Check Your Graphics Card’s VRAM: A Quick Guide

Surprisingly, many PC users, including gamers, may not be aware of the amount of graphics memory, or VRAM, their graphics card possesses. While this is a consideration during the initial purchase of a graphics card, it can easily be forgotten over time. Nevertheless, knowing your graphics card’s VRAM is crucial in various scenarios. In this article, we’ll explain how to easily determine this information without the need for disassembly.

For both gamers and content creators, having an adequate amount of VRAM is crucial. Inadequate VRAM can lead to difficulties running high-quality graphics-intensive games or even render certain games unplayable. Content creators, particularly video editors, also require substantial graphics memory.

check VRAM graphics card

How to Check Your VRAM:

For Windows Users:

  1. Open the Task Manager, which can be accessed in various ways, such as pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and selecting Task Manager, pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC, or right-clicking the Start button and choosing Task Manager.
  2. In the Task Manager, navigate to the Performance tab. Towards the end of the tab, you will find a section labeled “GPU,” which displays the “Dedicated GPU memory” information of your graphics card.

VRAM memory

For Windows Users (Alternative Method):

  1. Utilize the “dxdiag” tool by right-clicking the Start button, selecting Run, and entering “dxdiag” (without quotes). This tool will collect information about your hardware.
  2. In the “Display” tab(s) (corresponding to the number of connected monitors), you can find the information regarding your VRAM.

DXDiag

Third-Party Tools:

  1. Consider using third-party tools like Aida64 or GPU-Z. GPU-Z, in particular, provides comprehensive information about your graphics card, including its VRAM type.

GPU-Z

For Linux Users:

  1. Open a terminal and enter the following command: sudo lshw -C display. This will display your graphics card’s data, including the VRAM.

Recommended VRAM:

As a general guideline, today’s standard for gaming is a minimum of 4 GB of VRAM, while video editing typically necessitates 8 GB or more. These requirements can vary based on the specific games, their resolutions, and the video editing tasks you perform. However, as a rule of thumb, “more is better.”

vram Xbox series s ram memory

Various factors can influence VRAM requirements and GPU performance, including architecture, memory type, memory speed, and overall PC hardware. Nevertheless, it is advisable to seek a graphics card with a minimum of 4 GB of VRAM for gaming and ideally 8 GB or more for video editing in contemporary settings.