As we can clearly see, in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, 4K resolution has become increasingly popular, providing unparalleled visual experiences with crisp details and lifelike graphics. The pursuit of high-quality gaming and video production has driven the demand for more powerful hardware, and one of the crucial components to consider is VRAM.
We know that all this tech stuff can be a bit confusing, but don’t worry! We will break it down in simple terms, so you don’t have to be a computer whiz to understand. We’ll talk about what VRAM is, why it’s essential for 4K gaming and video editing, and how much of it you’ll need for the best 4K experience.
After doing all of this research, here is our summary:
| Minimum VRAM amount | Ideal VRAM amount | |
| 4K Gaming | 6GB | 8-12GB |
| 4K Video Editing | 6GB | 8-16GB |
Do not go anywhere; there is so much more to know behind these numbers. Trust me,if you read the whole article, you’ll be much more knowledgeable and make the best possible decision.
VRAM shortly explained
Imagine VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) as a special workspace for your computer’s graphics card. It stores and manages all the visual information, such as textures, images, and videos, that you see on your screen. The more VRAM, the better it can handle complex visuals and high-quality graphics in video games and other applications.
Think of it as dedicated memory storage just for your GPU, making sure everything runs smoothly and looks great. Ok, now let’s see why it is important for gaming and video editing.
The connection between VRAM and gaming
4K gaming involves displaying visuals at a resolution that is four times the detail of a standard 1080p display. This higher resolution means that your GPU has to manage a lot more graphics data at once.
Now, VRAM is essential in this process because it stores and manages textures, images, and other graphical elements needed for the game. When you play a game in 4K, the amount of visual data increases significantly; therefore, we need more VRAM to handle this information efficiently.
In simple terms, having enough VRAM for 4K gaming ensures that your graphics card can keep up with the high-resolution visuals, providing a smoother gaming experience without stuttering or lag.
The connection between VRAM and video editing
When you think about it, there are 3 ways how video editing utilizes VRAM: playback, rendering, and encoding.
Playback
When you’re watching a video, the graphics card uses VRAM to store and manage the video frames. It ensures that these frames are displayed on your screen at the right time and in the correct sequence. So, if you have sufficient VRAM, you will have a smooth playback without stuttering or freezing, especially for high-resolution and high-frame-rate videos.
Rendering
In video editing, rendering refers to the process of generating the final video output from various elements like clips, effects, and transitions. The graphics card uses VRAM to temporarily store and manage these elements during rendering. Adequate VRAM allows for faster rendering and the ability to handle complex scenes and effects, improving your editing workflow.
Encoding
Encoding is the process of converting the rendered video into a specific format for storage or streaming. It often involves compressing the video data to reduce its file size. The graphics card leverages VRAM to store and manage the data involved in the encoding process, helping to speed up the encoding process and handle high-resolution videos more efficiently.
Ideal amount of VRAM for 4K gaming
Look, there is no specific answer since it all depends on what you want to play, as each game has its own graphic complexity, texture resolutions, and settings. Here are just a few factors:
Texture Quality
Higher texture quality demands more VRAM as the graphics card needs to store and manage larger, more detailed textures. Games with highly detailed environments and intricate textures will consume more VRAM than those with simpler visuals.
Anti-Aliasing
Anti-aliasing techniques, such as MSAA or TXAA, are used to smooth out jagged edges in games. Higher levels of anti-aliasing require more VRAM, as they involve rendering additional samples and storing them in memory.
Post-Processing Effects
Many modern games feature post-processing effects like ambient occlusion, bloom, and motion blur. These effects can increase VRAM usage, requiring additional buffers to be stored and processed.
Draw Distance
In some games, the draw distance determines how far into the game world you can see, with higher settings displaying more objects and terrain at a greater distance. This increased level of detail can lead to higher VRAM consumption.
Provided that everything else in your computer system is adequate, you’ll need roughly 1GB of VRAM per 1002000 pixels to get the most out of that VRAM. To put it another way, given typical aspect ratios:
- 1.04GB for 768p
- 2.07GB for 1080p
- 3.9GB for 1440p
- 8.3GB for 4K
- 14.7GB for 5K
With 8GB VRAM, you can easily obtain a good to fantastic frame rate in 4K for less graphically demanding games or older titles. But, as games get more demanding with more pixel effects, added visual candy, longer view range, larger graphics, and so on, the VRAM demands skyrocket. So it’s not as simple as that, and it all relies on your individual requirements.
However, if you want to use all of that VRAM, you must first have a GPU capable of handling reasonable frame rates in 4K. In other words, even if a Geforce 1050 has 8GB of VRAM, you won’t be able to play 4K games with it.
From experience, we can say that 10-12GB VRAM would be ideal for 4K gaming.
I noticed that many gamers have been asking whether the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080’s 10GB of GDDR6X VRAM is sufficient for 4K/Ultra gaming since its introduction. Yet, the RTX3080’s VRAM is not a bottleneck in any game.
The game Call of Duty Warzone used up 9.3GB of our VRAM. On the other hand, Watch Dogs Legion needs 9GB at 4K/Ultra. Throughout the action, Marvel’s Avengers consumed 8.8GB of VRAM. Moreover, Crysis Remastered required 8.7GB of VRAM, whereas Quantum Break required 6GB. All of the other games used between 4 and 8.5GB of VRAM.
Even with 4K/Ultra settings, Cyberpunk 2077, a game that pushes next-gen visuals, has no VRAM difficulties. We definitely cannot forecast the future.
Ideal amount of VRAM for 4K video editing
When diving into 4K video editing, a mainstream GPU with a minimum of 6GB VRAM will be fine, but I’d strongly recommend opting for a GPU boasting 8GB to 16GB VRAM.
The extra memory allows for smoother editing, especially when working with complex projects. As we can see, PugetSystems recommend a minimum of 6GB VRAM for 4K editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and 8GB for DaVinci Resolve.
They also did a wonderful analysis comparing some popular GPUs for video editing in terms of 4K Media Score. Here are the results:
| GPU | 4K Media Total Score |
| RTX 3060 12GB | 169 |
| RTX 3060 Ti 8GB | 177 |
| RTX 3070 8 GB | 180 |
| RTX 3070 Ti 8GB | 190 |
| RTX 3080 10GB | 195 |
| RTX 3080 Ti 12GB | 197 |
| RTX 3090 24 GB 24GB | 198 |
It’s evident that as we progress through the RTX 3000 series, from the RTX 3060 12GB to the RTX 3090 24GB, there is a gradual increase in performance. However, the differences between some models are marginal, suggesting that the performance gains might not always be substantial.
When choosing a GPU for 4K editing, you simply have to consider the price-to-performance ratio. For example, the RTX 3060 Ti 8GB and RTX 3070 8GB offer similar performance, with only an 8-point difference, which may not be significant enough to justify a higher price tag.
Likewise, the difference between the high-end RTX 3080 Ti 12GB and RTX 3090 24GB is just 1 point, indicating that the additional investment might not yield a considerable performance improvement.
Some GPUs with lower VRAM, like the RTX 3060 Ti 8GB and RTX 3070 8GB, have higher scores than the RTX 3060 12GB, which has more VRAM.
While VRAM plays an important role in handling high-resolution media, other factors like GPU architecture, core clock speed, and memory bandwidth also contribute to overall performance. Thus, it’s essential to consider the GPU as a whole rather than solely focusing on VRAM when evaluating performance.
In conclusion, it’s crucial to evaluate your specific needs and budget when selecting a GPU for 4K media. Remember that the performance gains might not be linear across the series, and the ideal choice often lies in balancing cost and performance.
And yes, one more thing. The program you use for editing plays a significant role in determining VRAM requirements. For instance, Premiere Pro can handle 4K editing on a 4GB card without much hassle, as it doesn’t heavily rely on the GPU. On the other hand, DaVinci Resolve demands more VRAM, around 8GB, for efficient 4K editing. This is why we recommend determining the specific software requirements you intend to use.
I know a guy who has 4GB VRAM (GTX 1650 Super), and he can edit 4K in Premiere but only HD on Resolve. Currently, he is considering an upgrade to either an RTX 3000 series or AMD Radeon 6000 card once they’re widely available to compare price and performance. Until then, his 1650 Super serves him well.
Another friend of mine has edited in Resolve for a couple of years. I learned from him that while you can edit 4K with just 6GB VRAM, you will get much more frequent rendering errors, GPU errors, and glitches. You can do basic griding, but the idea of doing noise reduction and fusion with 6GB VRAM is out of the question.
As for system RAM, 32GB is a decent starting point, ensuring reasonable timeline scrubbing performance. However, for truly seamless scrubbing and editing experiences, I’d advise bumping up your system RAM to at least 64GB. Remember, the ideal configuration ultimately depends on the type of content you’re editing.