What Is The Minimum Amount of Memory a GPU Should Have?

[sebastian869]

That’s pretty much it, is there anything else one wants to look for to make sure their purchase is a good one. For example when I do a search for a GTX 770 theres almost 10 models available one is a bit more mem or processing power etc..

Thanks,
Sebastian

 

[n0x1ous]

That depends on what resolution you play at. Most of us here would say its not wise to buy a 2GB card anymore with certain games like watchdogs and Wolfenstein New Order already needing 3GB @ 1080p resolution and the strong possibility of continued high VRAM requirements with games that are made for the next gen consoles and their 8 GB (5-ish usable for GPU) that are coming this fall.

The 4GB 770 is available, but for the price you are better off getting a 3GB 280/x or even r9 290.

 

[Pinstripe]

That depends on what resolution you play at. Most of us here would say its not wise to buy a 2GB card anymore with certain games like watchdogs and Wolfenstein New Order already needing 3GB @ 1080p resolution and the strong possibility of continued high VRAM requirements with games that are made for the next gen consoles and their 8 GB (5-ish usable for GPU) that are coming this fall.

~5GB is the entirety available for games on consoles, of whom a max. of 3GB or so will be used for graphical assets.

 

[jana519]

games like watchdogs ... needing 3GB @ 1080p resolution

Source?

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Depends on how important you think texture quality is. Some new games need more than 2 GB for the maximum quality. still run fine on my 1.28 GB gpu.

 

[n0x1ous]

Source?

The games menu

On Wolfenstein New Order - the game wont even let you select Ultra options unless you have a card with 3GB or higher...

 

[jana519]

On Wolfenstein New Order - the game wont even let you select Ultra options unless you have a card with 3GB or higher...

I was referring to Watch Dogs actually.

 

[Attic]

Min is 2gb, desirable to have 4gb+ if you want to keep the card for next 3 years.

We know VRAM will requirements will be upped. Buy for today, but plan for tomorrow. Today 2gb is for the most part fine at 1080p.

 

[sao123]

128MB should be enough for anybody.

 

[exar333]

I didn't even see that the OP said it was for gaming....

GPU (non-gaming) - 512MB is plenty
GPU (light gaming/<1080P) - 1-1.5GB
GPU (mainstream/1080P) - 2GB
GPU (enthusiast/1440P+) - 3GB+

 

[flash43]

Most modern gaming cards generally have 2GB of VRAM anyways, though it's all about balance. There's little point in getting a card such as a AMD 270X with 4GB of VRAM if you are only using one 1080p monitor.

 

[PliotronX]

I didn't even see that the OP said it was for gaming....

GPU (non-gaming) - 512MB is plenty
GPU (light gaming/<1080P) - 1-1.5GB
GPU (mainstream/1080P) - 2GB
GPU (enthusiast/1440P+) - 3GB+

I approve.

 

[tweakboy]

Now a days 3GB card will do fine. Unless you blast up BF4

 

[Bateluer]

For gaming, with today's games, 2GBs. Minimum.

In about 12 months, I'll probably have to update that to 3 or even 4GBs, depending on how much the gaming market evolves in that time.

 

[tweakboy]

I would say 560 Ti or 660 Tt

no hard core gaming tho. like glasses and stuff. gl

 

[SlickR12345]

It really depends. You can still have 512mb IGP, if you only do light flash based games and low resolution older games.

Then if you play games more often depends on the resolution. Most mid level PC's would be fine with up to 2GB GDDR5 with up to 1080p resolutions.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I would not buy a gaming card with only 2gb of vram anymore. That's asking for trouble.

 

[tweakboy]

This thread is heading south. lol :}

 

[n0x1ous]

I was referring to Watch Dogs actually.

That screenshot IS from watchdogs

The comment on wolfenstein was meant as an addition to that. Sorry for the confusion

 

[Loki726]

"640 kB ought to be enough for anyone" comes to mind here...

Quite seriously though, it is always possible for someone to write an application/game that does something useful with more memory. So as long as technology scaling continues, there will never be an amount that is high enough for all applications to be unconstrained by it. At the same time, GPU memory is somewhat virtualized (and becoming more so), so a game/application with a working set that pushes the limits or even exceeds the DRAM size is more likely to slow down than to fail to run.

So I would suggest completely forgetting about the specific DRAM size when shopping for a GPU, and buying a card based on empirical value (performance, efficiency, features, etc) per $.

 

[RussianSensation]

3GB should be bare minimum for GPUs in the $300 price range. A great value play that delivers both the performance and sufficient VRAM right now is an aftermarket R9 280 card, such as MSI Gaming.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/msi-r9-280-gaming-3g_5.html#sect3

The $350 770 GB 4GB sits in no mans land since it costs much more than 280X (or overclocked 280) despite being hardly faster while a $350-400 R9 290 beats handily in games:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...1-xfx-r9-290-double-dissipation-review-8.html

Right now 760/770 NV cards only have 2GB but 4GB cards are way too overpriced to make sense.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I didn't even see that the OP said it was for gaming....

GPU (non-gaming) - 512MB is plenty
GPU (light gaming/<1080P) - 1-1.5GB
GPU (mainstream/1080P) - 2GB
GPU (enthusiast/1440P+) - 3GB+

+1

to get more specific on the non-gaming side, 32MB meets minimum requirements for single 1080p monitor without Aero, 128MB with Aero (double those numbers for 1440/1600p, quadruple it for 4K). 512MB is a good number because it would allow most users to run multiple monitors for non-gaming workloads, and without having to worry about monitor resolution too much (might run into some trouble if you want to run more than two 1440p+ monitors with only 512MB)

 

[Blitzvogel]

2 GB minimum, 4 GB ideal I say.

I will mention that 1 GB has been manageable for quite a long time, but it took a new console generation of course. I've been getting by with my 5850 1 GB for 4.5 years and my GF's 7750 1 GB is fine for most of the recent games installed on her computer (War Thunder, Tomb Raider 2013, and a few others).

 

[MTDEW]

Screw it, just give me a card with 8gb of Vram so when devs like Ubisoft decide that doing a lazy/direct console port to pc isn't worth optimizing the pc code to differ from the console's unified memory code, then Im sure I have enough V-ram to use my pc as a "console emulator".

 

[PliotronX]

​

Screw it, just give me a card with 8gb of Vram so when devs like Ubisoft decide that doing a lazy/direct console port to pc isn't worth optimizing the pc code to differ from the console's unified memory code, then Im sure I have enough V-ram to use my pc as a "console emulator".

Call it vBleem.