VRAM has been a hot topic in the PC community for the last 5–6 years. I remember when YouTubers were casting doubts on the RTX 3070's longevity due to its 8GB VRAM. At the time, the majority of gamers didn't pay much heed to VRAM capacity, but fast-forward to 2026, and the discussion has certainly become more complicated. The average gamer still underestimates the importance of GPU VRAM, considering it's possible to run out of 8GB VRAM even at 1080p, given the right game and graphics settings. That said, the other extreme, which dictates that 24GB of VRAM be the minimum, is also not rooted in reality. It's important to consider VRAM capacity when buying a GPU, but don't be tricked into spending more than you realistically need for the games you play the most.

8GB of VRAM is still fine for most gaming rigs

1080p gaming is largely unaffected

The concerns around insufficient VRAM took center stage when modern titles started to test the limits of 8GB VRAM GPUs even at 1080p. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and The Last of Us Part I, running high ray tracing or level of detail, routinely exceeded 8GB of VRAM at 1080p resolution. This is finally when people started taking VRAM seriously. That said, the number of such titles that can exhaust an 8GB framebuffer at 1080p High settings is still not high enough to declare 8GB of VRAM obsolete. To be fair, I'm not advocating for more GPUs with meager VRAM capacity. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel should absolutely raise the standards of VRAM on GPUs, but that's not going to happen as long as gamers keep buying any GPU they can get their hands on.

The fact of the matter is that the majority of modern games can still run just fine on an 8GB VRAM GPU. Not everyone is exclusively playing AAA titles with heavy ray tracing and path tracing every day. Most people probably play multiplayer shooters, sandbox survival titles, and MOBA & RTS games regularly, indulging in story-based first-person titles occasionally. Even when they do play these demanding games, most gamers prefer turning ray tracing off and lowering in-game settings in favor of a higher FPS. GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, such as the RTX 3070 and RTX 5060 Ti, are still capable of running heavy AAA games with optimized settings and the help of DLSS or FSR.

More than half of PC gamers still play at 1080p, and 30% of gamers are running GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey. The average gamer isn't running after bleeding-edge path tracing and genre-bending graphics. They need a reliable GPU that can push high framerates in a variety of titles. Fortunately, 8GB of VRAM is still enough to do that, thanks in no small part to upscaling and frame generation.

Low VRAM becomes a bottleneck at 1440p and 4K

8GB isn't future-proof

All of that isn't to say that you should turn a blind eye to the VRAM capacity of the GPU you're planning to buy. 8GB of VRAM might be sufficient at 1080p, but if you're one of the 38% of gamers playing at 1440p (Steam Hardware Survey), you ought to aim for 12GB of VRAM (at least). The 3% of you who are running 4K gaming rigs obviously need 16GB of VRAM or more. The reason is that as the texture size increases with the resolution, and effects like ray and path tracing take more of a toll on the GPU, the VRAM requirements also go up. Even if your GPU has the raw performance to keep up with 1440p or 4K settings, insufficient VRAM can become a bottleneck.

The argument that anyone using a 1440p or 4K monitor will automatically avoid 8GB VRAM GPUs doesn't make sense. GPU prices have been climbing steadily every generation, and to make matters worse, you can seldom find them selling at MSRP anymore. There are only slim windows of opportunity between recurring hardware crises, where a few lucky gamers manage to snag one at MSRP. This has considerably affected gamers' abilities to invest in GPUs with 16GB of VRAM. Nvidia asks for $750 at least (MSRP) for a 16GB VRAM GPU in the form of the RTX 5070 Ti, and I'm not counting the RTX 5060 Ti since it belongs to a different performance class. AMD, on the other hand, does provide the RX 9070 XT with 16GB of VRAM at $600, but you can't find it at that price either.

Hence, gamers buy what they can afford, and that isn't always a 16GB VRAM GPU. They have to settle for 12GB or, worse, 8GB of VRAM. If you're a 1440p gamer, though, you should aim for at least 12GB of VRAM to last you another few years in demanding AAA titles. Upscaling and frame generation will help, but you can't expect the world from them. In today's market, where everything from RAM and SSDs to GPUs is inflated in price, that may be the best you can do.

We're still a ways from 16GB of VRAM becoming the minimum

That's the ideal, but you can manage with 12GB

The minimum amount of VRAM on anything other than an entry-level GPU should be 16GB. However, that's not the reality we live in. Companies like Nvidia and AMD are still using VRAM as a tool for artificial segmentation, forcing gamers to pay more than they really need to. If Intel can provide 12GB of VRAM on a card with a $249 MSRP, Nvidia ought to ship the RTX 5070 with 16GB and the RTX 5080 with 24GB of VRAM. Nvidia knows it can use its market position to shortchange gamers, who don't even represent a lucrative enough market anymore, thanks to the AI boom. And AMD has chosen to compete in the mid-range segment, leaving Nvidia free to do what it wants at the high-end.

That said, 12GB of VRAM isn't the end of the world, as Reddit would have you believe. Gamers using mid-range GPUs like the RTX 4070 Ti aren't suddenly struggling to play demanding titles at 1440p High settings. In fact, my fellow XDA writer (and brother) Samarveer Singh is enjoying Resident Evil 9 on his RTX 4070 Ti rig as I write this article. A GPU powerful enough to run modern AAA titles, aided by DLSS or FSR upscaling and frame generation, can still manage 1440p and even 4K gaming with 12GB of VRAM — you just need to temper your expectations.

The VRAM problem is real, but not as bad as you probably think

There's no denying that GPU manufacturers are fleecing gamers by using VRAM as a means of artificial segmentation. We should have had 16GB of VRAM become the minimum several years ago. If demanding games can run out of VRAM on an 8GB framebuffer, then there's some serious soul-searching to be done. However, most gamers still play at 1080p, and the games they play regularly still run fine with 8GB of VRAM. At 1440p, you can still get by with 12GB of VRAM on a strong-enough GPU. 4K settings require 16GB for an ideal experience, but with optimized settings, even 12GB is serviceable.