Which must be better RAM or Graphics Card?

[Cute Dog]

:)

[zoe]

I've been wondering the same thing.... I'm betting RAM, but I'm no professional. Maybe google it? c:

[Chicken Joe]

Well, it depends.... RAM depending on how many programs your gonna be running and how big they are. Graphics card if its a game and you want good graphics.

[100% Recycled Awesome]

ƒancy の投稿を引用：

Which is which?

This is a poorly worded question.

Especially since Graphics Card RAM choices can make or break a build. AMD and Nvidia on low end cards will stack it with 4 gigs of slow as molasses RAM where faster cards with often have 1 or 2 gb of GDDR5 which is considerably faster and will help the GPU process way better.

System RAM speed doesn't impact performance much, but system RAM size does. Going from 4GB to 8GB makes a big difference for many games. Where going from 1033 to 1866 largely isn't noticable.

[PLANTROON]

It depends on what graphics card you want to use. For example the new APUs rely completely on the computer's memory as graphics memory - so in this case, the faster RAM you have the better gaming you get.
For some people even the integrated GPU is enough, eg. people who work with databses and stuff like that - they need a fast CPU and also well performing RAM.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you are going with dedicated GPU, then your system RAM won't matter.
When u see GPUs with say "GDDR5", that is on-board the GPU, so please don't be confused by that.

As far as what would be good to have for system RAM and what is a good GPU to use; that depends on the needs of your apps/games, or what is required for them, etc.

[Rove]

You need both. With a AMD APU the RAM matters most since you don't have a graphics card. For most everything else the GPU matters more within reason. One won't work without the other. So they are both important.

Can you be more specific in your question as it applies?

[Cute Dog]

"Can you be more specific in your question as it applies?"

What is better?
-Bad Graphics card w/ High Ram( 6-8gb)
-Good Graphics card w/ Low Ram (1-3gb)

Choose from the choices above

[Rove]

ƒancy の投稿を引用：

"Can you be more specific in your question as it applies?"

What is better?
-Bad Graphics card w/ High Ram( 6-8gb)
-Good Graphics card w/ Low Ram (1-3gb)

Choose from the choices above

Good graphics card with low RAM is better. This is because it can use your system RAM as well as it's own. So as long as you have enough extra system RAM in your system it's fine.

IE HD 6450 4GB vs HD 7790 1GB either card in a stsem with 8GB of system RAM the HD 7790 will be wat better. Now put the HD 6450 4GB in a build that is choking for system RAM with only 1GB to 2GB of system RAM and that might actually be better for *some* things. Specially cause nothing else in the build will be performance enough to use the HD 7790 properly.

So ya for a gaming rig you go for a performance card, not a high RAM card. Then you just make sure you have enough system RAM installed also for the GPU card to share some of.

At first I thought you were asking if system RAM or a graphics card was better and I was like: " well you need both to have a computer. What kind of question is that?"

So it's important to have enough system RAM and a performance graphics card.

It's not *that* important for the graphics card to have a lot of RAM, though if the graphics card is a high performance card first and formost then having more RAM is a good thing also. For example with the HD 7790 there is a 1GB model and a 2GB model and otherwise it's the same card. So if they are near the same price definetly go for the 2GB model cause that is better. It's just that RAM is not the whole story.

Also different graphics RAM like different system RAM has different bandwidth speed. Fast graphics RAM & system RAM is better than slow graphics RAM and system RAM. Some of the top cards today have over 300 GB/s bandwidth while some of the bottom ones have less than 10 GB/s bandwidth which is terrible.

For example:
HD 6450 4GB card does 200 GFLOPS and has 12.8 BG/s memory bandwidth.
R9 290X 4GB card does 5632 GFLOPS and has 320 GB/s memory bandwidth.

The R9 290X is so much better it's funny and the total memory has nothing to do with it.

R7 260X card has only 1GB of memory, does 1971 GFLOPS, has 104 GB/s bandwidth to it's onboard memory and can share your system RAM at approximately between 10 GB/s & 80 GB/s depending on your system RAM speed and number of sticks.

That's why good system RAM is important also but the GPU still comes first.

[slave goblin]

Basically (with my understanding), GPU is like the engine of a car, and RAM is like the fuel; the GPU can be very good, but without enough RAM, the computer won't be able to handle the GPU's power. If you want a good GPU, you'll need good RAM to go with it (and vice versa). Do let me know if I am %100 percent wrong.

[PLANTROON]

James Maniac の投稿を引用：

Basically (with my understanding), GPU is like the engine of a car, and RAM is like the fuel; the GPU can be very good, but without enough RAM, the computer won't be able to handle the GPU's power. If you want a good GPU, you'll need good RAM to go with it (and vice versa). Do let me know if I am %100 percent wrong.

If you replace every word saying RAM in your comment with vRAM (video RAM, the RAM on the graphics card, graphics memory) it's partially true. It varies from game to game. But for example, an old game like Crysis, that is quite graphically intensive even today, may be fine with like 1.5 GB of RAM, yet it will benefit from a highend GPU with 2 GB vRAM. (but it's uncommon having less system RAM than vRAM, since the operating system swaps stuff out from vRAM to RAM if it runs out of vRAM).

James Maniac の投稿を引用：

If you want a good GPU, you'll need good RAM to go with it (and vice versa). Do let me know if I am %100 percent wrong.

If you get a GPU with lots of vRAM, you will actually need less RAM. But as I said before, it's uncommon to have more vRAM than RAM. And it definitely doesn't go vice versa, for some tasks in computing, you don't need GPU power and you need lots of RAM instead. For example it's common to see Macbooks with Intel HD 4000 (a lowend, integrated GPU) and packed with 16 GB of RAM.

What matters more is the CPU limitting (bottlenecking) the GPU. That's where you can see a serious downgrade in GPU's performance if your CPU is not powerful enough.

[Gaaaaaaaaary]

So I'm looking at two laptops, and the stats are all the same except for a few:
One has 8gb of system RAM and a 4gb GeForce GTX 960M
The other has 16gb of system RAM and a 2gb GeForce GTX 960M
They're basically the same price, give or take about $20, so which should I buy?

[WarmedxMints]

The 8gb would be better as you can usually upgrade a laptops system memory.

Although I would personally say neither. The desktop 960 is a weak enough card and the mobile version is even weaker.

If you can, save up and get a laptop with a 10xx card in it.

[Gaaaaaaaaary]

The 960M can run Overwatch on Ultra settings and GTAV on Medium, I think it's powerful enough. I could never afford a 10XX, I can barely afford the 960M.
Also, is DDR4 really much better than DDR3?