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How much VRAM do I have?

A web page cannot read this number, which is why the checker on the home page does not show it. It takes a few clicks on your own computer.

In a hurry? The checker on the home page answers in one click.

What VRAM is

VRAM is the memory that sits on a graphics card. It holds the textures, frames and data the card is working on right now. When a game or program needs more than the card has, it slows down or refuses to start.

Windows

  1. Press Ctrl, Shift and Esc to open Task Manager, then open the Performance tab and choose GPU.
  2. Dedicated GPU memory is the video memory on the card. Shared GPU memory is borrowed from the computer's main memory and is slower.
  3. The dxdiag tool also shows it. Press the Windows key and R, type dxdiag, and read Display Memory on the Display tab.

Mac

A Mac with an Apple chip has no separate video memory. The graphics share the computer's one pool of memory, so look at the Memory line in About This Mac. On an older Intel Mac, open System Information, then Graphics/Displays, and read the VRAM line.

Linux

For an NVIDIA card:

nvidia-smi

For most other cards, look at the Video memory line in:

glxinfo -B

On AMD cards with the amdgpu driver, this prints the total in bytes (the card number may be card1 instead of card0):

cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/mem_info_vram_total

Why a website cannot tell you

Browsers hand out the name of the graphics chip because sites need it to work around driver problems. They keep the memory size private, because it would make visitors easier to tell apart. That is deliberate and unlikely to change.

How much do I need?

The game or program you want to run lists a recommended amount. Compare that with the figure for your card. More video memory matters most for high resolution textures, large scenes and big projects.

Questions

Is shared GPU memory the same as VRAM?

No. Shared GPU memory is borrowed from the computer's main memory and is slower than the memory on a graphics card.

Can I add more video memory?

No. It is part of the card. The only way to get more is to change the card. Built-in graphics use the main memory, and a few computers let you change how much in the BIOS.

Why does the number in dxdiag differ from Task Manager?

They count slightly differently, for example by whether they include shared memory. Task Manager's dedicated figure is the closest to the memory on the card.

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