TR Forums

I have an RX 460 with 2 GB of VRAM. I'm just a casual gamer; the most demanding game I'm likely to play is Doom.

I hope to get an RX 580 or RX 590 once the prices presumably drop in a month or so. How much VRAM should I get? Is 4 GB enough for me, or should I get 8 GB?

If you tend to keep GPUs for a long time, more VRAM will last longer. The price delta is usually pretty minimal.

For 1080p my opinion is that 4GB is fine. Anything more than that I’d go bigger

This coming from someone who went with the 4200 Ti with slower 128MB RAM back in the day instead of the faster 64MB. I was running a 21” trinitron before upgrading to a 20” Dell Ultrasharp.

The cost difference is pretty minimal.

RX 580 4GB for $190 - $20 promo code: https://www.newegg.com/asus-radeon-rx-5 ... 6814126196
RX 580 8GB for $180 but no promo code: https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-radeo ... 6814131720

So the difference is $10, effectively. I see no reason to skimp, and Doom has some pretty big textures so it might even benefit.

derFunkenstein wrote:

The cost difference is pretty minimal.

RX 580 4GB for $190 - $20 promo code: https://www.newegg.com/asus-radeon-rx-5 ... 6814126196
RX 580 8GB for $180 but no promo code: https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-radeo ... 6814131720

So the difference is $10, effectively. I see no reason to skimp, and Doom has some pretty big textures so it might even benefit.

Doom 2016's full detail settings will fit into 4GB reliably at 1080p outside of its full detail shadows. You'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference, but in conjunction with other maxed out settings those high-res shadowmaps will nudge the video memory requirements to 5 gigs at a minimum. If OP's interested in Doom, it's a safe bet they'll also be interested in Doom Eternal, and I wouldn't buy less than a 6GB GTX 1060 or 8GB Radeon 570 for that.

With the 480 and 580 line, the 4GB versions also run lower-clocked, cheaper Hynix 7GB/s memory chips whilst the 8GB versions use 8GB/s Samsung chips.

so you're not just getting more VRAM with the 8GB versions, you're getting a performance advantage too. Beyond that, my experience with both leads me to believe that the Samsung chips allow the RX580 to be undervolted better, allowing for even more performance and lower noise levels.

Whenever you see cardmakers slapping on extra RAM and selling for a higher price, you have to be careful of a couple things. First, often the GPU itself will become a limiting factor before the benefit of that extra RAM ever comes into play. As Usacomp2k3 mentioned, back in the bad-old-days you'd also occasionally see cards with more RAM using slower memory types, or cut-down interfaces, so that the card with more RAM is actually lower in performance.

The latter scenario will not be the case with a 580. Most of the time it's not going to use more than 4GB at 1080p, but if the price difference in very minimal (~$10-20) I suppose it's worth it.

Should I favour one brand over another: MSI Radeon, Gigabyte Radeon, Gigabyte Aorus, Sapphire Pulse, Sapphire Nitro+?

I don't see any reason why you should. If you're not overclocking, then you aren't going to need a bigger VRM or a better cooler or anything like that. Any well respected vendor will probably be offering much the same as anyone else.

Yan wrote:

Should I favour one brand over another: MSI Radeon, Gigabyte Radeon, Gigabyte Aorus, Sapphire Pulse, Sapphire Nitro+?

For RX 580s/590s, I recommend going for an Asus ROG Strix or a Sapphire Nitro/Pulse if they aren't too much more expensive. Those two seem to have the best coolers on them. If you don't really care about the cooler, choose whatever one is cheapest.

Every game is different. Try looking around for reviews for the games you play.

Here is one for Witcher 3 at the bottom of the page

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Per ... r_3/3.html

So I replaced my RX 460 with 2 GB with an RX 580 with 8 GB, even though I didn't get as good a deal as I hoped, and OMG, as the kids used to say.

One thing I didn't expect is that Doom is now giving me a lot more hints (about glory kills, etc.). I expected better graphics, but I didn't expect more clues. As someone who used to have a low-end card, I'm annoyed that I was at a disadvantage in that regard.

For 1080p my opinion is that 4GB is fine