Your concern is well understood. You're not the only one who ask the same question. There are quite many answers to that.
😀
Quite frankly I envy you, you paid 1200 for a graphics card, that's nearly my monthly salary. I'm working part-time in a saloon becoz of the pandemic.
You said "But.. I've seen a lot of comments that claim that 8gb is enough for today gaming.. but how about future releases? " where exactly did you read the comments from?
Everyone does some research before buying a product like that expensive. Most people google the information, some watch Youtube, other may read forums posts and a lot of gamers study reviews from PCGamers.com for instance. KOL on youtube may make recommendations based on their personal experience or their so called analysis. But mind you, some of them are part of the sales network of the products. So their opinions should be taken carefully, with your own assessment towards their accuracy. Some KOLs recommend not to buy 3070 because of the VRAM limitations. Do they present you with hard figure/statistic/benchmarks? Textual reviews from reputable website are very often more authoritative and objective. Their recommendations if any, tend to be more rational, informative and you can find the answers to your questions more likely.
I have for once, research which new 3000 series of card I should be getting. That was before the scalping and chip shortage taking place. So I do have some information collected and can share with you. Then I will present my views.
There is one title I can think of which requires more than 8GB of VRAM. The game is called Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. (I wish to attach a screenshot, do you know how?) Anyway I give the source I learned this from, it's a youtube video:
. Warp to 08:45. You will see 3070 only yields 28 FPS at 4K. So, if you run it at 4K, that's the FPS you're getting. I for once, considered buying an RTX 3070 not long after it was released so I researched everywhere for my required information. That shows higher resolutions demand more VRAM, quite simple to perceive.
You said "I upgraded because I wanted to max out future releases @1080p ultra with no plans to upgrade to 1440p. ". Since you have no plans to upgrade to 1440, and given that the above said game was degraded by the 3070 only at 4K, you're quite "safe" if you stick to 1080p. In fact, if you are willing to compromise, your 3070 can play many many games well over 60FPS @ 1080p.
BUT, if you turn on raytracing, you will have to make provision to a certain percentage of FPS loss. You can use DLSS 2.0 to compensate the loss though, that's the flag ship selling point of all RTX 3000 series of cards. You may expect some degradation of image quality though, like blurriness. Since you have bought the card already, you can test it out to see if you're comfortable with the image quality so produced.
If I were you, I would wait for the price to come down. Also, I will wait for other vendors. Have you heard of Intel being working on a dedicated GPU? Also, RTX 4000 series may even be better though one will have to wait for it.
Since the whole 3000 product line provides us with only 8GB ~ 10GB of VRAM on majority of models except 3060 which give us 12GB at the present time, games which demand more VRAM will render the deficiency of these cards. AMD seems to be able to foresee such trends and produce 12GB and 16GB VRAM models like the 6800 series and 6900 XT as well as the latest 6700 series. Regrettably, they are not as competent as nVidia in terms of ray tracing technologies, so ray tracing is your thing, you may cast AMD out when you are to make a purchase decision.
In the next 4 to 5 years, what games will be coming out? You may refer to this list of ray tracing games :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_ray_tracing_support
But in the PC gaming world, there are games more than ray tracing oriented, so it is really hard to say. As many have pointed out in their replies to your OP, you can tune down the texture details of the game. VRAM consumed by intensive texture processing in modern games. In my views, nVidia is trying to see of VRAM speed can compensate for inadequate VRAM capacity in their line of products most notably the 3080 and the forthcoming 3080Ti. I personally reckon that 3080Ti is truly future proofed. It will be equipped with 12GB DDR6X VRAM that at least can handle 1440p with pretty much to spare.
There are many people who need USD120 one-tenth of UDS1200 to spend on food and travel to work for the whole family each month especially during this pandemic period. You still have the mood to play games and buy a USD1200 graphics card, it's not too difficult for you to let go the card to your family members or friends should you find it inadequate to handle future games.
If you ask me, I don't think it is the best time to buy either a nVidia 3000 card nor an AMD 6000 card. Both sides have issues which are not addressed yet. For instance, AMD's answer to nVidia's DLSS is not yet known. nVidia card lacks sufficient VRAM to handle more texture intensive games at 1440p and 4K. AMD's 6000 cards' raw power seems attractive but if you care to think for a moment, you will find it less capable in the ray tracing department. So waiting for the next generation of cards will be my present choice.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram