GeForce RTX 2060 VRAM Usage, Is 6GB's Enough for 1440p?

Yeah please don't mistake me as arguing against having more VRAM. Given the option I'd definitely like more. I'm on a 4GB card right now, till the new rig gets built. I had reservations about an 8GB card but figured if I didn't upgrade from 1440p to 4k, it would be ok for a while and maybe I don't go so long between upgrades again (8 years now). But I definitely agree that Nvidia blew it with how they did the 30-series in that regard.

Honestly, the last time I had any actual VRAM issue was with a 2GB GTX 670 with a texture modded Skyrim and that looked like everything slowing down to a literal slideshow. Unless running out of VRAM looks different these days, call me somewhat skeptical to a lot of the claims going around like everyone's running out of VRAM all the time. Granted I am talking about new cards within the last couple generations. I highly doubt an 8 year old card's reason for sucking at ultra settings at new 2022 games is limited to VRAM. Same goes for mid-range cards from 5 years ago. They have other issues besides VRAM.
 
HockeyJon said:
I highly doubt that the system RAM would have made a difference. I can't think of a single gaming situation where 16GB isn't sufficient right now. RAM is something you need ENOUGH of. Having more than you need just sitting there won't improve your framerate.
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I routinely exceed 16GB of Ram usage while gaming but My days of making sure I close everything and have bare minimum loading are long gone. I have enough ram and cores not to worry about all that.
 
WilyKit said:
I routinely exceed 16GB of Ram usage while gaming but My days of making sure I close everything and have bare minimum loading are long gone. I have enough ram and cores not to worry about all that.
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Ok, but Steve isn't running benchmarks with 47 Google Chrome tabs open, so 16GB vs 32GB of RAM in his benchmarking system wouldn't make a difference because he's not running out of system RAM.
 
HockeyJon said:
Ok, but Steve isn't running benchmarks with 47 Google Chrome tabs open, so 16GB vs 32GB of RAM in his benchmarking system wouldn't make a difference because he's not running out of system RAM.
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Perhaps not, but as time goes on, more and more people will opt for 32 over 16GB of RAM. It makes sense to test with a configuration that's gaining in popularity. It also removes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you left performance on the table due to not enough system RAM. Not sure if you've monitored memory usage when playing Warzone, but it gets up there and flirts with the limits of 16GB. It makes less sense to test with a barebones configuration with 16GB when most people aren't going to be running a barebones windows install, then wonder why their 16GB isn't performing the same as the reviewers 16GB configuration.
 
I'll chime in on both fronts as I recently upgraded and can post firsthand knowledge. FWIW I game at 7680x1440 so lots of textures to fill.

1) I would keep an eye on Vram on a new purchase. The 1080ti's I just replaced were still able to play today's games at decent quality settings due in large part to it's 11GB Vram.

2) You can chew through 16GB system ram faster than you'd think without having a zillion tabs open.. I'd recommend 32GB for anyone building a system today.

I use the Afterburner OSD in all games. The rig I just upgraded from had a pair of 1080ti's, 16GB ram and a [email protected]. The OSD never reported more than 14GB system Ram used or 8~10GB or so Vram while gaming so I figured I was not at the ceiling. Upgraded to a system with 32GB and now I often see system RAM usage exceeding 16GB at the same resolution(s). I think part of the reason I was not seeing performance hits was the speedy NVme drive in the system was able to keep up.

My2c.
 
I've been running 32GB for a year and a half now. Very happy I did. Putting a 32GB kit in my new rig too.
 
WilyKit said:
Perhaps not, but as time goes on, more and more people will opt for 32 over 16GB of RAM. It makes sense to test with a configuration that's gaining in popularity. It also removes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you left performance on the table due to not enough system RAM. Not sure if you've monitored memory usage when playing Warzone, but it gets up there and flirts with the limits of 16GB. It makes less sense to test with a barebones configuration with 16GB when most people aren't going to be running a barebones windows install, then wonder why their 16GB isn't performing the same as the reviewers 16GB configuration.
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Sure, just like 5 or 6 years ago you would have been fine with 8GB on a test rig, with 16GB being likely unnecessarily high. It won't make a difference unless he actually uses the extra RAM though. In gaming, unless you have 40 Chrome tabs open, it likely won't for you either. Perhaps in Warzone, IDK, but if that's the case, it would be extremely unusual.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy and God of War will chew through VRAM and RAM like it's nothing..
 
HockeyJon said:
Sure, just like 5 or 6 years ago you would have been fine with 8GB on a test rig, with 16GB being likely unnecessarily high. It won't make a difference unless he actually uses the extra RAM though. In gaming, unless you have 40 Chrome tabs open, it likely won't for you either. Perhaps in Warzone, IDK, but if that's the case, it would be extremely unusual.
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You don’t need 40 tabs open to benefit and WZ is one of the most popular games out there. Testing with 16gb makes far less sense. If you think there’s no benefit to 32 then you should have No problem problem with them testing with 32 since the results are the same according to you. I have a few gaming rigs. 2 with 32 2 with 16. While my in game performance between the 32 and 16go ones is virtually the same, what isn’t the same is alt tabbing in and out of the game. The 32 gb machines are instantaneous. The 16s aren’t and sometimes crash the game when going back in.
 
With system memory speed moving faster then say socket 775 days as displayed by the use of APU's that use system memory for vram is the reason a 5700g exist.
 
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