GTX 960M 2GB vs. 4GB VRAM

[Hendrik Jan van den Broek]

I've been looking into some different laptops and settled for two models. They both have a GTX 960M, one has 2GB VRAM, and the other one has 4GB of VRAM. I had already bought the 2GB version to see how it performed (it actually performed better than I expected).
I was wondering if it would be necessary for games like GTA V to send the 2GB version back and get the 4GB version instead. I've heard a lot about how the GTX 960M would be too weak of a GPU to even handle the 4GB. On the other hand I've seen some desktop 960 comparissons and the 4GB version seemed a lot more stable; there were a lot less FPS drops.
What would be the best way to go, emphasising that I play a lot of GTA V? Keep the 2GB VRAM version or get the 4GB VRAM version?

Thank you all in advance!

 

[velo3100]

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

 

[RobCrezz]

Wont make any difference on a laptop.

 

[Hendrik Jan van den Broek]

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

Wouldn't the 4GB version give more stable framerates? Or is the GPU itself really too weak to handle it and it makes no difference to take either 2GB or 4GB?

 

[RobCrezz]

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

Wouldn't the 4GB version give more stable framerates? Or is the GPU itself really too weak to handle it and it makes no difference to take either 2GB or 4GB?

960m isnt the same as the 960 desktop. the 960m is basically the desktop 750 ti - theres a reason there isnt a 4gb 750 ti.

 

[velo3100]

It more to do with the gpu, it is considered as the entry level for gaming by most people.

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

Wouldn't the 4GB version give more stable framerates? Or is the GPU itself really too weak to handle it and it makes no difference to take either 2GB or 4GB?

 

[velo3100]

Yes it will. the gtx 970m will beat the gtx 960m by a lot in gta 5. This assumes that the cooling is sufficient.

Wont make any difference on a laptop.

 

[RobCrezz]

Yes it will. the gtx 970m will beat the gtx 960m by a lot in gta 5. This assumes that the cooling is sufficient.

Wont make any difference on a laptop.

Was replying to the OPs question, not your reply.

 

[velo3100]

Sorry about that, your quoted my response so I thought you meant me.

Yes it will. the gtx 970m will beat the gtx 960m by a lot in gta 5. This assumes that the cooling is sufficient.

Wont make any difference on a laptop.

Was replying to the OPs question, not your reply.

 

[RobCrezz]

Sorry about that, your quoted my response so I thought you meant me.

Yes it will. the gtx 970m will beat the gtx 960m by a lot in gta 5. This assumes that the cooling is sufficient.

Wont make any difference on a laptop.

Was replying to the OPs question, not your reply.

Er, no i didnt?

 

[Hendrik Jan van den Broek]

It more to do with the gpu, it is considered as the entry level for gaming by most people.

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

Wouldn't the 4GB version give more stable framerates? Or is the GPU itself really too weak to handle it and it makes no difference to take either 2GB or 4GB?

So, just to be sure once more: For this GPU in particular, the GTX 960m, it wouldn't matter whether I would have the 2GB or the 4GB version? Cosidering I'll be gaming at 1080p.

I want to be 100% sure, because if the 4GB gives me better performance after all, I'll take that one.

 

[velo3100]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

 

[Darrin_1]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

 

[iAchilles]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

i got a lenovo y50-70 with GTX 960m 2 Gb and system info shows 80.1gb/s ! check it out with GPU-Z

and i believe the 80.16 gb/s has to do with 128 bit , NOT the amount of the VRAM

be careful there're two GPU in most of laptops, check the NVIDIA one

 

[Darrin_1]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

i got a lenovo y50-70 with GTX 960m 2 Gb and system info shows 80.1gb/s ! check it out with GPU-Z

and i believe the 80.16 gb/s has to do with 128 bit , NOT the amount of the VRAM

be careful there're two GPU in most of laptops, check the NVIDIA one

I found out why, the gpu memory clock on the MSI is actually 1010MHz slower than my Dell

Check out my blogs on game-debate
http://www.game-debate.com/blog/index.php?b_id=19079&author=darrinram&blog=GTX%20960M%20Overclock%20-%20inadvisable?

 

[iAchilles]

It more to do with the gpu, it is considered as the entry level for gaming by most people.

The gtx 960m would not be able to take advantage of the extra vram as the laptop is only able to play the game in med to high settings I think. I would keep the 2 gigs if money is an issue or spend a little more for a laptop with a gtx 970m.

Wouldn't the 4GB version give more stable framerates? Or is the GPU itself really too weak to handle it and it makes no difference to take either 2GB or 4GB?

so is it really good idea to go for gtx 960m 2 gb instead of 4 gb knowing the fact that new or upcoming pc games nowadays take more than 2gb even at 1080p?

 

[iAchilles]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

i got a lenovo y50-70 with GTX 960m 2 Gb and system info shows 80.1gb/s ! check it out with GPU-Z

and i believe the 80.16 gb/s has to do with 128 bit , NOT the amount of the VRAM

be careful there're two GPU in most of laptops, check the NVIDIA one

I found out why, the gpu memory clock on the MSI is actually 1010MHz slower than my Dell

Check out my blogs on game-debate
http://www.game-debate.com/blog/index.php?b_id=19079&author=darrinram&blog=GTX%20960M%20Overclock%20-%20inadvisable?

ok i read ur post there, and as i told before i have a 960m 2gb and when i check by gpuz, it says 80.2 gb/s

so ??????

 

[Darrin_1]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

i got a lenovo y50-70 with GTX 960m 2 Gb and system info shows 80.1gb/s ! check it out with GPU-Z

and i believe the 80.16 gb/s has to do with 128 bit , NOT the amount of the VRAM

be careful there're two GPU in most of laptops, check the NVIDIA one

I found out why, the gpu memory clock on the MSI is actually 1010MHz slower than my Dell

Check out my blogs on game-debate
http://www.game-debate.com/blog/index.php?b_id=19079&author=darrinram&blog=GTX%20960M%20Overclock%20-%20inadvisable?

ok i read ur post there, and as i told before i have a 960m 2gb and when i check by gpuz, it says 80.2 gb/s

so ??????

GPU-Z is sometimes inaccurate. Check the nVidia control panel and go under the system tab and you should be able to see exactly what you got.

 

[iAchilles]

Yes the 2gb is the better choice for you.

Actually, and I know this will sound weird af but my brother bought an MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-681 17.3-Inch laptop and his has the i7 4720HQ with the 2gb variant of the 960M and I bought a Dell Inspiron 7559 that has an i5 6300HQ and the 4gb variant of the 960M and when I opened up nvidia control panel and clicked help> system information, my Dell has 80.16gb/s in the memory bandwith while his has 60gb/s and I really found this to be weird seeing that we're both on the latest drivers and bios for our respective devices

i got a lenovo y50-70 with GTX 960m 2 Gb and system info shows 80.1gb/s ! check it out with GPU-Z

and i believe the 80.16 gb/s has to do with 128 bit , NOT the amount of the VRAM

be careful there're two GPU in most of laptops, check the NVIDIA one

I found out why, the gpu memory clock on the MSI is actually 1010MHz slower than my Dell

Check out my blogs on game-debate
http://www.game-debate.com/blog/index.php?b_id=19079&author=darrinram&blog=GTX%20960M%20Overclock%20-%20inadvisable?

ok i read ur post there, and as i told before i have a 960m 2gb and when i check by gpuz, it says 80.2 gb/s

so ??????

GPU-Z is sometimes inaccurate. Check the nVidia control panel and go under the system tab and you should be able to see exactly what you got.

yeap, even nVidia control panel's system info. says the same as gpuz

 

[Kamil_Bukalski]

The Lenovo Y50-70 has 3840 x 2160 (UHD) resolution. I mean I found one like that. Is 4GB of VRAM better in this case then?

 

[Richard_124]

I have the Y50-70 with the GTX 960m 4GB and it actually runs GTA V on high to very high settings. GTA V actually indicates the amount of GPU memory used and it's well over 2GB. Framerates are smooth (mostly 40-50) although it's not constant 60 obviously as this is an entry-level gaming laptop. However, since the memory usage is well over 2GB (2500~3000) and framerates are still smooth, I would argue that there actually is a reason to get the 4GB version. I do not have the same laptop with a 2GB 960M version to run a side-by-side comparison though, so there's no 100% proof to my statement. It could be that the 2GB version gives the same FPS but I doubt it, with the high memory usage.

As to the 4K version Kamil_Bukalski - the GTX 960M will struggle with almost every game to give smooth framerates at that resolution. Most users I've read that have the 4K Y50-70, actually change the resolution to 1080P to make games playable. However even in that case - I think the 4GB version is the best choice, especially since the cost difference is minimal if it's there at all.

 

[MastersonMarty]

I have a Lenovo Y50 with a GTX 960M 4GB of VRAM and it plays most games, including GTA V, on VERY HIGH or even ULTRA settings without going under 30FPS.

GTA V looks and plays fantastically with this GPU. I've connected my laptop to a 27" BENQ monitor and it looks awesome.

Why the hell would you go for 2 GB of VRAM when you can get 4GB for a little more money?! Who ever said that 2GB of VRAM on the graphics card was the same as the 4GB version is an idiot — my friend has the 2 GB version and it doesn't run the same games nearly as smoothly on very high/ultra settings as my rig.

I also play a lot of ARMA 3 Multiplayer and this baby rocks that game on mostly ultra settings.

4GB of VRAM all the way son 😉

 

[iAchilles]

I have a Lenovo Y50 with a GTX 960M 4GB of VRAM and it plays most games, including GTA V, on VERY HIGH or even ULTRA settings without going under 30FPS.

GTA V looks and plays fantastically with this GPU. I've connected my laptop to a 27" BENQ monitor and it looks awesome.

Why the hell would you go for 2 GB of VRAM when you can get 4GB for a little more money?! Who ever said that 2GB of VRAM on the graphics card was the same as the 4GB version is an idiot — my friend has the 2 GB version and it doesn't run the same games nearly as smoothly on very high/ultra settings as my rig.

I also play a lot of ARMA 3 Multiplayer and this baby rocks that game on mostly ultra settings.

4GB of VRAM all the way son 😉

would u pls state ur fps on other games, per say Shadow of Mordor or Quantum Break or other games? since i believe i have a 2 GB varient of 960M and it plays GTA V smoothly like u explained ....
i wanna see the difference in practice

 

[madgame1230]

Something worth noting that doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet - not all games are developed to use resources the same way. Some games thrive on having more VRAM available to them than others.

That said, personally, I'd prefer to have MORE VRAM available at my disposal than not. There's no telling what games I might be interested in a year or two, and one of the biggest problems with laptops is their limited life span in terms of obsolescence. By getting the 4GB model you're essentially ensuring a little bit longer use out of your laptop before it's unable to play most games at desirable settings.

Luckily, external GPU enclosures are becoming more prevalent so you'll be able to gain a little more longevity out of your laptop through that venue. If it were me, I'd get the 4 GB version.

 

[bball_1523]

So if I want a 960m laptop to keep around for 3-5 years if not longer, would a 2gb or 4gb version would be better for playing future games at at least medium with 30 or more fps?