Why have a 2GB GPU on a laptop?

Xionor

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2011
6
0
18,510
Hi,

I'm buying a new laptop again for the first time in 5 years and there's somethings I cannot understand.

I see some of the newer ones with discrete graphics have video cards with 2 GB of memory. What I wonder is what is the point of this?
Very few of these laptops can run demanding games with more than 20-30 fps on even medium settings. Very few games today fill up 2GB of video ram even on Ultra settings on full-scale stationary setups.

So why put so much video ram in a laptop that can only play on low and medium settings?
 
Solution
Well my friend has a laptop with a 730M 4GB. It also has an i7 3632QM, 17.3" 1080p screen and 16GB of RAM.

I would say that laptops like the one my friend has are intended to be used by business users who are doing photo or video editing at high resolutions, (maybe even across multiple extended monitors) where more VRAM is required.

It is also used as a selling point to people who don't know much about computers, because 'a bigger number must mean better performance' :pfff:

RAM chips aren't that expensive anymore, so it does probably make sense that quite a lot of GPU have 2GB of VRAM at least, and it also means that the GPU is less likely to get low VRAM induced lag while using a secondary or third monitor.

Xionor

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2011
6
0
18,510
You can look at any GeForce 8xxM or 7xxM video card for example, i think they almost all come with 2 GB of ram.

But if you need a specific example, check this one by asus http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/X550LN/specifications/
 

biflash

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
9
0
10,520
Nowaday almost all games need more then 1 Gb, laptops are not that weak anymore and it cost thems 10$ or maybe less to add 1Gb and the laptop value is greatly increase in the consumer side, finally, you cant upgrade laptops so they need to last longer with what they have, more memory helps a bit, if you take a closer look historically laptops had have always more memory for equivalent desktop graphic models for the above reasons
 

Xionor

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2011
6
0
18,510


Which games are those that need more than 1GB of video ram on a laptop?
On my stationary I have an old GF 560Ti with 1 GB of ram and I can run almost any game on Ultra settings apart from the absolutely newest stuff like Thief and BF4.

How would a laptop running the game on Low/medium setting use more than 1GB of video ram when my full-scale 560Ti doesn't on Ultra?
 

bradsctt

Honorable
Jun 9, 2012
25
0
10,610
Well my friend has a laptop with a 730M 4GB. It also has an i7 3632QM, 17.3" 1080p screen and 16GB of RAM.

I would say that laptops like the one my friend has are intended to be used by business users who are doing photo or video editing at high resolutions, (maybe even across multiple extended monitors) where more VRAM is required.

It is also used as a selling point to people who don't know much about computers, because 'a bigger number must mean better performance' :pfff:

RAM chips aren't that expensive anymore, so it does probably make sense that quite a lot of GPU have 2GB of VRAM at least, and it also means that the GPU is less likely to get low VRAM induced lag while using a secondary or third monitor.
 
Solution

bradsctt

Honorable
Jun 9, 2012
25
0
10,610

BF4 caches as much of it's textures in VRAM as it can, so it will use as much VRAM as it wants to, no matter what GPU.

If there isnt enough VRAM to cache the textures, it will start to lag as it will have to fully load the textures, instead of having them cached and ready to use.

It depends on resolution too, more VRAM is required for higher resolutions.

 

Xionor

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2011
6
0
18,510


Those are some very good points!
I didn't think about the extra load from secondary monitors and then high-resolution photo editing.

I guess that's a good logical reason in addition to , like you said, 2GB isn't that much more expensive than 1GB.
 

Xionor

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2011
6
0
18,510


But 95% of laptops can't run Battlefield 4 on anything higher than Low/Medium textures to begin with so Battlefield shouldn't really have more than 500MB of textures on Low resolution.

 

biflash

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
9
0
10,520
All new AAA games need more than 1 Gb to ran at 1080p unless you lower the textures
textures is something that is always getting better and is not resource intensive, so more Vram is all it needs, skyrim is an example of that.
watch dogs is an example of a game that you cant play on ultra 1080p unless you have more than 2Gb, i cant even imagine what you have to sacrifice with 1Gb. Not saying that you need 2Gb, just that it would bring better graphics and more options to the table.
What im trying to say is memory helps getting better graphis even on lower end cards and new game coming from console ports will require more then 1Gb just to run, its just a matter of time.