Help me understand the effects of memory size vs clock speed.

ebfulch

Reputable
May 29, 2015
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I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, and trying to understand the differences between memory size and clock speed and how they affect performance. I use one monitor for gaming. I plan to play the new FIFA and hopefully GTA V, but also want to do some graphics modding on Skyrim, which I understand can be affected by memory size more than clock speed, but I'm not positive.

For example, I've been looking at the GTX 580 with 1.5gb VRAM and 4008MHz memory clock speed. How would that card stack up against a card with say 3 or 4gb VRAM but with a much lower clock speed? In general, what matters more?
 
Solution
when it comes to graphics cards, its not just the vram. its the actual GPU core that usually matters the most. for example, if you play on a 1080p monitor and compare the GTX 970 3.5gb to the GTX 960 4gb, the 970 will beat the 960, although it has less usable RAM.
the GTX 580 is an old card. its GPU core is much less powerful than then some of the newer GPUs, and thats why it only has 1.5GB of ram, it doesn't need more because games at the time didn't need more then that. if you want to game, get a modern card.
memory speed usually doesn't affect a lot, be can slightly improve performance.
so, generally, you want more ram than what speed it's running at, because you can overclock the memory speed, but you can add memory to the card.

davidarad02

Admirable
when it comes to graphics cards, its not just the vram. its the actual GPU core that usually matters the most. for example, if you play on a 1080p monitor and compare the GTX 970 3.5gb to the GTX 960 4gb, the 970 will beat the 960, although it has less usable RAM.
the GTX 580 is an old card. its GPU core is much less powerful than then some of the newer GPUs, and thats why it only has 1.5GB of ram, it doesn't need more because games at the time didn't need more then that. if you want to game, get a modern card.
memory speed usually doesn't affect a lot, be can slightly improve performance.
so, generally, you want more ram than what speed it's running at, because you can overclock the memory speed, but you can add memory to the card.
 
Solution