1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,040 Upgrading your main system memory is a piece of cake. You buy a DDR module, you slot it in, 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:10,880 and enjoy. But have you ever wondered why you can't do that with video RAM on your graphics card? 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:15,920 This is a fair question, especially considering how much VRAM modern games can require. 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:21,520 You see, VRAM stores textures and other visual assets that the GPU processes in order to render 5 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:26,160 all those lovely frames that appear on your screen. And as games have gotten more advanced, 6 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:31,040 these visual assets take up lots of room, especially if you're gaming at high resolutions 7 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:36,720 or high settings. And not only that, but because of how fast your GPU has to spit out all those 8 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:45,120 frames, it needs access to the information in VRAM, oh boy, very quickly. Additionally, 9 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:51,040 graphics rendering is a highly parallelized process, which means your GPU's architecture is 10 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,760 built to work on several data streams at once. You can learn more about that right up here. 11 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:01,840 The bottom line is that VRAM has a lot more bandwidth than your main system RAM. For example, 12 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:10,960 a 1GB GDDR6X chip has a transfer rate of around 84GB per second compared to DDR4 3200, which is 13 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:16,960 only about 26GB per second. All this speed is actually a huge reason why you can't just add 14 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:23,520 more VRAM. You see, the high bandwidth necessitates a large number of physical connections. For example, 15 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:29,600 think about how many pins your CPU uses to both move data and ensure it has a sufficiently stable 16 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:34,800 power supply to do so. But there's only so much room on a typical graphics card. So instead of 17 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:41,360 having a big old socket, like motherboards do, manufacturers instead solder VRAM modules directly 18 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:46,960 to the graphics card PCB to save space. And some types of video memory such as HBM are actually 19 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:52,560 combined on the same package as the GPU itself. Not only does this take up less real estate, 20 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:57,760 but it also cuts down on the risk of data errors. You see, moving all that data around at such 21 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:03,360 high speeds introduces the possibility of errors, kind of like how trying to type really fast means 22 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:08,320 that you're likely to make more spelling mistakes. Soldering VRAM chips directly on the board and 23 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,600 integrating them tightly with a GPU is not only cheaper than engineering a socket or slot that 24 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:19,760 an end user can add VRAM to, but it also removes a layer of complexity that could result in more 25 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:24,400 data errors. Although there were some older graphics cards from way back in the day where you 26 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:29,760 could slot in more VRAM, the amount of speed you need these days means it just isn't practical 27 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:35,600 anymore. And even if you just tried to solder a higher capacity VRAM chip onto your graphics card, 28 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:41,280 there's a chance, a pretty high chance it wouldn't work due to the card's firmware being specifically 29 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:46,400 tuned for the VRAM configuration it's shipped with. Not to mention you'd probably end up breaking 30 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:53,200 your expensive GPU, so I wouldn't risk it. But even though games are requiring more VRAM than ever, 31 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:58,880 the culprit of poor performance is much more often an underpowered GPU rather than insufficient 32 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,520 VRAM. So if you're having weird slowdowns or crashes in a game you're playing, do a bit of 33 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:09,520 research and see if you really need a higher tier GPU rather than just more VRAM. And if you're using 34 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:14,640 an integrated GPU, not a discrete graphics card like this one, those solutions actually use part 35 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:19,920 of your main system memory as VRAM. So if you find yourself running low, you can go into your 36 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:24,720 computer's BIOS and increase the amount that's allocated for video memory. Man, if only it were 37 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,880 possible to just download more VRAM like you can with regular RAM. It'd be so much easier. 38 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:32,720 So thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video, hit like, hit subscribe, and hit us up 39 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,400 in the comments section with your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.