Is 8 GB of VRAM enough in 2026?

Where these figures come from

Of our 210 games, 38 have either a published measurement or an official video-memory amount, and only those are counted here. For 7 games, published tests measured how much memory they use at Ultra; for the other 31, the official requirements state an amount, and we add what higher settings and resolutions usually need: High asks for 2 GB less than Ultra, 1440p adds about half a gigabyte and 4K close to 2 GB. It's a rule of thumb, which is why the table counts games over a line rather than claiming exact usage. Games without a figure aren't counted as fine; we simply don't know. The full method is in how much VRAM you need.

Below High, very few games ask for 8 GB. At 1440p High, 10 games ask for more than 8 GB; at 4K High, 10, because the same heavy games cross the line at every resolution once textures are on High. 12 GB covers every game but one up to 4K Ultra, and 16 GB covers all of them.

The games where 8 GB runs out

⚠ marks a setting where the game asks for more video memory than an 8 GB card has: expect stutter, or lower the texture setting.

DOOM: The Dark Ages asks for about 10 GB already at 1080p High, because its official requirements start at 8 GB. Baldur's Gate 3, Monster Hunter Wilds and Space Marine 2 are fine at 1080p High but ask for about 10 GB at 1080p Ultra. The measured games, such as The Last of Us Part I, Resident Evil 4 and Forza Horizon 5, sit right at 8 GB at Ultra, so they cross the line only at 1440p and above.

What running out of memory looks like

A card that runs out of video memory doesn't just lose a few frames. Textures have to be fetched from system memory, which is far slower, so you get stutter, textures that load late or stay blurry, and sometimes crashes. In our FPS model, for games with a measured figure, a card that is up to 2 GB short loses 10% of its frame rate, and one that is further short 30%. Average FPS hides the worst of it: the stutter shows up in the slowest frames.

The fix is usually one setting: texture quality. Dropping textures from Ultra to High, or from High to Medium, cuts memory use more than any other option and costs little image quality at 1080p. Shadows and render resolution matter less; upscaling helps a little, because the game renders fewer pixels, but the textures stay the same size.

The 8 GB cards you can buy now

A note on close calls: the model's median error is about 10%, so when two cards are less than 10% apart in our estimates, we call it a tie, not a win. Then price, video memory and features decide.

These are fast enough for 1080p: about 117 FPS for the RTX 5060 and 123 for the RX 9060 XT 8GB across our games at High. Speed isn't their problem; memory is. Two of them come in both sizes: the RX 9060 XT 16GB costs $50 more than the 8 GB version at launch, and the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB $50 more. The 16 GB versions are 6% (Radeon) and 2% (GeForce) ahead at 1080p High, a tie in our estimates, so the $50 buys memory, not speed. If you want a cheaper card with more than 8 GB, the Arc B580 has 12 GB for $249 at launch.

So should you buy an 8 GB card?

Yes, if you play at 1080p, mostly esports or older games, and don't mind setting textures to High in a few new ones. An 8 GB card is also fine as a stopgap if you plan to upgrade in a year or two.

No, if you play at 1440p, want Ultra textures, play the heavy games in the table, or keep a card for many years. Games' memory needs have only gone up, and the cheapest fix, paying $50 for the 16 GB version of the same chip, is far cheaper than replacing the card early.

If you already have one, you don't need to replace it for 1080p High. Lower textures where a game stutters and check each game's own page: every game page warns you when your card has less memory than the game asks for at the setting you pick.