'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Cards with 8, 12, and 16 GB of VRAM now dominate the gaming GPU market. With more games pushing the boundaries of realism, video memory has become a resource to fight for. While 6 GB used to be plenty barely a couple of years back, even 8 GB is struggling to keep up now. The market standard is quickly shifting from 8 GB, with 10 and 12 GB becoming the new norm — companies are increasingly pushing for higher memory buffers on their latest launches.
A prime example is the latest Intel Arc GPUs — the $219 B570 packs 10 GB while the $249 B580 has 12 GB of video memory. Just two generations ago, the flagship $999 offering from Team Green had 11 GB of VRAM. Given these interesting trends, we chime into this ongoing debate in this article and try to analyze how much GPU memory is ideal for gamers.
Do you need 8 GB, 12 GB, or 16 GB of VRAM for gaming in 2025?
Before delving into the real framerate differences between cards with varying video memory counts, let's look at the various design factors in GPUs that affect gaming performance.
Trending
First and foremost, VRAM has become more of a marketing term. Given the performance issues reported with last-gen cards, AMD and Intel are excessively bullish on video memory counts on their latest cards. Oftentimes, the on-paper spec is better than Nvidia, but real-world performance isn't up to par.
While there is some merit to packing a GPU with extra video memory, you'll only get diminishing returns beyond a certain point. The available VRAM would just become an asset that the rendering hardware can't fully utilize.
To this end, we recommend gamers look at more aspects of a GPU than just the video memory numbers. Performance in video games gives a reality check of the rendering capabilities of the card.
However, this doesn't mean that VRAM numbers aren't to be taken seriously at all. Powerful cards like the RTX 3070 get bottlenecked at higher resolutions in some of the latest titles because of its limited 8 GB VRAM buffer. This raised significant concerns among gamers, especially given that Nvidia has been extremely conservative in terms of raising video memory limits on their budget cards.
With the Ada Lovelace and RDNA 3 generations, more 12 GB cards have popped up in the market. The entry-level ones remain stuck at 8 GB, however. For 1080p gaming, this much video memory is still enough. Problems arise when you crank up the resolution to QHD and UHD.
Therefore, we urge buyers to define their target resolution first. If FHD is all that you need, 8 GB could serve you just fine for a couple of generations. However, if high-resolution gaming is what you're after, we highly recommend getting at least 12 GB. Opting for 16 GB video cards will set you up for a few years.
Performance comparisons
It is difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison between video memory limits, given GPUs pack quite a few differences in their architecture and hardware. However, the RTX 4060 Ti GPUs give us a fine avenue to test some of our hypotheses.
Below is a detailed comparison of framerates achieved by the 4060 Ti 8 GB and 16 GB variants in some of the latest and most demanding titles. These numbers are from the YouTube channel Dracarys Gaming.
The difference between 8 and 16 GB of VRAM only shows at high resolutions such as 4K. Even QHD saw little improvements (just 1.4% over the test suite, which is within the error margin) with the extra $100 investment.
However, the story completely flips when we look at 4K gaming improvements. Performance uplifts range between 27% to 69% depending on the game, with average gains close to 39.2%. This is particularly huge given both GPUs are powered by the same silicon and the only differentiator is the four extra VRAM chips.
Most GPUs in the market have varying hardware alongside their memory configurations. A good example is the $549 RTX 4070 12 GB video card. It sits just a tier above the 4060 Ti offerings we discussed above and serves as a prime example that falling video memory count doesn't equate to poorer performance.
Below is a performance comparison of the two 4060 Ti variants and the 4070 12 GB. We sourced the numbers from the YouTube channel Dracarys Gaming.
For the bottom line, the amount of VRAM you'll need depends on your use case. For FHD gaming, we recommend 8 GB GPUs. However, you might have to upgrade within a year or two as the industry standard will go up with the launch of Blackwell cards. For QHD and 4K gaming, 12 GB remains a safe bet. If you're looking to future-proof your system, anything above 16 GB will set you up for quite some time.
