How much does Vram matter?

[jpfeif]

Im looking into the GTX 1060 and I want to know how much Vram matters at 1080p med-high settings.

[ARikozuM]

Depends on the game. Most 1080 games will use about 3-4GB.

 

I would strongly suggest going for the 6GB not for the VRAM, but the stronger core since the cores get killed way before VRAM becomes an issue.

 

Edit: If you don't have enough VRAM, you may need to employ higher speed storage to allow faster swapping between textures, etc.

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

 in what game, vram doesn't matter till you run out of it 

[Wolly9102]

1060 is fine for that. do get the 6 GB variant because some games require 2 gb or more to run at high settings

[Darkseth]

Settings don't affect Vram that much.

Even Resolution doesn't affect it THAT much (it does abit. But it's not the most important thing).

 

What will limit you in 1080p, are Textures.

 

If you have 3gb Vram, instead of 6gb, you will probably still be able to play msot games in High - Ultra in 1080p @ 60 fps.

BUT: With 3gb Vram only, you might have to reduce Textures from Ultra/High to Medium or even Low depending on games.

This CAN impact your visual quality greatly. 

 

TL;DR: You will have to make compromises in Texture quality. That's it.

 

 

What i personally can tell you, i had 1080p / 60 Hz untill a few months ago, and i had a GTX 1060 6gb (MSI Gaming X).

Rise of the Tomb Raider maxed out (also Textures very high) used up more than 5.5 gb Vram even shortly after loading a save. depending on Area of course. 

Reducing textures to 2nd highest, dropped the Vram consumption down to like 3 - 3,5 gb~ (luckily, it looked just a tad worse. Going to medium will be a huge difference).

BF1 is fine, max texture consume <3gb.

Witcher 3 is extremely good optimized. Even in 1440p maxed out, it uses up less than 2,5 gb Vram.

 

Games that can get close to 6-8gb Vram usage in 1080p are:

- Deus Ex Mankind Divided

- Mirror's Edge Catalyst

- THe last 2-3 Call of Duty games (so horribly optimized, they can easy fill 8gb in 1080p. But according to tests, if you have 4gb Vram or less, you NEED to drop settings down to Low, since even Normal / medium will have some stutters here and there).

[tom_w141]

The biggest issue here isn't the VRAM it is the sneaky Nvidia trick that they also cut CUDA cores out on the "1060" 3GB version compared to the 6GB. So the 3GB isn't a true 1060 at all.

[Darkseth]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

The biggest issue here isn't the VRAM it is the sneaky Nvidia trick that they also cut CUDA cores out on the "1060" 3GB version compared to the 6GB. So the 3GB isn't a true 1060 at all.

Right, aprox. 10% less Cuda Cores.

If Vram is not a limiting Factor, you will also have 10-11%~ less fps with it ^^"

 

If Vram DOES bottleneck in the games, the fps drop might jump from 10% up to 20-30%, or more.

 

So yea... Even if it's 50-80 bucks more.. really invest into 6gb. You will NOT regret it over the next 3 years~

[jeffery7466]

Im no expert, but I would go for 6GB. Once you run out, it affects fps a lot and there is nothing you could do about it. But as mentioned above, some games are more VRAM hungry then others.

 

And also the CUDA core thing mentioned by others too. (I didn't know about that )

[Kd4lif3]

I have a 1070 and on max settings in gta online I never pass 4gb. Game nowadays will do just fine on the 1060. The only reason to get anything more is for high hz refreshing monitors, higher res, or future proofing 

[aisle9]

18 minutes ago, jpfeif said:

Im looking into the GTX 1060 and I want to know how much Vram matters at 1080p med-high settings.

VRAM means absolutely nothing until your computer goes, "oh shit! I need more!"

[Darkseth]

14 minutes ago, Kd4lif3 said:

I have a 1070 and on max settings in gta online I never pass 4gb. Game nowadays will do just fine on the 1060. The only reason to get anything more is for high hz refreshing monitors, higher res, or future proofing 

Well, GTA (Online) is not the best example for all Games out there... ^^"

Just because it never passes 4gb there, it doesn't mean, it won't pass 4gb in any other game.

 

Play Rise of the Tomb Raider maxed out in 1080p (for the lols, deactivate Anti Aliasing.. since SSAA is way too hardcore)