What is vram in pc?

In this post, we discuss what VRAM is, how to check it, and whether or not you can increase it.

As noted, Video RAM is dedicated to the medium. It differs from normal RAM in that it works with your graphics card, but it performs the equivalent job. The regular RAM is a short-term data store for data and information from the CPU. The CPU calculates and processes, the RAM stores. That’s very much the same deal between the GPU and the VRAM. GPU processes, VRAM stores graphical data like textures between the GPU and the display.

VRAM is just one of the many factors that affect framerates in games, and let you video-edit and do 3D modelling or animation without seizing up your computer.

While each game pushes your VRAM to a different degree (Red Dead Redemption 2 will push your PC much harder than Minecraft!), as a general rule here’s how much VRAM you should have for a smooth experience without artifacting and choppiness:

VRAM is something that physically exists on your GPU, so you can’t increase your VRAM without changing your GPU. However, you can do some things to make sure your PC is making the most of the VRAM available to it.

First off, whether you can increase your VRAM depends on your choice of machine. If you’re on a Mac, your options are limited, and for all intents and purposes, you can’t do this. On Windows, it’s a slightly different story.

Regardless, you can check how much VRAM you have on either machine. Here are the steps for Windows:

Note that if you have a laptop with a dedicated GPU, the above method might just point you to the amount of regular RAM dedicated to your iGPU. To see the VRAM available on your dedicated GPU, you’re better off getting a tool like HWiNFO64 and checking it there.

On Mac, you’ll head to the “System Information” panel and look for your VRAM figures under the “Hardware -> Graphics/Displays” setting.

You can’t technically increase your VRAM, but there are a couple of tricks you can do to give it a little boost. Manage your expectations however,

In some cases, a game or program won’t run if your PC doesn’t have much VRAM. The reason for this is that the developers don’t want their games running with terrible performance then having to deal with complaints from gamers with underpowered PCs! However, using a little registry trick you can fool a game into thinking you have more VRAM than you actually do, which may help certain games run.

Here are the steps:

At this point, restart your computer and see if the problem is solved, and whether you can play the game or run the program will now run.

VRAM is central to gaming, video-editing and other graphically demanding activities. It’s also physically soldered onto your GPU, so you can’t physically increase it, but you may get some benefits out of following our guide above to fake a VRAM increase.

If you’re unsure about the difference between RAM and VRAM, we have a guide for that. Also check out our guide on how to use the different kinds of game controllers with Steam.

VRAM (video RAM) refers to any type of random access memory (RAM) specifically used to store image data for a computer display. VRAM's purpose is to ensure the even and smooth execution of graphics display.

So, what exactly is VRAM?

Video Random Access Memory (VRAM) refers to any type of RAM expressly set aside for collecting and storing image data for a computer display. VRAM ensures that the display of graphics on your device runs smoothly. This is vital for applications that display complex image textures or polygon-based 3D structures.

VRAM is imperative in gaming. Because different games have different resolutions, each one requires a unique amount of VRAM. Rendering a high-quality image requires extra graphics card memory. Without this, the textures will overrun the device's VRAM, and the GPU will allow a spill-over into the RAM. This will result in poor performance.

There are different types of VRAM to consider. They are:

Multibank DRAM (MDRAM) - A high-performance RAM that divides memory into multiple 32kb parts, which can be accessed separately. Such independent memory banks allow multiple access to run concurrently, increasing the overall performance.

Synchronous Graphics RAM (SGRAM) - A clock synchronized and relatively cheaper video memory. It functions like a dual-ported memory by opening two pages simultaneously.

Window RAM (WRAM) - is a dual-ported, high-performance GPU VRAM. It’s more efficient at reading data in high resolution. This RAM, however, is unrelated to Microsoft Windows.

Rambus DRAM - Rambus designed this VRAM. It involves a proprietary bus that helps speed up data flow between the frame buffer and VRAM.

The VRAM is a particular type of RAM that works with a computer’s Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). This dedicated GPU memory is a chip on the computer video card. It’s responsible for displaying images on the screen.

The RAM holds information that the GPU needs like lightning effects, game textures, etc. Hence, the GPU can swiftly access this data and produce the video on the screen.

As mentioned earlier, VRAM is a type of RAM. Random Access Memory refers to a computer’s general memory. So, VRAM exclusively processes graphics inclined tasks.

It acts as a storage for all images and graphic data shown on the computer. It also ensures a smooth execution on the display. With a higher VRAM capacity, you can process more data in less time and with better resolutions.

VRAM is dual-ported; it supports simultaneous read-and-write operations. Whereas the RAM used in PCs is single-ported.

VRAM is typically faster than RAM. Most RAM sticks use DDR4 technology with a speed of 2133Hz and frequency of about 3000-3600MHz. While GDDR6, which is used on most modern VRAMs, works at about 14,000 to 16,000MHz. This is much faster than the DDR4 memory in some other modern computers.

In some cases, RAM can be replaced or upgraded. Laptops use SO-DIMM memory slots, while Desktop PCs use DIMM memory slots. So you can only replace your RAM sticks with faster ones if your computer doesn’t come with soldered RAM.

To increase your VRAM, you need to check if your computer even needs to. If it does, you can upgrade to larger graphics card sizes. Follow the steps below to increase the VRAM via the BIOS.

You’ll see an option to adjust the GPU memory. The size can range from 128MB to 512MB. To change the value;

You can name the folder and give a value of 0-512 max. When finished, reboot the computer.

VRAM is a specific type of RAM or random-access memory as it is solely dedicated to assisting your graphics card. It's not possible to use VRAM with the rest of the computer. Instead, it focuses on helping the GPU work better.

While regular RAM reads and stores data for the CPU, VRAM completes the same job for your GPU. Generally, the more VRAM a system has, the faster it performs because it doesn't need to rely on the computer's RAM or processor as much.

Essentially, it's a buffer between the CPU and your display. It can affect frame rates in games or when video editing.

For a gaming PC, it's vital to have a graphics card with as much VRAM as you can afford. However, it's also important to check the age of the memory. Like with regular RAM, VRAM has seen numerous upgrades. Pay attention to the number in the memory type; for example, GDDR5 is newer and faster than GDDR4 and below.

Neither VRAM or RAM are better than the other. It all depends on what you plan on doing with your computer.

Someone who solely plans on using their device to type documents and browse online doesn't need to worry about having a lot of VRAM, however an avid gamer or someone who edits a lot of videos will need more VRAM to get the most from their experience.

For power users, it's important to have a sufficient amount of VRAM as well as RAM. That way, you won't have any risks with bottlenecks such as if your CPU is limited by a low amount of RAM or your GPU is limited by not much VRAM. It's important to have a well-balanced system.

4GB of VRAM can be enough, depending on your needs, but it's considered relatively low for gamers or video editors.

Typically, 4GB of VRAM makes it possible to play games at 1080p resolution, but it's likely to limit your ability to play at higher resolutions. For video-editing purposes, it's too low to easily edit files at 720p or 1080p resolution.

While it will still be possible to play games or edit videos with 4GB of VRAM, expect to see a drop in performance or quality levels which may impact your experience. That will be particularly noticeable if the 4GB of VRAM is an ageing type of VRAM such as GDDR4 or below.

8GB of VRAM should be sufficient to play games at 1440p or even at 4K resolutions. However, it's advisable to aim for 12GB of VRAM if you can afford it.

For video editors, 8GB will be enough to easily edit 720p to 1080p videos; however, you'll need more to quickly tweak 4K files.

The easiest way to increase your VRAM is to buy a new and better graphics card. In particular, if you have an integrated graphics card and plan on playing games or editing videos, you need a dedicated solution.

It is also possible to increase the VRAM via the BIOS settings. Here, you can adjust the amount of memory you want to allocate to the GPU but it doesn't actually increase VRAM. Instead, it fools the computer into thinking there is more.

What is VRAM, how do you check it, and can it be increased? I’ll be tackling each of these questions below, as well as a few other related VRAM topics that you may find relevant.

With that established, let’s start with the basics.

VRAM is short for Video Random Access Memory, and if you’re familiar with regular Random Access Memory (RAM), you may already have an idea of what that means. Either way, it’s good to clarify these things, so let me lay it out.

Basically, you can think of your PC as having two forms of memory: static memory and dynamic memory.

In this context, static memory refers to things like your storage drives. While they are not necessarily “static” in the sense that they are unchanging, they do tend to be used for long-term data storage and they retain their data even when their power is cut.

Meanwhile, the dynamic memory used by RAM and VRAM is used in real-time by your CPU and GPU respectively to manage the workloads that you are currently running. It isn’t about data storage so much as active data management.

So, VRAM refers to the dynamic memory used by your graphics processor in order to manage whatever is currently running on said GPU.

As such, VRAM capacity tends to directly correlate to things like maximum texture and model detail in games or 3D rendering applications.

For productivity workloads, this means decreased render times for complex tasks and increased scale of what can be done in a given project.

For gaming, this means you can increase things like texture resolution and model detail, so long as the GPU can actually keep up with the performance demands of the higher-quality assets.

This is where the ol’ dxdiag will come in handy. Using either the Win+R shortcut or by just typing dxdiag into Start like pictured above, launch dxdiag.

If you’re curious, that stands for DirectX Diagnostic- DirectX being Microsoft’s graphics API for Windows.

Within dxdiag, click the “Display” tab and scroll through the “Device” reading until you find the entry for “Display Memory (VRAM)”.

In my case, I’m using an Nvidia GTX 1070 with 8GB of Display Memory (VRAM).

Not without buying another graphics card, unfortunately, and using something like NVLINK.

You see, VRAM is soldered onto your GPU’s PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and is not meant to be upgraded or replaced like regular System RAM. VRAM Modules on your GPU are also, more often than not, hidden away beneath a bulky GPU heatsink and cooler and are difficult to get to.

If you’re using an integrated GPU, however, you can allocate more of your desktop RAM to the iGPU chip as VRAM. iGPUs are part of your CPU and use your system’s regular RAM for Memory access. And your regular system RAM can easily be upgraded. Or you can allocate a larger share of your existing RAM to your iGPU.

Alongside upgrading to faster RAM (like a Samsung B-Die kit, perhaps), this is the primary way in which you squeeze more performance out of an iGPU, but it will only take you so far.

Plus, desktop RAM is still extremely different from GPU VRAM, and in fact, is much slower when used for the same purpose.

So, what are your options if you find yourself hit by a VRAM bottleneck? Here are some things that might help.

While there are technical ways to reduce excess VRAM consumption in professional workloads, the only way to really do that is by scaling down the complexity of the project in question, which probably isn’t what you want to do.

It also may not be possible once you’re far enough into that project.

With gaming, the story’s a little different. You can fairly easily get gains in performance by reducing resolution or graphics settings like anti-aliasing or texture detail.

Most modern games these days will actually show you how much of your VRAM a given graphics configuration is going to use and give you a warning if you’re going overboard, too.

Outside of your graphics card, another path of recourse you may have is upgrading to high-speed storage.

By this, I mean finding an appropriately speedy NVMe drive that won’t be bottlenecked by your motherboard- ie if you have a PCIe Gen 3 motherboard, you’ll want to find a speedy NVMe Gen 3 SSD for your PC.

If you’re curious as to why this is my recommendation, it’s because your VRAM is still going to be working somewhat closely with your storage, especially for professional workloads.

Running out of VRAM results in slowdown and sometimes crashes in professional workloads, especially if you are then forced to fall back on a slow mechanical hard drive for cache that can’t fit on available VRAM.

While being forced to fall back on a storage cache still isn’t the best, a high-speed NVMe SSD can still improve the situation, and will generally serve to reduce load times for any projects or games that happen to be stored on the drive.

Provided your Micro ATX, ATX, or Extended ATX build has the clearance for it, adding another graphics card to your system (for an SLI/CrossFire/NVLink setup) is a pretty good option in this scenario.

For most people, especially pros or gamers who are more VRAM constrained, adding another identical GPU to the system will effectively the pool of available VRAM.

You may also see some limited performance improvements elsewhere, but these will scale pretty hard depending on the application, and in the case of games, may not even work at all.

While dual-GPU is nice, if your GPU is starting to feel a little long in the tooth, it may be better to consider a full-on new graphics card.

Not only are modern GPUs being made with much more VRAM, but they’re also using much faster VRAM standards, which can also help you in VRAM-constrained scenarios.

So, how much VRAM do you actually need for your workloads?

To be honest, your actual GPU power probably has more to do with your final workload performance than just its VRAM spec. There are plenty of GPUs with X amount of VRAM but widely differing levels of performance.

However, it is still good to know how much VRAM is needed for your given workloads, and fortunately, Alex has already written a fairly detailed guide for just that.

In general, though, I would recommend a graphics card with at least 8GB of VRAM for heavy-duty modern gaming and productivity tasks.

Well, the basic fundamental difference is that VRAM is used by the graphics card whereas RAM is used by the CPU.

There is also a multitude of differences beyond that, including graphics memory generally being of much higher throughput than desktop memory, but also more expensive as a result.

VRAM can drive up the price of a graphics card pretty quickly, especially during supply shortages.

Within the PC space, no, not really.

With things like gaming consoles, though, you actually can see examples of graphics memory being used for general purpose memory as well.

This has been a common practice in consoles for a while now and can be seen in the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles using GDDR6 VRAM for basically everything they do.