- Due to poor game optimisations, high VRAM usage is one of the biggest modern gaming issues.
- Players are now upgrading to 16GB GPUs, as they edge closer to overtaking 8GB GPUs.
- For the longest time, 8GB was considered the sweet spot, but it isn’t enough anymore.
The gaming industry has abruptly changed over the years. Games now often release in an unfinished state with terrible optimisations, and that leads to higher VRAM consumption. Unfortunately, even 8GB VRAM doesn’t feel enough anymore.
This has led to people upgrading their graphics cards, and now 16GB VRAM GPUs are on the verge of overtaking 8GB cards, as per the Steam Hardware survey. 8GB holds about 26% share, while 16GB is closing in with 23%.
Why it matters: Since the advent of Unreal Engine 5, optimization has been a disaster for modern gaming. High VRAM usage, bugs, and other technical issues make the experience immediately underwhelming for most.
Steam recently updated its hardware survey for April, and the share for 8GB GPUs fell, while it increased for 16GB GPUs. As of this month, the higher VRAM cards are clearly the preference and could overtake 8GB soon.
The most popular entries in the 16GB space include the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, RX 6800, and RTX 5070 Ti. Interestingly, AMD’s latest offering, the RX 9070, has also joined the ranks a year after launch.
Despite not being as popular as Nvidia cards, the latest AMD RX 90 series provides great value for money and offers 16GB variants across the board, except for the 8GB variant for the mid-tier Radeon RX 9060.
What are your thoughts on 16GB GPUs overtaking 8GB GPUs soon? What VRAM does your graphics card have? Let us know your opinions in the comments or join the discussion at the official Tech4Gamers Forum.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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