Daniel Owen - Is 8GB of VRAM actually that bad in 2026?

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JonesQVCX@reddit

I havent watched the video yet. But as someone with a 3070 8gb, i can already say. Yes, it is indeed that bad xD. I often run out of vram in games even at 1080p.
Older titles or esports, i guess its fine though.

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jocnews@reddit

Having to lower texture quality is really the most painful compromise in game settings. Because it doesn't really require that much extra performance to use the highest quality ones, unlike things like ray tracing. Having to reduce ray tracing because your card is slow? Doesn't harm your experience a lot. But having to dial down textures makes games ugly in a way, way harsher manner.

That's why it's so harmful that the VRAM capacities have been kept low particularly by Nvidia in the past few years. If they weren't so stingy to be able to charge people sooner for upgrades, the installed base of cards with higher memory configs in people's hands could have been much bigger and we would have much easier time surviving this memory price crisis (thanks for that one too, AI/Nvidia).

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evangelism2@reddit

Maybe you should actually watch the video. It's pretty relevant.

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JonesQVCX@reddit

I did. But i commented a minute or so after it was posted here. But i kinda already knew the answer about the missing lightning and details, as others have made similar videos.

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TheMegaDriver2@reddit

This video s why I got really d of my 3070. But I still get downvoted when I say that 8 gb is not enough.

A 5060 ti can run games at very high settings at 1440p at 100 fps. Yet often the 8 gb version struggles at those settings to go above 30. It's insane. And people keep saying that a 60 class GPU is for 1080. Yet it has enough horse power to push the settings so much higher. And of course a two gen old 3070 already has more compute power than vram.

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NoAirBanding@reddit

I also got rid of my 3070 specifically because it would run out of VRAM long before it ran out of performance.

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TheMegaDriver2@reddit

And I'm getting down voted once again...

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WhyOhWhy60@reddit

I have a 3060 Ti. Admittedly I don't play that many games however I play at 1440p so I'm curious what games and settings are you running out of VRAM on?

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Klappmesser@reddit

There are many newer titles were you have to turn textures to low to not run out of vram. To name a few: indiana jones, ff7 rebirth, Alan Wake 2 etc.

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constantlymat@reddit

Though Alan Wake 2 and Indiana Jones are two notable outliers in terms of VRAM usage.

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NoAirBanding@reddit

You can turn up the settings in Diablo IV and use up all 8GB of VRAM long before the FPS drops under 60.

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Chipaton@reddit

Shit man I play Rivals on low settings (1440p) and still max out my 8gb 3070.

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Obosratsya@reddit

Indiana Jones crashed for me in the jungle with 16gb vram at 1080p if textures are left on Supreme and Shadows on Ultra. One of the settings has to go, on 16gb vram at 1080p. There def are plenty of games where 8gb vram is a compromised experience.

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PrettyBaker2891@reddit

in what games lol

i have a 3070 ti and play at 1440p and never have issues, even in newest titles

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kaden-99@reddit

Yeah, latest game that I played was RoboCop and at 1440p Medium I got around 100 fps on avg and that's like the worst example. Most other games do just fine as long as you are careful with the settings, I just start at medium and make my way up to get around 100 frames with the highest settings possible.

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bestanonever@reddit

That card (and the 3060ti) was done so dirty by planned obsolescence. It has the raw power and dlss compatibility for more. I wish we had a version with 10GB of VRAM or, even better, 12GB.

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Obosratsya@reddit

I have a laptop 3080ti, its performance is 3070-3070ti level but has 16gb vram. The chip is so capable with 16gb. It even managed PT in Requiem at 1080p, the laptops panel.

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Sevastous-of-Caria@reddit

Ahhh the 3070, the 2k prodigy that never was thanks to its abusive mother.

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HuntKey2603@reddit

It is not and it never was. But hey, hardware enthusiast subreddits, I guess.

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seanwee2000@reddit

Tldw: No if you are a tech nerd and know how to test settings, Yes if you are just a casual user.

Performance may seem OK but lighting may be silently breaking with 8gb vram gpus.

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Squery7@reddit

I found it funny that he said that you realistically would play the full extreme preset in fh6 while it clearly loses FPS because Vram limited (and the game tells you anyway).

Like who wouldn't just turn down some Vram intestive settings while keeping most of them on extreme, his tests made it seem that 8gb = normal preset and 16= ultra preset lol

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dampflokfreund@reddit

Problem is that using the high texture quality which massively reduces vram consumption locks the environment detail setting to high too, for no good reason, and that environment detail is the one that has the most impact on graphics, much more vegetation and geometric fidelity on extreme. Luckily though you can set it manually in the user config file. I have been running the game with high textures and extreme environment detail on my 6 GB GPU and it runs very well while looking close to being maxed out.

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TophxSmash@reddit

damn, doesnt work with xbox app version.

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dampflokfreund@reddit

It does. It is just really, really hidden. Search for ForzaUserConfigSelections and pray it finds it. Under selections put the following values:

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TophxSmash@reddit

yeah i just found it after posting lol, thanks i was just gonna try and figure out what number to put too.

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Squery7@reddit

Ah damn I was playing at 1080p on my 8gb vram GPU so I didn't notice it was changing the other setting automatically, I think you can have texture at ultra and environment at extreme tho for some reason.

Good that you can change it in the files at least.

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Hexagonian@reddit

Translation: no if your time ain’t worth shit and youre willing to test every testing on every game

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dedoha@reddit

If your time is so valuable what are you doing gaming on budget cards, just buy 5090 and play on auto detected settings to save precious 2 minutes

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TristheHolyBlade@reddit

People who pretend their time is worth anything while bitching on Reddit will never not be amusing.

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NeroClaudius199907@reddit

People who are coming from sub 8gb or 8gb are used to optimization. Usually people dont even optimize, but its fast, med-high-high textures if still allocation. Increase other settings.

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evangelism2@reddit

Which, if you are a person building a DIY PC and especially one who knows enough about it to care about VRAM, you're in the former.

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Loose_Skill6641@reddit

old news

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Wonderful-Lack3846@reddit

You can also twist the narrative the other way around;

Yes if you are nerd, because you simple want the best graphics.

No if you are a casual user, because you don't care much about the details.

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cloud_t@reddit

Thanks for the TLDW!

I want to add that this is a sad state of things, where people with less money for more than an 8GB card will often intersect with not knowing how to tweak optimised settings for their gpu. This is why it's good that we have entities like Digital Foundry (namely Alex and his great PC-focused videos) with their own generic optimised setting recommendations.

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DangerousAd7295@reddit

I really think we need to improve motherboards, the PCIe bandwidth lanes for consumer boards and redesign CPUs to handle multiple GPUs.

Everyone has a GPU today, and I hope in the future we may reuse our old cards to offload the processing of upscaling, frame gen, and ray tracing, and other graphical settings.

They need to bring back concepts of SLI/Crossfire and allow for parallel GPU computing on the CPUs.

This way, each time you upgrade your GPU you can reuse your old card to handle other computer for a game.

I already do this for my PC but it's mainly for AI and LLMs research.

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zghr@reddit

Yeah I got a bad news - they won't be doing any of that. Not even a little.

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-CynicalPole-@reddit

No, because it's way too big of a sacrifice and it will be only getting worse with future games. Sacrificing texture quality alone can make game look souch worse.

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

As someone with 3070ti can say yes 8gb vram is actually bad , like very bad. I game on 1440p monitor and just bcz vram yeah just bcz of vram I don't get to see 3070ti at it's full potential. It's vram throttle the shit out of game. I had to turn down textures and settings as well to get it within range then game look shit to me.

Right now playing wukong , and man it's lighting is so shit. I cant even turn on RT bcz of vram .

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Cryio@reddit

WuKong only has: No Lumen, SW Lumen and Nvidia PT.

Disabling Lumen entirely is too destructive for the game visuals, so it's not worth it

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

I don't know how to explain this but wukong feels so wierd that its some part soo bright that I can't see the shit and at the same time some parts are so dark that I can't see the shit. Really ruining the experience

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ProZoid_10@reddit

Surely you must have done any research before you dropped $600 on 8gb card. You knew it was coming right?

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

I haven't dropped 600 usd on 8gb card lol

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ProZoid_10@reddit

You waited 2 years until 3070ti prices dropped from covid and still went for 8gb. Guess 16gb fsr 3 was a worse option

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

Who said I bought it after 2 years of launch loo

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ProZoid_10@reddit

Do tell, cuz covid and supply shortages had those 8gb at $400+ for past 2 years. But you bought it knowing it had shorter lifespan in cranking visuals vs competitor

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

Mate I got it for 200 usd from my friend, no matter how I shitty I would say about 8gb ram , 3070ti is a steal

And ohh btw 9060xt 8gb cost us 400usd here and cheapest 16gb again 9060xt is 500usd

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ProZoid_10@reddit

$200 for 8gb is good Thankfully you didn’t buy it at full price or above $450

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comelickmyarmpits@reddit

All new cards are hella overpriced here , I had to go used route unfortunately, even 3080 going for around 350usd plus

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AxenKing@reddit

I mean, I recently upgraded from 4GB to 8GB of VRAM. Now I can play games at 1080p with medium settings !

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TotalWarspammer@reddit

Another no name YouTube pretending they are experts.

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sliptap@reddit

Daniel Owen has 288,000 subscribers and 1,500 videos lol. Not exactly a no name YouTuber

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TotalWarspammer@reddit

Ok maybe not a no name but definitely not an expert.

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ButterFlyPaperCut@reddit

You gotta admit, the guys a redditor with a webcam. He’ll straight up just read shit off of reddit.

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NeroClaudius199907@reddit

"Its the devs fault" I hope people didn't buy 8gb above $380+

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foxfox021@reddit

imo, 8 gb is not bad but not even good rn, barely hanging on the edge, my 4060 laptop with 8gb vram does ok-ish, steady performance on re9(steady 57\~59 1% low fps), stellar blade(steady 54 fps 1% low tho some random drops when going into cutscene or going out of menus)

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