8GB VRAM in 2025? Only if you’re speedrunning regret
The summer has been dominated by mid-range and entry level GPU launches, fromNvidia’s RTX 5060and 5050 toAMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT. And many of these are rocking 8GB of video memory — the critical element of a card that allows for rendered graphics to be stored and used on-demand.
This is a capacity that has been around since 2016, and if you listen to people in high places, this is enough for all-round 1080p gaming. But games likeIndiana Jones and the Great Circle(12GB of VRAM recommended) and Cyberpunk 2077 would beg to differ. Especially more so if you’re considering making the jump to 1440p gaming.
As I said in myRTX 5060 Ti review, go for 16GB as a safe bet to protect yourself from the ever-increasing demands of AAA games. And as sales data shows, you’ve all understood the assignment.
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What does the data show?
(Image credit: Mindfactory / WCCF Tech)
This insight comes from German retailer Mindfactory, which shows how many of each listing it sells. As spotted byWCCF Tech, the sales differential between Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti in 16 and 8GB variations, and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT in these flavors is stark.
- For the RTX 5060 Ti, the 16GB model has seen 16x more unit sales than its 8GB counterpart.
- For the RX 9060 XT, that number goes up to 30x more for 16GB.
One thing is evident, regardless of what you hear from companies telling you 8GB is enough, PC players aren’t buying it (literally and figuratively), and neither am I.
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Good, but only in specific circumstances
If you cast your mind back, we got some hands-on testing time with the RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM. Of course, this was a test within certain conditions Nvidia set out to us — to show what was possible at 1080p with well-optimized titles packing DLSS 4.
And like I said, the end result is pretty good. But of course, as I said, you have to play within a very specific playground here. Because if you branch out and look at the raw rendering performance of this card, that 8GB is an albatross around the neck of this GPU.
Looking at the portable side of things, intesting RTX 5060 laptopsout atComputex 2025, if your game library already comes packed with DLSS 4 tech, there’s weight to a reason why first-time gaming laptop owners would find value in an RTX 5060 system.
But for desktop, it’s a different story.
| Game | Frames per second at 1080p (Rasterized) | Frames per second at 1080p (DLSS with frame gen) |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 45.42 | n/a |
| Black Myth Wukong (Cinematic) | 35 | 55 |
Some of this will come down to the number of CUDA cores in here for rendering, but a big chunk will be the barrier of that video memory. And that leads to one inevitable problem.
Demand is far outstripping this hardware
At best, these 8GB cards are made by committee — looking at Steam user data and pinpointing a particularly large area of 1080p gamers without noticing the growing trend in 1440p.
At worst, they’re here purely to say a lower price like “from $299.” And if you’re a desktop PC gamer looking for a new GPU or a pre-built tower, if you see the number 8 next to that graphics card name, avoid it.
There are some strengths to these cards right now, but the weaknesses felt in that stuttering on particularly intensive titles right now is only going to get worse into the future. Give yourself some breathing space with 16GB of VRAM.
What should you buy instead?
I know it’s a difficult answer, but the only one for real on paper is to buy a more expensive GPU. That additional video memory will be more than worthwhile in terms of long-term value.