Video RAM question

[Turtlesaurusrex25]

Why don't we buy sticks of RAM to use with our GPUs? Aren't the memory modules the same in almost every way?

[DexterSmythe]

2 minutes ago, Turtlesaurusrex25 said:

Why don't we buy sticks of RAM to use with our GPUs? Aren't the memory modules the same in almost every way?

Huh, good question. I have no clue what the answer is though.

[GDRRiley]

there was a time but some of it has to with price and amount of pins that would be needed. 

[Robots (2005)]

easier to just have the memory on the GPU its self, also helps with lowing the use of plastic and shit that will be needed for the extra Vram slots and shit. we use enough of resources for useless shit 

[Pickelhaube]

It saves with production costs, plus why would it be effective to upgrade your RAM in your GPU if the core isn't going to use all of the RAM. It would be like putting a spoiler on a smart car. It makes it look cooler, but is the car ever going to take advantage of it?

[Mira Yurizaki]

49 minutes ago, Turtlesaurusrex25 said:

Why don't we buy sticks of RAM to use with our GPUs? Aren't the memory modules the same in almost every way?

Several reasons:

• More VRAM doesn't really help performance. It's been shown that whenever a manufacturer releases a higher VRAM version of a card, it barely does anything for performance. Though note that the GTX 1060 6GB and 1060 3GB is not part of this, as they're both different (albeit by not much) GPUs and NVIDIA released the higher VRAM version first.
• You'd have to buy a bunch of them at once. For example, VRAM on a GTX 1080 or GTX 1070 is basically in an 8-channel array. So if you want to upgrade it, you'd have to buy 8 modules of some sort.
• GDDR5 may be phasing out soon in favor of HBM. At that point you wouldn't be able to add it yourself anyway. And there would be little point in adding another level of RAM.