What games cause issues with 4GB VRAM?

[Mahir_1]

So, I'm saving some money and I thought that I'll buy a RX 480 for temporary use until VEGA comes out. Buying the 4GB variant will let me start gaming about a month sooner. Since I'll only be using it until VEGA comes out, should I opt for the 4GB one? Or are there games that have issues with 4GB VRAM?

 

[Dunlop0078]

What resolution? Any reason for not wanting the 580? They are usually about the same price. Not many games show a noticeable difference between the 4gb and 8gb model, AC syndicate is one that does off the top of my head but it is know to be a horribly unptimized pc port. I would say the 4gb version is just fine especially if you are going to upgrade to vega when it comes out, personally I would consider the 470/570 as well if I was just going to upgrade it in few months.

 

[Mahir_1]

What resolution? Any reason for not wanting the 580? They are usually about the same price. Not many games show a noticeable difference between the 4gb and 8gb model, AC syndicate is one that does off the top of my head but it is know to be a horribly unptimized pc port. I would say the 4gb version is just fine especially if you are going to upgrade to vega when it comes out, personally I would consider the 470/570 as well if I was just going to upgrade it in few months.

1080p. 580 is like 50USD more than 480 in my country. I don't see the point of paying 50USD for such a minor difference. Thanks btw

 

[dark_lord69]

"Or are there games that have issues with 4GB VRAM?"
4GB is typically enough for just about ANY game. But don't just believe me I found an article that is highly relevant to your question.

This might be the perfect article snip for you!

"Results
1080p: At 1920x1080, we're seeing an average of around 1.5GB to 2GB of VRAM being used, with GTA V blowing all the way out to 3.7GB, and Shadow of Mordor getting there with 3.3GB. Still, 1080p is quite tame on the framebuffer.

1440p: Moving up to 2560x1440, we see GTA V consume 3.9GB of VRAM while Shadow of Mordor uses 3.5GB. Thief begins to crawl up there with 2.9GB of VRAM, while Battlefield 4 on the Ultra preset (minus AA) is only consuming 2.2GB of VRAM and is one of the best looking games out right now.

4K: As for what games or tests use the most VRAM, we see that it's a tie between Thief and GTA V, both using 4.3GB of VRAM, while Shadow of Mordor isn't far behind with 3.9GB being used - all at 4K. Battlefield 4 only uses 3GB of VRAM, which is quite surprising.

Final Thoughts
Surprised? Probably. 4GB of VRAM is more than enough for most video cards today, even at 4K. We haven't taken into account any anti-aliasing, as we're going to follow through with another article that looks at 1080p, 1440p and 4K with 4xAA enabled to see how much AA strains the framebuffer in these titles. But in all my years of using PCs, I barely use AA. AA is a personal preference. I'd rather have high framerates on my 120-144Hz screens, but anti-aliasing really helps at 1080p and below."

Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html

 

[Mahir_1]

"Or are there games that have issues with 4GB VRAM?"
4GB is typically enough for just about ANY game. But don't just believe me I found an article that is highly relevant to your question.

This might be the perfect article snip for you!

"Results
1080p: At 1920x1080, we're seeing an average of around 1.5GB to 2GB of VRAM being used, with GTA V blowing all the way out to 3.7GB, and Shadow of Mordor getting there with 3.3GB. Still, 1080p is quite tame on the framebuffer.

1440p: Moving up to 2560x1440, we see GTA V consume 3.9GB of VRAM while Shadow of Mordor uses 3.5GB. Thief begins to crawl up there with 2.9GB of VRAM, while Battlefield 4 on the Ultra preset (minus AA) is only consuming 2.2GB of VRAM and is one of the best looking games out right now.

4K: As for what games or tests use the most VRAM, we see that it's a tie between Thief and GTA V, both using 4.3GB of VRAM, while Shadow of Mordor isn't far behind with 3.9GB being used - all at 4K. Battlefield 4 only uses 3GB of VRAM, which is quite surprising.

Final Thoughts
Surprised? Probably. 4GB of VRAM is more than enough for most video cards today, even at 4K. We haven't taken into account any anti-aliasing, as we're going to follow through with another article that looks at 1080p, 1440p and 4K with 4xAA enabled to see how much AA strains the framebuffer in these titles. But in all my years of using PCs, I barely use AA. AA is a personal preference. I'd rather have high framerates on my 120-144Hz screens, but anti-aliasing really helps at 1080p and below."

Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html

These are rather old games though

 

[Dunlop0078]

I've personally had numerous problems with games like The Witcher 3 and Battlefield 1 with only 3.5GB - 4GB of video ram. Though I'm sure a lot of people were able to manage with that much, I had to upgrade to a 6Gb 1060 and now everythign works fine.

Wither 3 mostly maxed out hair works off 1440p shows about 2.8gb with msi afterburner memory usage, BF1 uses a little over 3gb 1440p maxed on my system. However VRAM usage is quite complicated and I dont really understand it to be honest, I can tell you that what msi afterburner shows is not actually how much VRAM you are using depending on the game and even the video card. I have read it's what the game requests to be reserved not what the game is actually using. If you compare the RX 460 2GB to the RX 460 4GB they perform nearly the same, wouldn't you think a game that shows it can use 4gb+ on a card with it would perfom much better on the 4GB card versus the 2GB card?

 

[dark_lord69]

If you compare the RX 460 2GB to the RX 460 4GB they perform nearly the same, wouldn't you think a game that shows it can use 4gb+ on a card with it would perfom much better on the 4GB card versus the 2GB card?

When I first saw benchmarks like that I was shocked but, you're right in general the performance is the same and amount of VRAM isn't nearly as important as many believe it is. However, if you are running a higher resolution or a game that needs a huge frame buffer the amount of VRAM needed increases. Since I learned this years ago I have typically opted for the cheaper video cards with less VRAM. Instead I pay more attention to the chip used.
Hypothetical Example: RX480 with 4GB will outperform an RX470 with 8GB

 

[Mahir_1]

Mmhmmm... Thanks a lot