Digital Home Thoughts: Do You Really Need More Video RAM Than Regular RAM?

"The focus of this article isn't to dig into the minutia of where your graphics card RAM is being used. Instead, we're more interested in looking at the tangible impact that different amounts of graphics card RAM will have on your gaming experience. Our goal is to let you know exactly what advantage, if any, you can expect from a graphics card that has more RAM on-board."

I do not actually know anyone who has a video card with more RAM than the PC has, but I do know people who still use computers with 256 or 512MB of RAM. If you've been shopping for a video card lately, you have probably noticed that a lot of manufacturers are promoting how much RAM is on the card. Why? Well, RAM is a cheaper "upgrade" to a card than a better GPU. And who can resist sexy numbers like 768 megabytes or 1 or even 2 gigabytes? For gamers, knowing how to make the most of your money is very important and Tom's Hardware does give you an answer at the end. Unfortunately, the trend is towards laptops, notebooks and netbooks, and while they are improving, the opportunity to cherry pick a sweet video card is quickly diminishing.