Does less VRAM but of faster type equal to more VRAM of slower?

[bingbongbangbung]

Allegedly that's supposed to be the case but I don't know if it's true, and I'm kind of skeptical. Like 8GB HBM2 VRAM = 12GB GDDR5X VRAM or 24GB GDDR6X VRAM = 16GB GDDR6 VRAM. People claim that is only true if the faster memory type is utilised correctly, so programs that aren't optimised for it won't.

Updates

+1 y

Oh crap, there's a typo! I meant 16GB GDDR6X = 24GB GDDR6

[erandal]

I would say no. (sort of...)

In my experience if the memory type and speed is fairly similar (e. g. GDDR6 vs GDDR6X) then increasing the amount of memory will offer better performance, up to and around double the recommended amount for the game. If the memory type and speed is significanly different (e. g. GDDR5 vs GDDR6) then yes the faster memory should meet the same performance as a larger amount of slower memory but the difference in the speed will have to be significant for this to be noticable unless using benchmarking software.

Look at he transfer rate of your memory, while GDDR5 runs at anything from 625-1000 MHz and GDDR6 runs at anything from 875-1000 Mhz the transfer rate is more than double (5-8 and 14-16 GBps respectively).

[bingbongbangbung]

You also have to take into consideration the bus width and bandwith too. The clock speed and transfer rate alone don't determine the speed of VRAM.

[Кураж]

Kind of, in theory.
Faster VRAM is usually better, but it comes down entirely to the VRAM demand of the current task.

If the VRAM pool is sufficient for the current task, the faster memory can actually perform better than the bigger but slower memory bus.
But if the VRAM demand exceeds the available VRAM pool, the performance of the smaller/faster bus will go to shit way more.

In practice, it's generally better to have faster memory than more memory.
Those cases where more VRAM helps are pretty rare, and probably won't really be an issue with neither 16gb nor 24gb cards for a while.

[exitseven]

It depends on what kind of applications you are using. If it is gaming you need to check the resolution the games are set at. 12GB GDDR6 is a little better than 24GB GDDR5. The difference is so small you will never notice it.

[bingbongbangbung]

GDDR6 is faster than both GDDR5 and GDDR5X though, might even be faster than HBM1

[exitseven]

You are right about that.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[Anonymous]

Faster is always better than more ram because you won't always use extra memory but you will always use speed.

It depends what you are trying to run though, most games dont require a particularly strong card.

What matters the most right now is single thread cpu power and fast hard drive speed, so put your money there before you worry about gpu unless you have a specific requirement.

[bingbongbangbung]

Since 2018, developers have started to optimise their games for 6 and even 8 core CPUs. And since 2020, SSDs are pretty much a requirement to run new games without slowdowns. The way PC games work are reflective of their console counterparts since most developers focus on those platforms. But I do agree you don't need something like a RTX 3080 or RX 6800 to run even the newest games.

[bingbongbangbung]

None of you still directly answered my question 😒

[Opinion Owner]

Yes, a lot of software uses multiple cores but as with memory speed is always useful, so single thread performance is superior to more cores.

I didn't directly answer because I dont know the answer also the answer will be different depending on the software you are running, hence speed > memory.

[bingbongbangbung]

Single thread performance isn't really increasing that much with recent CPUs anymore; when even Intel cares about adding more cores as seen with 12th Gen, then you know multicore matters.

[Opinion Owner]

It doesn't matter whether or not it is increasing or how many cores you have, you should always select for single thread performance because speed is always used.

The more you spend the more cores you are going to get anyway.

But this entire thread and your interest generally is absolutely nothing to do with real world performance or what hardware you should buy.

The specs of the machine you have posted in your profile are more than enough to run anything, you actually dont need anything like that infact.

So what this tells me is that you are defining yourself by your computer specs, it is about status and bragging rights and that is pathetic.

[bingbongbangbung]

Where do you get that I'm doing this for bragging rights?

[bingbongbangbung]

Sorry I can't view the description of my profile in the mobile app 😒

[bingbongbangbung]

I had to sign in via the browser to find out. Smh those aren't my specs and if you bothered reading it carefully, you'd know it's a joke, GDDR7 doesn't even exist yet and won't exist for a few more years! I never even specified which components I had. Writing something like Ryzen 16C/32T CPU 5GHZ is a lot different and vague compared to Ryzen 9 5950X.

[zagor]

Depends on what is being used. More capacity doesn't mean faster if it isn't being utilized.

[Slartybartfast]

The amount of vram it takes to store textures increases with the resolution. If you're going for high fps at 1080p vram speed is more important.

[bingbongbangbung]

FHD isn't really considered demanding unless ray tracing, anti aliasing, or extremely high Res textures are involved. Even for console standards, FHD isn't some super god like resolution like it was a decade ago.