– What is VRAM

Question

I know it stands for Video Random Access Memory, but I cant comprehend or visualize what that means. If you can, give me some visual descriptions to help me wrap my head around it.

Thanks!

In: 24

Answer 1

Okay so you know what RAM is, right? Random Access Memory.

That is memory that the OS, the rest of the system, and everything other app running can use for it’s memory needs.

VRAM is more specific toward the video operations of your computer – it is specially designated RAM that your graphics processor uses, specifically to store video data and do video processing. This is *mostly* toward the output of each frame, rendering each frame, storing the next frame or couple frames “ahead” of what it’s currently doing the processing/rendering for.

***edit*** – I should point out that this is mostly in reference to graphics cards, like NVidia 40xx series or ATI Radeon series cards. Like, the actual cards themselves that go into a desktop computer. For *MANY* laptops, there’s a physical limitation on space inside the case, usually enough that they will only typically include the *processing chip* from those graphics cards, and *can* just route the VRAM needs of the chip to the normal RAM. This creates a severe bottleneck on the RAM trying to read/write all the normal and generic RAM stuff, as well as all the traffic from the video chipset trying to do it’s thing.

Unless your laptop *explicitly* says it has dedicated VRAM, and there are other tech guru’s who can/will verify that, it’s safer to assume that a laptop *probably* only has a graphics chipset, and not actual VRAM.

;;

In an analogy, think of it like you’ve got 2 piggy banks. One piggy bank is for you to put money (data) in, and it’s for a weekly fast food splurge. The other piggy bank is one you put money (data) in, and it’s for your more general grocery run.

Both piggy banks are ultimately for the same thing, food (processing memory)

But one piggy bank is for specific food (fast food; video operations), and the other piggy bank is for the rest of your food (general memory, general calculations/operations).