AMD has officially launched its RX 480 GPU, offering both a 4GB and 8GB variant of the card.
While comparisons to Nvidia’s cards are inevitable, it also gives us an opportunity to look at how much of a difference 4GB of VRAM really makes to your gaming performance.
Recent benchmarks posted by Eurogamer pitted the two cards against one another as well as other recent GPU releases. Check them out below:
| 1920×1080 Test | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920×1080 (1080p) | RX 480 4GB | RX 480 8GB | R9 390 8GB | GTX 1060 6GB | GTX 970 4GB |
| Assassin’s Creed Unity, Ultra High, FXAA | 50.4 | 50.8 | 48.6 | 58.2 | 51.3 |
| Ashes of the Singularity, Extreme, 0x MSAA, DX12 | 45.9 | 47.7 | 52.1 | 45.9 | 40.5 |
| Crysis 3, Very High, SMAA T2x | 68.8 | 70.1 | 75.4 | 78.7 | 72.5 |
| The Division, Ultra, SMAA | 53.6 | 54.8 | 49.8 | 56.6 | 50.2 |
| Far Cry Primal, Ultra, SMAA | 57.1 | 58.7 | 65.1 | 65.6 | 56.2 |
| Hitman, Ultra, SMAA, DX12 | 71.4 | 73.2 | 75.6 | 65.8 | 59.0 |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider, Ultra, SMAA, DX12 | 59.8 | 61.2 | 66.6 | 75.1 | 69.7 |
| The Witcher 3, Ultra, Post AA, No HairWorks | 60.5 | 61.2 | 55.6 | 68.4 | 60.7 |
| 2560×1440 Test | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2560×1440 (1440p) | RX 480 4GB | RX 480 8GB | R9 390 8GB | GTX 1060 6GB | GTX 970 4GB |
| Assassin’s Creed Unity, Ultra High, FXAA | 31.0 | 33.8 | 33.7 | 37.4 | 32.7 |
| Ashes of the Singularity, Extreme, 0x MSAA, DX12 | 40.7 | 42.7 | 46.2 | 41.2 | 35.9 |
| Crysis 3, Very High, SMAA T2x | 41.8 | 43.1 | 48.7 | 47.7 | 43.8 |
| The Division, Ultra, SMAA | 38.1 | 39.0 | 37.8 | 39.9 | 36.1 |
| Far Cry Primal, Ultra, SMAA | 40.7 | 42.3 | 46.7 | 45.0 | 39.6 |
| Hitman, Ultra, SMAA, DX12 | 52.2 | 55.0 | 56.8 | 48.1 | 41.5 |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider, Ultra, SMAA, DX12 | 41.7 | 43.0 | 46.0 | 49.2 | 46.1 |
| The Witcher 3, Ultra, Post AA, No HairWorks | 43.5 | 45.3 | 42.9 | 48.2 | 31.9 |
It is immediately apparent that the difference between the 8GB and 4GB cards is almost negligible.
In games like Assassin’s Creed Unity (playing at 1440p) there may be a slight stutter as the card uses its allocated VRAM, but this would appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
“In the vast majority of scenarios, you’re looking at only a one to four percent advantage by investing in the more expensive card. In terms of the actual gameplay experience that’s delivered, the two versions of the product hand in very similar returns – certainly not enough to justify the 8GB model’s additional $40.”
This ties into other benchmarks, which all highlight minimal gains from VRAM (even when going from 2GB to 4GB), especially if you are willing to sacrifice playing on high rather than Ultra settings.
We can see these benchmarks changing as newer games naturally demand more of your GPU, but for the time being, don’t expect massive gains from higher amounts of VRAM.
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Don’t forget that the GTX 970 only has 3.5gb of properly-usable VRAM. The other 500mb doesn’t count.
Having said that, I had a 970 for about 10 months and I had absolutely zero VRAM problems running these games in Ultra (1080p). Can’t offer any experience for 1440p though.