# Which games use more than 4gb vram on 1080p? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 16, 2018, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017 "2018-10-16T07:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JakeRS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ab097/32.png) [@JakeRS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JakeRS)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2018, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/1 "2018-10-16T07:50:51Z")
In most cases games only pass 4gb vram when played on large resolutions, VR and stuff like that, but are there any games that use up more than 4 gigs even on 1080p? I found a great deal on a 8 gig card and I’m probably going to buy it, so I’m wondering if I’ll end up using the additional 4 gigs or not (the card is really cheap, even more than a 4 gig version would regularly be, so I’m buying it either way, I’m not buying it specifically for the additional vram) For example, games like Cities Skylines, or maybe moded ones like X planes with all the texture mods, Gta V with all the texture,car,etc. mods. , maybe Watch dogs 2, Ghost wildlands, I suppose that at least some of these can use a lot of VRAM, right? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2018, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/2 "2018-10-16T09:13:18Z")
Texture mods for Skyrim et al are the classic example. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/3 "2018-10-16T12:36:38Z")
According to [this](https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Rise_of_the_Tomb_Raider/4.html), _Rise of the Tomb Raider_ will use over 6GB of VRAM at _any_ resolution. Then there are games like _Call of Duty WW2_ that, because of the way it’s designed to run, will use basically every byte of VRAM that’s available. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/4 "2018-10-17T03:03:08Z")
One nice thing that’s often overlooked is having 8GB of RAM on your video card solves issues with poorly coded console ports where the code is still expecting the 8GB from the console’s shared pool to be available. The PC port of Call of Duty Black Ops 3 suffered from this. It only needed 2GB, but would choke on any card with less than 6GB because they allocated 4GBs of 0s or something crazy like that. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/5 "2018-10-17T04:40:42Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > According to [this](https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Rise_of_the_Tomb_Raider/4.html), _Rise of the Tomb Raider_ will use over 6GB of VRAM at _any_ resolution. Yes and no. It uses 6GB for very high settings, simply increasing FPS with VRAM (generally). At massive resolution, i.e., 4K, it uses the same 6GB, with a piddly 30 FPS, compared to 80+ at the more common 1080p. Most games are programmed along the COD lines - use all the VRAM available to generate as high of a framerate as possible. It seems the processor is once again the limiting factor on graphics cards, especially with all the new features that are being implemented in DirectX and game engines. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/6 "2018-10-17T11:34:25Z")
What specifically has changed in PC games where 4GB RAM was almost always sufficient for years and now “use all RAM available” is becoming the norm? And please help me understand the relationship with GPU’s and their own onboard RAM relative to the system RAM carded into the mobo. Mostly just curious. I have 12GB RAM on this machine, with another 3GB on my 1060 GTX card. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/7 "2018-10-17T11:39:55Z")
The relationship is that the GPU cannot directly access the system RAM. Data must be explicitly transferred back and forth. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/8 "2018-10-17T12:35:50Z")
> [@JakeRS](#): > > I found a great deal on a 8 gig card and I’m probably going to buy it, I’m guessing the card is the Radeon RX 580 or 480 if an older card. Both are fine cards for 1080p and will serve you well. Better / more expensive cards like AMD’s Vega and NVidia’s GTX 1070 and better will serve you well at higher resolutions too. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/9 "2018-10-17T13:06:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The relationship is that the GPU cannot directly access the system RAM. Data must be explicitly transferred back and forth. That’s not correct. The main GPU RAM is not on-chip. The GPU can directly access the PC’s RAM via the PCI Express bus (indeed, the process is called [Direct Memory Access)](https://geidav.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/an-overview-of-direct-memory-access/) but it’s much, much slower than the GPU’s own RAM. Indeed, some AMD GPUs set up a page pool of system (PC) RAM. PC RAM is generally DDR3 or DDR4; graphics card RAM is GDDR5 or GDDR6 or HBM, all of which are much, much faster. [GamersNexus](https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3330-gt-1030-ddr4-vs-gt-1030-gddr5-benchmark-worst-graphics-card-2018) have an article showing the effect by comparing the GDDR version of Nvidia’s GT 1030 GPU with the DDR version and they don’t mince their words. > [@GamersNexus.Net](#): > > The average consumer cannot reasonably be expected to look at “GT 1030 2GB OC LPD4” and understand that is 55% slower than “GT 1030 2GB OC LPG5.”… > > The GT 1030 DDR4 chokes on all memory bandwidth-intensive tasks. If you are asking what game graphics are bandwidth-intensive, the answer is “all of them.” The GT 1030 DDR4 is a disgrace of a product… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/10 "2018-10-17T14:37:20Z")
Mea culpa on the misleading, laconic explanation. Indeed, the CPU memory and the GPU memory are different types of RAM optimized for different characteristics (like latency versus bandwidth), and if the GPU is forced to frequently access small amounts of data in system memory, over the PCIE bus (which is still a level of indirection), the result will be a catastrophic slowdown. So you need a bunch of GPU RAM. “How much is enough/have standards changed” is a good question for game-engine developers. ---
**Author:** ![JakeRS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ab097/32.png) [@JakeRS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JakeRS)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/11 "2018-10-20T09:33:54Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m guessing the card is the Radeon RX 580 or 480 if an older card. Both are fine cards for 1080p and will serve you well. Better / more expensive cards like AMD’s Vega and NVidia’s GTX 1070 and better will serve you well at higher resolutions too. A 470, though OC’d (and my screen is 1680x1050, so it’s essentially like a 480 on a 1080p screen), I’m from east Europe, so I can only dream about a 1070, which is almost as much as two monthly salaries here, even used. Vega…hm, not sure, even if I had the money, aren’t they known for being power hungry and hot? ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-games-use-more-than-4gb-vram-on-1080p/823017/12 "2018-10-21T00:41:55Z")
4GB is definitely not good enough for modern games. 8 GB is good. Texture quality/resolution has a big impact on image quality so it’s nice to have enough room to bump up textures to the max since it doesn’t have that much of an impact on performance so long as you have enough vRAM.