New article: How much video memory do modern games need

This year can be safely called the year of gaming video cards. It was in 2019 that NVIDIA practically deflated the entire clip - at the time of this writing, even GeForce GTX 1650equipped with 4 GB of memory. AMD will show a series of gaming graphics adapters very soon Navi Generations, however, it was this company that introduced the record-breaking device - Radeon VII, equipped with 16 GB of HBM2 memory. As a result, a very interesting situation has developed in our market. If we talk about gaming systems suitable for entertainment in Full HD resolution and above, then they can use video cards with 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11 and 16 GB of video memory. Such diversity has not been seen for a long time.

In general, in my opinion, the question “How much video memory is really needed for modern games?” is now more relevant than ever. Let's see how much video memory modern games consume and how modern video cards behave in various conditions.

⇡#Modern video cards and their applications

To begin with, let's figure out which video cards in 2019 belong to the gaming category. Let's immediately define the terminology in order to avoid unnecessary questions: the phrase "gaming video card" means a device that provides a conditionally comfortable frame rate (with drawdowns of at least 30 frames per second) in modern AAA projects in a resolution of at least Full HD using at least medium graphics quality settings. This moment is debatable, but by and large, another definition will simply weed out a couple of younger models from AMD and NVIDIA, such as the Radeon RX 560 and GeForce GTX 1050, for example. And so the list of gaming video cards that you can buy in the store is as follows:

Naturally, if one or another accelerator is listed in the WQHD or Ultra HD column, then it is suitable for games in a lower resolution. As you can see, the easiest mode has the largest number of video cards, and there is nothing surprising in this. So, Full HD displays are used by 61,19% of gamers who have the Steam client installed. We will mainly focus on studying performance at this resolution in this article. In this category, according to our table, there are models with 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 GB. Of course, owners of cool video cards also play in Full HD resolution, but, of course, they will definitely have enough video memory.

But let's take another look at the Steam stats. Interestingly, the percentage of owners of monitors with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels is steadily falling. At the same time, WQHD resolution demonstrates a noticeable increase. As for graphics cards, the leading position (19,65%) is occupied by models with 2 GB of memory, and this statistical fact looks rather strange in 2019. But the following picture looks quite logical: in a month the number of video cards with 8 GB of video memory has increased by almost one percent. If things go on like this, then it will be adapters with 8 GB VRAM that will come out on top in 2020 - they have already outperformed devices with 6 GB.

In my opinion, quite expected and logical processes are taking place. Gamers are moving from Full HD to higher resolutions. In 2019, there are already at least four video cards on sale that turn out to be consistent in Ultra HD resolution. In WQHD, I counted as many as 8 of them! Naturally, the faster the video card, the more video memory it has. And yet this rule is non-linear, since each chip designer has his own vision of what is happening.

Here, for example, Radeon VII is a direct competitor to the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080. The current flagship is hard to compete with the latest video card - not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of supported technologies: the "red" flagship cannot offer hardware ray tracing . However, recently revealed data regarding the iron component of the Sony PlayStation 5 Well, in 2020 this game console (and AMD graphics cards, of course) will also support DXR. I think now everyone understands that ray tracing is not a one-day zilch, even though now we are talking about only three games that support this technology.

And if so, then AMD, announcing the Radeon VII, had to put pressure on, in fact, the only “corn” of NVIDIA video cards - on a small (and insufficient, according to the “reds”) amount of video memory, if we compare the GeForce RTX 2080 with the “seven”.

The "corn" of NVIDIA's new products is really present. For some reason, it was decided to make a noticeable reduction in video memory in a number of video cards. Skeptics believe that this was done on purpose: you buy a GeForce RTX 2060, and in a year or two you quickly run for a new video card. Optimists, on the contrary, believe that if NVIDIA decided so, then these guys know something about the games of the near future. After all, the “greens” work closely with many development studios. Be that as it may, some of NVIDIA's new Turing generation graphics cards have indeed taken a step back in terms of VRAM. See for yourself:

• The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB, at its fabulous price, received no more video memory than the former GeForce flagship GTX 1080 Ti, although nothing prevented equipping a 16 GB video card.
• The GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB has a similar level of performance as the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB, but less VRAM.
• The GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB has a similar level of performance to the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB, but with less VRAM.
• The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB has similar performance to the GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB, but with less VRAM.
• The GeForce GTX 1650 4 GB has a similar level of performance as the GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, but less VRAM.

At the same time, the listed video cards (with the exception of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce GTX 1650) have similar prices, that is, even in 2019 they are competitors to each other.

If we add AMD video cards to our list, then in some categories such dramas unfold, which Brazilian TV series, long forgotten by Russian viewers, could envy. For example, what to choose:

• GeForce GTX 1650 4GB, Radeon RX 570 4GB, Radeon RX 570 8GB or GeForce GTX 1060 3GB?
• Radeon RX 580 4 GB, Radeon RX 580 8 GB, Radeon RX 590 8 GB, GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, or even GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB?
• GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, GeForce GTX 1070 (Ti) 8GB, GeForce RTX 2060 6GB or Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB?

Obviously, when choosing a video card, you should not focus only on the amount of video memory - this is how unprepared buyers are "spud" in some consumer electronics supermarket stuck in the 90s. However, with a similar level of performance, questions arise themselves: why does this model have four “gigabytes” of VRAM, while that one has eight? Here I will try to answer them further.

⇡#How much video memory do modern games consume

Video memory consumption was measured in fourteen applications. The graphs show the maximum and average download rates that were recorded after 30 minutes of random gameplay. I did not round up the results. VRAM loading was measured using MSI Afterburner (with a 100ms polling rate) and HWiNFO64. Among other programs, only the Steam, Origin, Uplay and Epic Store clients were active at the launch of the games. The list of games and the settings used are shown in the table below.

Measurements of video memory consumption were carried out using AMD Radeon VII and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti video cards. You can fully study the composition of the test stand on the second page of the article in the paragraph "Testing methods and stand".

I will immediately draw your attention to a few points. First, for this test we used the maximum graphics quality settings. So, even in Ultra HD resolution, I was not afraid to set the maximum anti-aliasing mode in some games. This was done on purpose - in order to determine the ceiling of video memory consumption.

Secondly, the list contains games from different times. On the example of GTA V, you can see that even an old (but still popular) AAA project is able to decently load any modern video card.

Thirdly, the list of applications includes World of Tanks and Dota 2, popular multiplayer games all over the world, designed in such a way that as many people as possible can play them with a comfortable FPS. Therefore, these programs have the most loyal system requirements.

And here let's stop in more detail - further in the article we will talk exclusively about resource-intensive games. The results of measurements of video memory consumption in "Tanks" and "DotA" are taken out separately. We see that when using the maximum graphics quality, even in Ultra HD resolution, a video card with 4 GB of “brains” will be quite enough. Naturally, the GPU of the device should provide the player with a comfortable FPS. Unlike single-player games, framerate is very important in online franchises, but this is a topic for a separate article.

In most cases, gamers, when playing multiplayer games, do not hesitate to use the minimum graphics quality settings, increasing the performance in the game. Therefore, we can safely say that video cards with 2, 3 and 4 GB of video memory are enough for such programs. Here, the amount of video memory is far from the most important parameter. So I consider this issue closed.

Everything changes when it comes to more demanding games. This is where the developers will find the opportunity to use all the resources of your video card! Above are graphics with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, below - with Radeon VII.

Let's collect statistics:

• In 11 out of 12 games in Full HD resolution, the level of video memory consumption exceeds 4 GB; in 5 programs out of 12 - more than 6 GB; in 1 application out of 12 - 8 GB.
• In 2 out of 12 games in WQHD resolution, the level of video memory consumption exceeds 8 GB.
• In 5 out of 12 games in Ultra HD resolution, the level of video memory consumption exceeds 8 GB; in 1 program out of 12 - 11 GB.

As always, any kind of statistics must be treated with a certain amount of skepticism. On the one hand, the results turned out to be quite expressive and speak for themselves. It turns out that video cards with 4 and 6 GB are, as they say, in flight. I generally keep quiet about video cards with 2 GB VRAM (and I remind you once again that the majority of PC owners with such graphics).

On the other hand, it does not always and everywhere make sense to use the maximum graphics quality settings, as well as additional parameters that improve (in theory) the picture. For example, there is no need to set a 4K resolution if you are using a small monitor - with a diagonal of no more than 27 inches. Or, say, it makes no sense to use heavy anti-aliasing modes if the video card simply does not pull them out and does not provide the player with a comfortable FPS. Look, I turned on 8x anti-aliasing in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - well, I saw that the Radeon VII in terms of video memory consumption is better than the GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. And what's the point? The average FPS in 4K resolution at these settings tends to zero, although for the sake of statistics it was funny to see that games can really “eat” more than 12 GB of VRAM.

Finally, the test results are formed on the basis of a total of 14 games selected by me personally. Naturally, more programs could be added to testing, but you can’t test everything at once, and 14 projects is a fairly large sample.

As I said, the graphs show the maximum consumption of video memory and the so-called average consumption of VRAM. The second parameter is an absurd thing to some extent, like the well-known expression “average temperature in a hospital”. Nevertheless, it is present on the graphs in order to clearly show how the consumption of video memory in games can change under different conditions. The difference between the average and maximum scores is especially noticeable in open world games. And for some reason, together with the Radeon VII video card.

Let me draw your attention to one more thing. Some games place maximum data in the graphics card memory if the graphics accelerator has the appropriate resources. This fact suggests that, perhaps, not everything is so scary, and if a game can consume, say, more than 6 GB of video memory, then this does not mean at all that, for example, the GeForce RTX 2060 will experience problems. We will definitely check this further.

The good thing about PC gaming is that the user can choose which settings to change so that the picture on the screen becomes noticeably smoother. You can also use a simpler way - activate one or another graphics quality mode in the game itself. As a rule, programs with high system requirements have four or even five presets in order to lower the entry threshold as much as possible. I used these modes in some games.

I think that when viewing the previous 12 charts, any additional comments are unnecessary. The transition from the maximum quality (it can be called "Extreme", "Ultra", "Outrageous", "Very High", "Highest") to "High" leads to a huge reduction in video memory consumption. And then the question immediately arises: does it make sense to unscrew all the sliders to the maximum?

Sometimes the difference between the maximum and high quality graphics in the game is very difficult to discern. Someone from the developers of graphics chips said: play as intended. Good advertising slogan. And indeed, when buying an expensive video card, you want to twist everything to the maximum and not think again. However, this is not always possible - often you have to make some compromises. In the second part of the article, we will get acquainted with video cards that have a decent level of performance, but experience problems with a lack of video memory - in this situation it becomes the most annoying.

In fairness, I note that studying the quality of graphics from pictures is the same as watching the game of your favorite football team using a text broadcast, and not at the stadium. And it seems that all the data is in front of your eyes, but something is missing ...

⇡#What exactly is spent video memory in games

⇡#Dependence of memory consumption on texture quality

Let's get back to testing. To assess the dependence of memory consumption on texture quality, we conducted additional measurements at Ultra HD resolution, and the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was used in the test bench.

No wonder textures are considered the most voracious graphic elements of any game. For example, in Far Cry 5 (the most controversial game on the list), enabling HD textures almost doubles VRAM consumption!

The screenshots above show a more illustrative example from this game, which still allows you to easily notice the difference between HD textures and regular ones.

⇡#Dependence of memory consumption on anti-aliasing

Quite seriously, the video memory "eats" anti-aliasing. Today, there are many types of anti-aliasing, and all of them in one way or another affect the consumption of VRAM by the application. I added a rather old (albeit still popular) GTA V for a reason. We see that in Ultra HD resolution with 8x MSAA anti-aliasing turned on, VRAM consumption exceeds 8 GB! Here's a game that was released on consoles back in 2013.

Of course, using such an AA mode in 4K resolution does not make any sense, but we present it here for clarity.

⇡#Dependence of memory consumption on the use of ray tracing

The two graphs above clearly show that the use of the DXR function significantly increases the consumption of video memory. Let me remind you that now video cards that support hardware ray tracing are equipped with either 6, or 8, or 11 GB of VRAM (Titan RTX with its 24 GB does not count). Some "spicy" features of using DXR in games I will consider in the second part of the article.

⇡#Dependence of memory consumption on the selected API

Finally, it caught my eye that the choice of API, namely the version of DirectX, affects the consumption of video memory in games quite noticeably. Interestingly, the “dvenashka” turns out to be more demanding on the resources of gaming graphics accelerators.

I've looked at many of the parameters of modern games for VRAM consumption, but these options are the most resource-intensive when it comes to memory. Naturally, if the drop in FPS is caused by a lack of video memory, then it is necessary to lower the quality of these parameters by a step, or even more.

This is why we are here today. The only criterion that will suit any gamer is the smoothness of the picture. And if everything is fine, then, you see, we will not be worried about such moments as lack of video memory. This is what we will check in the second part of the article - on the next page.

Source: 3dnews.ru