A sensational rumor has emerged regarding the upcoming graphics processing unit (GPU), sparking concerns about its potential impact on the company’s financial stability in the long term. The assessment considers the VRAM capacity of the newly launched graphics card, prompting concerns that the RTX 3060 may struggle if Nvidia fails to make it a competitive offering.
The quest for the best-value graphics card under $300 has become increasingly arduous, with the $299 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 proving too pricey, while the $269 AMD Radeon RX 7600 struggles to deliver effective ray tracing capabilities.
Intel seeks to establish a unique niche in this arena, boasting the $249 Intel Arc A580’s impressive specifications: 12GB of dedicated video memory and accelerated performance that surpasses even the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. Despite the added complexity brought on by an extreme shortage of the latest Intel GPUs currently.
Unfortunately, it appears that Nvidia will retain the same amount of VRAM in the RTX 5060 as its predecessor, the 4060. According to an exclusive report by Wccftech, NVIDIA’s next-generation RTX 5000 graphics cards are expected to feature enhanced memory configurations, with insiders providing early details on the technology’s specifications. If accurate, the rumoured specifications suggest that the GeForce RTX 3060 features 8GB of VRAM linked to a 128-bit interface, mirroring the configuration found in its predecessor, the RTX 4060.
While rumors of a ray of sunshine are always welcome, the real excitement lies in the VRAM’s potential upgrade to GDDR7 memory, which would surpass the GDDR6 used on the RTX 4060. Should this rumor prove true, the memory would run at a speedy 28Gbps, yielding a total bandwidth of 448GB/s. In comparison, the RTX 4060’s memory bandwidth is limited to 272GB/s due to its slower VRAM. While the current capabilities may fall short of expectations. While 8GB remains sufficient for many modern games at 1080p, some newer titles increasingly require more robust video memory configurations.
As a living example of the Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle system requirements, at least 12GB RTX 4070 is needed to satisfy the 1080p system requirements with full ray tracing capabilities; in contrast, the 8GB RTX 4000 cards are nowhere to be found within the tiers that support full ray tracing.
In a recent benchmarking exercise conducted by Laptop Base, the 12GB Radeon RX 6700 XT surprisingly outperformed the RTX 3080 in a particular game, not due to a more powerful GPU, but rather because the former’s increased VRAM allowed it to take full advantage of the available resources.
During my comprehensive testing process, including a recent review of the Intel Arc A770, I found myself corroborating the results – the 16GB variant outpaced the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti by a significant margin in our Doom Eternal ray tracing benchmark, with a notable threefold increase in performance. However, when running at optimized settings, performance suffers on 8GB graphics cards due to insufficient memory capacity to supply the GPU with necessary data, whereas 12GB and 16GB cards outperform.
Released nearly four years ago, Doom Eternal initially arrived without ray tracing, but this feature was added in 2021 – it’s no longer a brand-new game.
While rumors currently surround the RTX 5060, it’s essential to note that Nvidia has not officially confirmed any details regarding this GPU, nor its existence. Notwithstanding the rumour’s veracity, if Nvidia indeed equips the cardboard with a standard 8GB of VRAM, it will soon be vying with forthcoming games boasting exacting system requirements.
Samsung has hinted at the possibility of manufacturing 3Gb GDDR7 memory chips, alongside 2Gb variants, fuelling speculation about the potential for 24GB RTX 5080 graphics cards. If Nvidia leverages these new chips, they could potentially release a 12GB RTX 5060 variant with the same 128-bit interface as its 8GB counterpart. In that scenario, the 12GB card would be the better buy.
In the interim, delve into our coverage of the RTX 5090 to stay abreast of the latest whispers surrounding Nvidia’s forthcoming flagship Blackwell gaming GPU, expected to debut at CES 2025 in January, potentially accompanied by a substantial 32GB of virtual random access memory.
