AMD Coyly Disses NVIDIA For Skimping On Graphics Card Memory For Gaming
AMD issued a blog post yesterday, right before the launch of the RTX 4070, subtly shredding NVIDIA’s “lackluster” GDDR6 and GDDR6X memory sizes on its RTX 30/40 series graphics cards. AMD says enthusiasts demand the best gaming experience possible and video memory capacities below 12GB are simply not enough to run the latest titles at 4K ultra settings anymore.
AMD specifically targeted Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us Part 1, and Hogwarts Legacy to drive the point home. AMD reports all three games use in excess of 11 GB of VRAM at 4K with rasterized graphics alone. (With ray-tracing, memory capacity jumps by an additional two gigabytes.) Due to this, AMD now officially recommends 16GB of video memory for 4K gaming, and 12GB for 1440P gaming. However, for budget gamers still rocking 1080P panels, AMD is recommending 8GB GPUs, since 1080P resolutions put “less strain” on video memory.
These new recommendations by AMD are well beyond what most of NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series and even the RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti are capable of. The RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 10GB all have memory capacities well under 12GB, and it's not until you reach the RTX 3090 series/RTX 4080 that AMD’s 4K guidelines can be met.
For reference, all of AMD’s RX 6000 series graphics cards start at 12GB of VRAM with the mid-range RX 6700 XT (that’s retailing now for just $350) and go up to 16GB with the RX 6800 series, RX 6900 XT, and RX 6950XT graphics cards. The RX 7900 series GPUs start at 20GB of capacity.
For reference, all of AMD’s RX 6000 series graphics cards start at 12GB of VRAM with the mid-range RX 6700 XT (that’s retailing now for just $350) and go up to 16GB with the RX 6800 series, RX 6900 XT, and RX 6950XT graphics cards. The RX 7900 series GPUs start at 20GB of capacity.
AMD’s argument might be another marketing ploy, but it is certainly valid. It's no secret that video memory issues surrounding the RTX 3080 10GB and RTX 3070 series are starting to become problematic. It is sometimes to the point where certain 2023 AAA titles have to be tuned all the way down to medium-quality settings in some instances just to have a smooth and playable gaming experience.
AMD’s coying is certainly justifiable given these new circumstances. If upcoming releases continue to push the boundaries of mid-range GPU memory capacities, RTX 30 series gamers could be forced into pre-mature upgrade plans due to VRAM bottlenecking alone.
