Valve VRAM hack may improve gaming on 4GB GPUs — testing showed mixed results in select titles, with FPS almost tripling in certain games

YouTube tester NJ Tech has just shown that 4GB GPU users are not entirely left out of Valve's recent VRAM hack. Earlier this month, we covered a literal game-changing VRAM hack by Valve’s Natalie Vock for Linux gamers that lets you give priority to current gaming tasks. The hack fixes long-standing issues where gaming tasks are evicted from VRAM to make room for low-priority background tasks when VRAM is running low. The announcement focused on 8GB GPUs — understandably so, as most modern games are graphically demanding, requiring at least that much VRAM for high-visual-fidelity gaming.

However, this left 4GB GPU users wondering where they stood. At the time, it seemed like the options were: upgrade (for the love of God!), stick to older games (or lower graphics), or keep dealing with the visual glitches. Fortunately, YouTube gaming tech channel NJ tech demonstrated, through extensive testing with some recent gaming titles, that the options are not exhaustive — the VRAM hack does offer some improvement in 4GB GPU gaming, at least in terms of FPS in certain games at low graphics settings.

The test setup was a 4GB Radeon RX 6500 XT running CatchOS, paired with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a Ryzen 5 5600X with a stock cooler. The channel tested various recent titles in low- to medium-graphic settings, obtaining mixed results.

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Alan Wake II saw the most improvement, with average frame rates nearly tripling from 14 FPS to 41 FPS, while 1% lows significantly increased from 12 FPS to 28 FPS. Two other titles, Resident Evil: Requiem and Silent Hill, showed more modest improvements. Conversely, a bunch of other titles showed little to no improvement.

The results showed that the Valve VRAM hack may offer some benefits to 4GB GPUs in certain scenarios. Of course, we will need more testing to conclusively assess the benefits across a wide range of titles. However, it is safe to say that 4GB-GPU users are not entirely left out.

It's important to note that the hack does not reduce a game's VRAM usage; it just optimizes it, ensuring the game gets priority access to the space. If you run a title that requires at least 6 GB of VRAM on a 4 GB GPU, the patch ensures that the game doesn't have to compete with background system processes for the available 4 GB of memory. However, the remaining 2 GB will still spill into the system RAM.

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