Is 8GB of Vram enough for the 3070

Hickaru · 28 Oct 2020 at 03:43

tyler_jrb said:
Yeah very likely a combination of slower memory/smaller bus plus the cuda design.

A 16/20gb variant of the 3070/80 would be very interesting indeed.

Those were cancelled. Latest rumours suggest a 3070ti with 10gb of g6x and 3080ti with 12gb of g6x and increased cuda counts.

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-preparing-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-with-9984-cuda-cores

Kaapstad · 28 Oct 2020 at 05:47

8gb is not enough.

If NVidia figured 2 years ago that the 2080 Ti needed 11gb it is only logical to think that the 3070 is going to need similar as it has similar performance.

The big difference between the 2080 Ti and 3070 is you can not SLI the latter which avoids some very heavy memory usage situations @2160p.

Another thing to remember is the 3070 is a cheaper mid range card so to be fair NVidia are entitled to cut a few corners with things like memory size.

The 3070 is not the Ampere flagship or anywhere close to it but it does offer very good performance/value.

TNA · 28 Oct 2020 at 06:11

Kaapstad said:
8gb is not enough.

If NVidia figured 2 years ago that the 2080 Ti needed 11gb it is only logical to think that the 3070 is going to need similar as it has similar performance.

The big difference between the 2080 Ti and 3070 is you can not SLI the latter which avoids some very heavy memory usage situations @2160p.

Another thing to remember is the 3070 is a cheaper mid range card so to be fair NVidia are entitled to cut a few corners with things like memory size.

The 3070 is not the Ampere flagship or anywhere close to it but it does offer very good performance/value.

Didn’t you say 10gb was enough though? Does not seem to fit with the reason above

Kaapstad · 28 Oct 2020 at 06:57

TNA said:
Didn’t you say 10gb was enough though? Does not seem to fit with the reason above

10gb is enough for most things @2160p but 8gb is the other side of the line and I have seen usage go over that many times in the last 3 or 4 years.

I know in a lot of situations there is caching and loading of textures etc but not all ways.

For the 3070 8gb is the right amount of memory as it is not a high end card and people including reviewers should not expect it to do everything.

I have never forgot the horrible experiences I had with my 4gb Fury Xs, from day 1 there was not enough memory and problems @2160p, in the end I chucked all of them in the dustbin and felt a whole lot better.

Having said that about the Fury X, the 3070 is not targeted at the same part of the market.

It is also interesting that memory requirements for games don't seem to have changed much in the last 3 or 4 years.

Hickaru · 28 Oct 2020 at 07:11

Kaapstad said:
10gb is enough for most things @2160p but 8gb is the other side of the line and I have seen usage go over that many times in the last 3 or 4 years.

I know in a lot of situations there is caching and loading of textures etc but not all ways.

For the 3070 8gb is the right amount of memory as it is not a high end card and people including reviewers should not expect it to do everything.

I have never forgot the horrible experiences I had with my 4gb Fury Xs, from day 1 there was not enough memory and problems @2160p, in the end I chucked all of them in the dustbin and felt a whole lot better.

Having said that about the Fury X, the 3070 is not targeted at the same part of the market.

It is also interesting that memory requirements for games don't seem to have changed much in the last 3 or 4 years.

I think memory requirements will change in 2+ years when true next gen games made in unreal engine 5 will come out... But the catch is that they will probably be so demanding on the current gpus that for a decent amount of games gpu horsepower will be the limiting factor first before vram and we will have to drop settings and vram usage will decrease.

Yea 3070 8gb is in no way a 4k card as that is not enough for 4k going forward. For 4k the optimal amount seems to be 12gb.

RBImGuy · 28 Oct 2020 at 07:33

Kaapstad said:
8gb is not enough.

If NVidia figured 2 years ago that the 2080 Ti needed 11gb it is only logical to think that the 3070 is going to need similar as it has similar performance.

The big difference between the 2080 Ti and 3070 is you can not SLI the latter which avoids some very heavy memory usage situations @2160p.

Another thing to remember is the 3070 is a cheaper mid range card so to be fair NVidia are entitled to cut a few corners with things like memory size.

The 3070 is not the Ampere flagship or anywhere close to it but it does offer very good performance/value.

3070 isn't a 4k card.
3080 is a 4k card so 8gb is obviously bad here.
Nvidia is trying to change the way reviewers review cards with memory

The Old School Gamer · 28 Oct 2020 at 07:45

8Gb is enough for most use cases at 1080p, 1440p, and 4k.

Hardware Unboxed did demonstrate in their 3070 review what happens with Doom Eternal when you exceed 8Gb.
You do experience reduced framerates, but nowhere near to the extent where the game becomes unplayable.

TNA · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:03

Kaapstad said:
10gb is enough for most things @2160p but 8gb is the other side of the line and I have seen usage go over that many times in the last 3 or 4 years.

I know in a lot of situations there is caching and loading of textures etc but not all ways.

For the 3070 8gb is the right amount of memory as it is not a high end card and people including reviewers should not expect it to do everything.

I have never forgot the horrible experiences I had with my 4gb Fury Xs, from day 1 there was not enough memory and problems @2160p, in the end I chucked all of them in the dustbin and felt a whole lot better.

Having said that about the Fury X, the 3070 is not targeted at the same part of the market.

It is also interesting that memory requirements for games don't seem to have changed much in the last 3 or 4 years.

10gb on the 3080 is enough for every game out from what we have seen, not most but all. The only reason I quoted you was because you said "If NVidia figured 2 years ago that the 2080 Ti needed 11gb it is only logical to think that the 3070 is going to need similar as it has similar performance." which did not fit together with what you also said about 10gb being enough

I do not think Nvidia look at it that way anyway, what will we say next gen for hopper, that nvidia thought 24gb was needed for the 3090 so it is logical to think xyz?

All that said I agree the 3070 is a mid range card that is a good fit for 1440p and downwards. I mean hell it runs almost all games fine at 4K just fine apart from a few.

I get the feeling memory requirements will start to change in about 2 or so years time as they start making games from the ground up for the new consoles. But by then we will be on Hopper or Arcturus anyway, hence why I have been on the side of 10gb on the 3080 being enough until Hopper comes out.

Hickaru said:
I think memory requirements will change in 2+ years when true next gen games made in unreal engine 5 will come out... But the catch is that they will probably be so demanding on the current gpus that for a decent amount of games gpu horsepower will be the limiting factor first before vram and we will have to drop settings and vram usage will decrease.

Yea 3070 8gb is in no way a 4k card as that is not enough for 4k going forward. For 4k the optimal amount seems to be 12gb.

I agree that once proper next gen games come out in 2 or so years and will likely want higher vram for the highest settings. But by then as you say you will also need more grunt too and also next gen cards with more vram will be here.

The Old School Gamer said:
8Gb is enough for most use cases at 1080p and 1440p, and 4k.

Hardware Unboxed did demonstrate in their 3070 review what happens with Doom Eternal when you exceed 8Gb.
You do experience reduced framerates, but nowhere near to the extent where the game becomes unplayable.

And even then you can use nightmare texture instead of ultra nightmare, problem solved. There is no difference in image quality between the two.

Participant · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:08

By the time 8GB is the bottleneck for the 3070 rather than bandwidth, you'll be on a different GPU. 8GB is plenty.

People are again conflating usage and requirement.

TNA · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:15

Participant said:
By the time 8GB is the bottleneck for the 3070 rather than bandwidth, you'll be on a different GPU. 8GB is plenty.

People are again conflating usage and requirement.

Did your 3080 arrive or are you looking to grab a 3070?

Participant · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:17

TNA said:
Did your 3080 arrive or are you looking to grab a 3070?

Couldn't get a 3080 and not paying more than MSRP, so hoping for a good showing from RDNA2 today.

Flight Sim is a slideshow on my 970 at 4K and it's such a good game, I'm getting desperate for a better card. 3070 won't be enough.

TNA · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:19

Participant said:
Couldn't get a 3080 and not paying more than MSRP, so hoping for a good showing from RDNA2 today.

Flight Sim is a slideshow on my 970 at 4K and it's such a good game, I'm getting desperate for a better card. 3070 won't be enough.

Yeah, I would not want to pay more than MSRP either. I managed to get a ASUS TUF 3080 for £649.99 but it may still take another month to arrive.

The Old School Gamer · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:27

TNA said:
Yeah, I would not want to pay more than MSRP either. I managed to get a ASUS TUF 3080 for £649.99 but it may still take another month to arrive.

+1

Cyberpunk has been delayed till Dec so that makes waiting a little more bearable.

Kaapstad · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:33

TNA said:
10gb on the 3080 is enough for every game out from what we have seen, not most but all. The only reason I quoted you was because you said "If NVidia figured 2 years ago that the 2080 Ti needed 11gb it is only logical to think that the 3070 is going to need similar as it has similar performance." which did not fit together with what you also said about 10gb being enough

Where the 3070 and 2080 Ti differ in performance vastly is the latter can do SLI.

Once you bring SLI into the picture the 2080 Ti can find itself in situations where there is nearly double the performance and opportunities to really crank up the game settings to levels that even a 3090 can not approach, this does need a lot of memory.

Having said that the 3070 can not do SLI, the above may be one of the reasons SLI is only available to the 3090.

TNA · 28 Oct 2020 at 08:40

The Old School Gamer said:
+1

Cyberpunk has been delayed till Dec so that makes waiting a little more bearable.

Yep. The delay has helped a lot. I got the 3080 mainly for that game and a few more coming out next year, so I have been happy to wait relative to others.

RBImGuy · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:15

as noted here, the 3070 is doa with 8gb.

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Gefo...-vs-16-GB-Benchmarks-1360672/galerie/3450271/

Kaapstad · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:22

RBImGuy said:
as noted here, the 3070 is doa with 8gb.

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Gefo...-vs-16-GB-Benchmarks-1360672/galerie/3450271/

Why?

For what it is the 3070 is a good card.

It is never going to be all things to all people, that is where the 3090 comes in along with the hefty price tag.

ColdAsIce · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:32

Dead on arrival xD REALLY?

Darujhistan · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:42

true_gamer said:
From NVIDIA's Q&A regarding VRAM.

Between 4 and 6GB is needed for 4K gaming in current and upcoming games. Means when you see more, it is just VRAM caching if there is available memory to be used.

Which is proven in my post on the previous page when testing some games with a 6GB GPU at 4K maxed settings, and only peaking at 5.8GB VRAM usage.

Right so why the need for the proposed 16GB and 20GB variants then?

true_gamer · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:49

Darujhistan said:
Right so why the need for the proposed 16GB and 20GB variants then?

Because more is better. Doesn't mean it will all be utilised if is available.

Why buy 32GB Dram, when 16GB is more than enough for gaming? - Because people think more is better. (Unless you are doing certain workloads to utilise all the memory, then it is only bragging rights...)

I'm happy to run any test to prove a point with a 6GB card at 4K.
But don't take my word for it, there are plenty of videos on YouTube with side by side comparison of a 3070 running a variety of games at 4k with no shutters, slow downs etc.

Haven't the purpose 16GB and 20GB been cancelled? Yes.

Is there a 3080 Ti with 12GB in the works? Seems to be.