Question Are 4GB (and maybe even 6GB) VRAM cards "worthless" these days, for "modern games", even @ 1080P (excluding Fortnite and Roblox)? (with poll)

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious what your thoughts were. With Poll.

Keeping in mind, AAA Console ports may have been written with certain minimum VRAM capability in mind too.

What brought this about was, Newegg had a 4GB GTX 1650 Super (refurb) on SS today for $259.99, and I almost bought one. But the fact that it still hadn't sold-out immediately, gave me pause too. I ultimately decided against it. Mostly, because brand-new RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 cards are becoming available @ $329-450.

I started to think, how much of a "dead-end" are 4GB GTX 1650-family cards? Then I started to think of them, basically as slightly-faster GTX 1050 ti 4GB cards.
Are they still in any way viable? Yeah, they'll play Fortnite and Roblox... but will they play much else?

 

[solidsnake1298]

The newer of the triple AAA games I do play, Rainbow Six Siege (vulkan client) and Destiny 2, both on high-ish settings, use between 4-5GB of VRAM at 1080P. So, at a minimum, a GTX1060 6GB and up on team green and a RX570 8GB model and up on team red.

 

[DeathReborn]

Probably 6GB and my thinking does include the 10GB total memory on the Xbox SS.

It would be interesting to see what Direct Storage does to video memory usage though.

 

[psolord]

Well my GTX 970 still manages to play many games quite decently although I cannot really claim that it can run everything fine, because I cannot possibly test everything. It's on a secondary system too, so....

Here are my latest tests if anyone cares (non monetized videos) and don't forget that's on PCIe 2.0 bus too.

 

[psolord]

 

[psolord]

 

[psolord]

It didn't do so well in The Medium however, during the dual screen scenes, but I am not sure if it's a vram issue or a processing power issue. It seems more of the latter I think.

Still for a card that came out 9 months after the PS4, it ain't bad I guess.

 

[psolord]

And we are still at 2 media links per post? Really? xD

 

[Magic Carpet]

Mostly, because brand-new RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 cards are becoming available @ $329-450.

Personally, I am a fan of 3090 and it’s huge frame buffer. But at that price and half of 3090s vram, 3060 sure as hell looks incredibly sexy too, go for it! Forget the 4gb cards.

 

[Shivansps]

i used a RX570 4GB for gaming since 2019 up to Janury 2021. Not only i was able to play everything, some times i was able to do it at 1440p... I played RDR2 at 1440p with that RX570, unfortunately Cyberpunk was too much for 1440p.

I have to say, the GPU was the problem not the vram in most cases, games tend to adjust to the avalible vram rather well, if the diference from whats needed to what it has is not so big.

Funny enoght, i had vram issues in some non-AAA games, for example "7 days to die", really struggled with 4GB gpus after some big update. I never actually played AC Valhalla or AC Odyssey, my last AC was Origins that ran fine at 1440p.

But yeah, looking forward, i would say 6GB is the minimum target for any new gpu, 4GB still works mostly fine, but we crossed that barrier some time ago already. And i belive that will be the case here, with the 6700XT and RTX3060 having 12GB, 6GB is a valid target for the stuff that comes below it.

 

[Stuka87]

For the most part 4GB still works pretty well for 1080P. But there are a few games that will max that out. So I think 6GB is now the same minimum. I currently game at 1440P with a 5700XT, and I have had zero video memory issues at that resolution. So you definitely do not need 8GB for 1080P.

NOTE: If RTX is in use, what I said above goes out the window. But as my card doesn't support it, it is not a concern of mine.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

1650 super is nearly double the performance of a 1050ti in most games. It is faster than a 970 too, in some titles significantly so. And it really should not be grouped with the 1650, it is a big step up, particularly v. DDR5 version.

Being a 100W card, it is danged impressive. I have 2 systems running them because of the low power, low noise, low heat, excellent performance, and HTPC goodness.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I am a known critic of Nvidia for being greedy. Same with Intel. I recently bought a Dell with an Intel 10400 CPU and 1660 Super 6GB GDDR6 memory to replace my GTX970. The 1660 Super is what the 970 is to 1080P but @ 1440p and on steroids. It's not a 1440p card but in this market that is what it is for me. I think you want 8GB or more of VRAM. The 1660 Super is the bare minimum. Everything below it is incapable and not fit for modern PC gaming. I still regret not getting the AMD 5700 but it didn't hit my strike price of $275 at the time. I almost bit on $292 for the 5700. I was using my 970 way beyond it's useful life. I tried to kill it off but it wouldn't die. I had the original Geforce 256 that died a pathetic early death as well as a Ti4200 that blew a bunch of capacitors. My ATI/AMD cards were all retired still functioning perfectly. The 8800GT was another one of my favorite cards for the time. It's retired and still perfectly functional.

When they sell the stuff cheap, I am obligated to buy. The 1660 Super is a great POS graphics card with the good VRAM memory. Obviously I need a 3070 or a 6800XT.

 

[mohit9206]

Nvidia is going to launch 3050 with 4GB for $250 this year. Nvidia is going backwards. From 6GB in 2016 to 4GB in 2021 for the same price. In 2016, AMD was already providing 8GB for $240 in 2016. Hopefully Nvidia gets called out for this.

 

[Mopetar]

Does it matter how much Nvidia gets called out if people keep buying those products?

 

[mohit9206]

Does it matter how much Nvidia gets called out if people keep buying those products?

I think this may backfire on them. Over the years, people have been conditioned by marketing to believe that more ram is better so if Nvidia launches 4gb card then it should also reflect in sales because people will buy amd which will have more ram.

 

[Elfear]

1650 super is nearly double the performance of a 1050ti in most games. It is faster than a 970 too, in some titles significantly so. And it really should not be grouped with the 1650, it is a big step up, particularly v. DDR5 version.

Being a 100W card, it is danged impressive. I have 2 systems running them because of the low power, low noise, low heat, excellent performance, and HTPC goodness.

This makes me feel much better after I sold my 6900XT and went back to a 1650 Super I had in the kid's computer. Thanks!

 

[Shmee]

4GB should still be enough for moderate settings, but remember performance depends largely on the GPU. For instance, a Fury has 4GB of memory, but is generally faster than a 1060 or 580. Depends on game of course too.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

8GB minimum for 1080p? Lulz! Poll is a joke.

 

[Joe NYC]

4 GB of graphics memory is not enough to play Dyson Sphere Program (at any resolution).

 

[mohit9206]

8GB minimum for 1080p? Lulz! Poll is a joke.

Poll should only have had 4GB,6GB and 8GB options.

 

[Mopetar]

Poll should only have had 4GB,6GB and 8GB options.

Yeah, the people picking 16 GB or 20+ GB options crack me up. I'd also be curious to hear from the plucky fellow that picked 2 GB.

 

[CP5670]

6GB is fine if you don't use the absolute max settings (and avoid RT, HD texture packs, VR, etc.). Probably even 4GB will work at reduced settings. I used a 980 until 2018 and it ran everything pretty well at 1080p at medium settings. The lack of vram is more of a problem on cards like the 3080 and 3080ti. Given how much they cost, there should not be compromises required.

 

[Leeea]

8GB minimum for 1080p? Lulz! Poll is a joke.

For triple AAA, maybe.

But as soon as the user gets into the not so optimized titles, it starts to matter. Developers who are crossing the line from indie to more mainstream frequently have unoptimized engines that eat VRAM.

Tarkov is an example of this. Poor optimized, increasingly popular, and eats VRAM for lunch. This is nothing new either, the original DayZ mod for ARMA was a VRAM eater.

Thing is, to me this is where the energy is in the PC gaming scene. The titles that are new and trying out something different, rather then the same old rehash. The developers always have bigger fish to fry then optimizing for low VRAM usage.

 

[aigomorla]

Mostly, because brand-new RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 cards are becoming available @ $329-450.

Good luck getting a card tho.
I have been scouring for videocards.
The best I could do without coughing out too much blood was the 1660 @ 439.99

That is probably the best your gonna get until the end of this year. At least I predict until eth 2.0

Even then I think the 1660 will sell out as you can still mine somewhat productively on a 1660.

As for vram I think for lower mid range 6gb is fine for 1080p. If it's not I think your lacking in gpu power to even utilize more vram.
The 3080 has showed us what 24gb on a 3090 will give us in real world gaming, and it was depressing.

Yeah, the people picking 16 GB or 20+ GB options crack me up. I'd also be curious to hear from the plucky fellow that picked 2 GB.

isnt the reason for picking those because those are the greatest chance at you even getting a new gen gpu?
3090 and the 6900xt being so overpriced as it is, is probably the easiest cards to get with the lowest markup %.