RTX 4060 Ti performance heavily bottlenecked by VRAM as 16 GB SKU appears to performs up to 34% better at 1080p vs 8 GB model

2023 seems to be the year when gamers are finally waking up to the reality that 8 GB of VRAM may not be enough for games even at 1080p in the near future. For instance, when Sony’s blockbuster title The Last of Us Part 1 released on Steam in March 2023, it was noted that the title can use more than 8 GB of video memory even at 1080p/Medium. At 1080p High/Ultra when the VRAM buffer was full, the game would suffer from horrible 1% lows per Hardware Unboxed’s analysis.

To reliably measure how much VRAM impacts the performance of modern titles, Daniel Owens has tested a bunch of games using the RTX 4060 Ti 8 and 16 GB GPUs. The titles which include Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Remnant 2, and Star Wars Jedi Survivor among others, showcase that the increased VRAM on the RTX 4060 Ti does indeed afford the GPU a performance boost over its 8 GB sibling.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart performance

Starting with the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart running at 1080p/Very High settings with High RT, Daniel notes a staggering 34% average FPS and 37% improvement in 1% lows when using the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB vs the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB’s average FPS and the 1% low stood at 59 and 37 FPS vs the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB’s 44 and 27 FPS respectively. Interestingly, the performance difference between the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB and 8 GB remains the same even with RT off.

At 1440p with Very High RT, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB appears a whopping 43% faster on average vs the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB’s 1% lows show an even bigger lead with a 47% improvement. Once again, turning RT off doesn’t help the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, as the 16 GB card is still a staggering 36% and 47% ahead in average FPS and 1% lows.

The Last of Us Part 1 performance

Moving on to The Last of Us Part 1, the title saw 19% better average FPS and 22% better 1% lows with the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB at 1080p/Ultra. Dropping the settings down to High saw these performance differences disappear.

The VRAM-fueled performance delta is still present at 1440p, as the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB displays 15% and 17% more average FPS and 1% lows than the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. Like the 1080p result, the performance gap between the two GPUs shrank considerably when settings were reduced to High.

To sum it all up, Daniel notes that the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is, on average, around 18% better at 1080p, 22% faster at 1440p, and 101% ahead at 4K with RT on across the tested titles. At High settings without RT, the RTX 4060 Ti was 12%, 11%, and 135% more performant vs the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively.

Long story short, it seems that the 8 GB VRAM is indeed a performance bottleneck in many current titles. It is quite reasonable to assume that this problem will become increasingly severe, as games become more graphically demanding.

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