s

2-Channel DDR4 2400: 38.4 GB/s

PCI Express 3.0 x16: 16 GB/s

 

Even with DDR3, the PCI Express bus would have been the limiting factor, not the memory. DDR4 doesn't change that. The bigger issue is really the inherent latency though, transferring to system memory will never be as fast as going to memory directly on the card even if the bandwidth were higher.

[don_svetlio]

6GHz 256-bit GDDR5: 192 GB/s

2-Channel DDR3 1600: 25.6 GB/s

2-Channel DDR4 2400: 38.4 GB/s

PCI Express 3.0 x16: 16 GB/s

 

Even with DDR3, the PCI Express bus would have been the limiting factor, not the memory. DDR4 doesn't change that.

It would be interesting to see how APUs scale though

[theereal]

It's much easier for the GPU to pull off that extremely fast ram right next to it then having to pull off the system memory or even hard drive. So no, DDR4 will not help you.

[Glenwing]

It would be interesting to see how APUs scale though

 

2400MHz memory is 2400MHz memory, you can just find some DDR3 benchmarks and substitute the word "DDR4" for the 2400 results and compare. It's the same.

[don_svetlio]

2400MHz memory is 2400MHz memory, you can just find some DDR3 benchmarks and substitute the word "DDR4" for the 2400 results and compare. It's the same.

I was thinking about the 4GHz DDR4 kits

[Stefan1024]

2400MHz memory is 2400MHz memory, you can just find some DDR3 benchmarks and substitute the word "DDR4" for the 2400 results and compare. It's the same.

Should not DDR3 be better because of the lower latency? Or is the effect negible due to thr caching system?

[don_svetlio]

Should not DDR3 be better because of the lower latency? Or is the effect negible due to thr caching system?

The RAM is not the bottlencek - the PCIe slot is

[Stefan1024]

The RAM is not the bottlencek - the PCIe slot is

Yes that is true, but I was talking about APU scaling.

[don_svetlio]

Yes that is true, but I was talking about APU scaling.

No idea