If you plan to work with footage resolutions at 4K or greater and need to work with a high resolution 4K timeline, then investing in a graphics card with at least 8GB of VRAM is recommended.
Bump up the display resolution to 4K, and suddenly the game engine and GPU will see a need to store and use higher resolution textures in VRAM far more often. The image quality probably won't even increase that much, but the VRAM requirements can basically triple.
At 4K, NVIDIA says 10 GB VRAM should be fine, while AMD says “nuh uh” (Godfall's 4K Ultra Textures Require 12GB VRAM on PC, Says Developer - of course, that's just one game, and only at max settings with HDR and everything enabled, so don't throw your RTX 3080 in the garbage just yet :D ).
Yes, absolutely. 16GB RAM is plenty, because RAM has no effect on gaming at 4K. And very few games need that much VRAM, even at 4K, and even if they hit the limit, they won't go far above it and the performance drop would be very minimal.
Now in general the more VRAM you have the better a game will work. For 4k you'll need lots. Don't bother with less than 8, and even that isn't always enough. 12 or more is better.
16GB. Considering most computers come with 4GB RAM, 16GB will give you enough memory to do multiple things at once without the computer struggling. 16GB is enough for editing 1080p projects or 4K files with minimum effects.
On the whole, 32GB of RAM isn't overkill for gaming if you want to play in higher resolutions, or if you can afford to future-proof your gaming set-up.
In conclusion, while 8GBs of VRAM GPUs can get simple gaming and productivity workloads done in a pinch, they aren't good enough in terms of longevity. As games become more graphically intensive, the demand for more VRAM increases.
Our personally recommendation is that 12GB VRAM is more than enough for gaming at 1080p and 1440p, but you could honestly struggle to maintain consistent frame-rates at 4K. We've had a look at if 8GB VRAM is good enough for gaming and came to a similar conclusion.
10GB of VRAM is fine at 4K for now. 8GB might not be enough at 4K but should be plenty at 1440P.
Most modern games can run on 6 to 8GB of VRAM if you play on low to medium settings at 1080p with DLSS, FSR, or XeSS. However, if you plan to upgrade your monitor to a higher resolution one, you might also need to upgrade your graphics card.
While 4GB of VRAM is plenty for editing 1080p footage, it is best to choose a GPU with at least 6GB of VRAM for 4K footage and our ideal would be at least 8GB. Our current favourite is the RTX 3060 as it has 12GB of VRAM and the performance is good.
Still, for 4K gaming, you should start with at least 16 GB RAM. Choosing this RAM also future-proofs your setup.
The VRAM capacity just has to be enough for the game you want to play, at the resolution you want to play it. For example, at 1920x1080, as long as you have 8 GB VRAM, you're fine in all modern games I can think of. Having more VRAM capacity won't help. VRAM speed, that one can be more generally helpful.
24 GB is about the right size to target ultra quality 4K with raytracing and the general requirements of applications on high resolution monitors. If it wasn't needed, these GPUs wouldn't have it.
Yes, absolutely. 16GB RAM is plenty, because RAM has no effect on gaming at 4K. And very few games need that much VRAM, even at 4K, and even if they hit the limit, they won't go far above it and the performance drop would be very minimal.
The RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM, which, while it doesn't outshine the 3060 Ti on performance, is quite effective for gaming.
NVIDIA has paired 8 GB GDDR6 memory with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which are connected using a 256-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 1410 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1665 MHz, memory is running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).
At the bare minimum, we would recommend a card with 12 GB of VRAM for the resolution. However, one should look at 12 GB models from the latest Ada Lovelace or RX 7000 series cards. While purchasing a last-gen card, at least 16 GB of VRAM is required to ensure smooth performance at UHD.
Originally shipping with 8GB of VRAM, the Nvidia RTX 3070 has a relatively small amount of VRAM by modern standards. Its direct replacement, the RTX 4070, has 12GB while even some variants of the lower-end RTX 3060 have 12GB.
No, VRAM and system RAM are separate, and they're different types of memory. You can't use either one to upgrade the other.
While the Radeon RX 6800 may still provide better raw performance, the 3070's ray-tracing capabilities, DLSS support, and better optimization for creative applications make it a solid choice, especially for gamers who value these features.
A good rule of thumb is: 8GB bare minimum, 16GB for most gaming needs, and 32GB if you want to run multiple high-intensity programs simultaneously.
How much RAM for 4K Video Editing? You'll need 16-32GB of RAM for editing 4K Video Projects at 8bit color. If you're working with lots of Effects or higher Bit-depths, though, consider 64GB for best performance.
Is 64/128 GB of RAM Overkill? For the majority of users, it is. If you plan on building a PC purely for gaming and some general, basic, everyday activity, 64 GB of RAM is just too much. The amount of RAM you need will ultimately depend on your workload.