Question Importance of graphic card Memory & its DDR speed

[kbidols]

Sorry if the title of my thread seems a bit confusing. I want to know which aspect of a graphic card is more important between the memory and speed (DDR)?

For example is a 4GB DDR3 graphic card better in performance than a 2GB DDR5 one?

If let's say I wanna be able to run the more recent games, which one should be able to run it better?

 

[punkncat]

It's hard to make a correlation between different amounts of RAM as compared to speed.

For instance, if the game requires more than 2GB of memory, it doesn't really matter how fast it is if it's not enough.
Having DDR5 over DDR4 is preferable and will give better performance. For example, if you purchased a card that had the options for the faster memory but same capacity it would perform better but it still wouldn't overcome a requirement for more (by the game, etc.).

 

[kbidols]

It's hard to make a correlation between different amounts of RAM as compared to speed.

For instance, if the game requires more than 2GB of memory, it doesn't really matter how fast it is if it's not enough.
Having DDR5 over DDR4 is preferable and will give better performance. For example, if you purchased a card that had the options for the faster memory but same capacity it would perform better but it still wouldn't overcome a requirement for more (by the game, etc.).

Okay, very nice explanation. Thank you.

 

[kanewolf]

Sorry if the title of my thread seems a bit confusing. I want to know which aspect of a graphic card is more important between the memory and speed (DDR)?

For example is a 4GB DDR3 graphic card better in performance than a 2GB DDR5 one?

If let's say I wanna be able to run the more recent games, which one should be able to run it better?

Those two specific options are both from old or low end graphics cards. Neither of them may be able to handle recent games. 2GB video RAM is pretty small today. Current graphics cards are 8GB and up.
Do you have two specific cards you are trying to compare ?

 

[Karadjgne]

The GT730 is a perfect example. There were several versions and care must be taken to see which one you were purchasing.

1. 700MHz, DDR3, 2Gb, 128bit bus, 96 Cuda cores
2. 902MHz, DDR3, 2Gb, 64bit bus, 384 Cuda cores
3. 902MHz, GDDR5, 1Gb, 64bit bus, 384 Cuda cores.

1. was best used for video watching, htpc etc
2. A Dog, the DDR3 and 64bit bus killed any performance in graphics and video.
3. was best used as entry level gaming. Lightweight games didn't require lots of ram, just higher performance ram and the cores to handle it.

Game files realistically are tiny, from several Kb to a couple of Mb, so getting them pushed through the ram faster meant less reliance on amount of ram.

Same thought process applies to modern cards, someone using a gpu to render will be better off with 8Gb of GDDR6, but someone gaming would be better off with 6Gb of GDDR6x. If the game didn't max out the available ram.

There's multiple factors in a gpu, cores, clocks, boost clocks, effective speed, ram type, ram amounts, memory clocks, bandwidths, power limits, usage etc, so memory type or memory amount is just 2 factors out of many. A 4Gb card may perform no different to a similar 2Gb version, with the same ram speeds, may even perform worse depending on usage and other factors.

 

[kbidols]

Those two specific options are both from old or low end graphics cards. Neither of them may be able to handle recent games. 2GB video RAM is pretty small today. Current graphics cards are 8GB and up.
Do you have two specific cards you are trying to compare ?

Not really at the moment. I do know that those are old, but I was just curious as to what is more important between the two aspects. I might consider building a more modern PC sometime in the future, but maybe not in the near future.

Thank you.

 

[kbidols]

The GT730 is a perfect example. There were several versions and care must be taken to see which one you were purchasing.

1. 700MHz, DDR3, 2Gb, 128bit bus, 96 Cuda cores
2. 902MHz, DDR3, 2Gb, 64bit bus, 384 Cuda cores
3. 902MHz, GDDR5, 1Gb, 64bit bus, 384 Cuda cores.

1. was best used for video watching, htpc etc
2. A Dog, the DDR3 and 64bit bus killed any performance in graphics and video.
3. was best used as entry level gaming. Lightweight games didn't require lots of ram, just higher performance ram and the cores to handle it.

Game files realistically are tiny, from several Kb to a couple of Mb, so getting them pushed through the ram faster meant less reliance on amount of ram.

Same thought process applies to modern cards, someone using a gpu to render will be better off with 8Gb of GDDR6, but someone gaming would be better off with 6Gb of GDDR6x. If the game didn't max out the available ram.

There's multiple factors in a gpu, cores, clocks, boost clocks, effective speed, ram type, ram amounts, memory clocks, bandwidths, power limits, usage etc, so memory type or memory amount is just 2 factors out of many. A 4Gb card may perform no different to a similar 2Gb version, with the same ram speeds, may even perform worse depending on usage and other factors.

Okay, very detailed explanation. Thank you so much.