Video Random Access Memory, more commonly known as VRAM or GPU memory, is one of the most important parts of a graphics card. However, it can't be modified on its own; whatever VRAM a graphics card has is how much your PC will ever have. That's why it's important to get a GPU with the right amount of memory because otherwise, you'll have to buy a whole new card if you need more.
The thing is, VRAM isn't necessarily something you should be worried about. Graphics cards are computers unto themselves and come with a specific amount of memory for usually good reasons. Here's everything you need to know about VRAM and how much is enough for a graphics card.
VRAM: Designed specifically for GPUs
VRAM is a subset of RAM, which is usually used to describe memory like DDR4 or DDR5. These kinds of RAM are technically for all components in a computer, but they're really tailored to the performance requirements of the CPU, which wants data really quickly rather than a lot at once. Consequently, DDR memory has always been focused on low latency (low as in nanoseconds) and not so much on bandwidth, which is usually measured in gigabytes per second.
GPUs are not CPUs, however, and have vastly different requirements for memory. GPUs need lots of memory bandwidth in order to access textures, the framebuffer (which tells the GPU where to place individual pixels in a frame), and other graphical info that's stored in RAM and can tolerate relatively high latency, which is why VRAM is not only specially made to suit graphics processors but is also as close to the GPU as physically possible.
Shortly after the first modern GPUs debuted in the early 2000s, Nvidia and AMD switched over from traditional DDR to GDDR3, which was made explicitly for GPUs (the G stands for graphics). GDDR3 almost doubled the available memory bandwidth compared to DDR, and graphics cards have been using their own special type of RAM ever since.
Figuring out the right amount of VRAM is crucial when buying a graphics card since you're stuck with whatever your GPU has.
Today, there are two main kinds of VRAM. GDDR is the most common mainstream solution, but especially for consumer-oriented options like gaming graphics cards. The latest version of GDDR is GDDR6, which debuted in 2018 and also has a special version called GDDR6X for Nvidia GPUs. There's also HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which is a more compact and higher-performance solution that first debuted on AMD's 2015 Fury X but never really caught on for gaming. The latest version, HBM3, is used on Nvidia's Hopper data center GPUs.
One of the primary differences between system RAM and VRAM outside of performance is upgradeability. System RAM can come in stick form and be installed or removed from motherboards as desired. VRAM, however, is always soldered onto the graphics card and isn't designed to be altered at all since soldering VRAM closer to the GPU improves performance. In the best-case scenario, there might be a couple of different variations of a graphics card that offer a lower amount and a higher amount of VRAM.
So, figuring out the right amount of VRAM is crucial when buying a graphics card since you're stuck with whatever your GPU has, which is a key reason why "how much VRAM do I need?" isn't such an easy question to answer.
How much VRAM do you need?
This is going to sound like a non-answer, but how much VRAM you need depends on a few key factors. When buying a graphics card or a device with one included, like a gaming laptop, it's important to consider three things in particular: what you're going to be running on that graphics card today, what you're going to be running on it tomorrow, and how fast that graphics card is in general. If you have a large budget, you could just buy a top-end GPU like the RTX 4090 or the RX 7900 XTX and skip this part, but obviously, that's not an option open to all of us.
When it comes to graphics cards, there are really only two workloads that will stress the VRAM: gaming and creative applications. Of the two, gaming is the least intensive, and the most graphically demanding games come with settings that allow you to adjust VRAM usage. If you're experiencing a very low framerate and/or lots of stuttering, you might have run out of VRAM. Creative and professional applications, on the other hand, will often list a recommended amount of VRAM, and they also tend to require more than games, hence workstation cards with lots of VRAM.
It's important to consider three things in particular: what you're going to be running on that graphics card today, what you're going to be running on it tomorrow, and how fast that graphics card is in general.
It's also important to consider the future because newer games and applications will use more VRAM than older ones, or at least that's been the trend so far. If you want to run fairly intensive workloads today and in the future, you might want to opt for a higher-end graphics card with both more VRAM and a faster GPU, which tend to go hand in hand. That brings us to the final point to consider.
Because VRAM on a graphics card can't be upgraded, they're supposed to be paired with an amount of memory that should almost never be insufficient, but sometimes it doesn't work out like that. Take, for instance, the RTX 3070, which has 8GB of GDDR6X but can struggle in many recent AAA titles because 8GB just isn't enough memory for its performance level. But how can you tell if that much VRAM isn't enough without testing data?
Here's a decent rule of thumb: If performance goes up, VRAM should also go up. 8GB was a very questionable amount of memory for the 3070, which is over twice as fast as other cards that also came with 8GB of VRAM, including the RTX 3050 in the same generation as well as the RTX 2070 and the GTX 1070 from years ago. Meanwhile, the 3080's 10GB of VRAM seems to be just enough for games, so you might want to use that graphics card as the baseline for what's sufficient. For example, a GPU twice as fast as the 3080 should probably have at least twice the memory.
You have to choose a good graphics card if you want the right amount of VRAM
Because VRAM isn't upgradeable and most cards have only one option for VRAM capacity, selecting the right amount is more about the graphics card you're buying than anything else. It's not about how much memory a GPU has but how much it will need when it's performing at full bore. For example, you probably shouldn't buy the RTX 3060 12GB just because it has lots of VRAM, mostly because 12GB is quite overkill on the 3060. You want to maximize your value and find a card with a great price, a good amount of performance, and enough VRAM.
Ultimately, you kind of just have to trust Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to give you the right amount of VRAM. AMD and Intel haven't been skimping on VRAM on their latest GPUs, but Nvidia's latest graphics cards come with a worryingly small amount of VRAM. It does seem like 8GB should be the minimum for graphics cards and doesn't belong on anything in the mid-range segment, but Nvidia disagrees. Only time can tell if a graphics card's VRAM is too little, and if you're at all concerned about not having enough VRAM, you should probably err on the side of caution when buying a GPU.