VRAM
Memory
DEFINITION
Video RAM - High-speed memory dedicated to storing textures, frame buffers, and computational data for the GPU.
OVERVIEW
VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) is the dedicated memory on a graphics card used to store data that the GPU needs to access quickly. For AI and compute workloads, VRAM capacity is often the limiting factor for model size and batch size.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Modern GPUs use GDDR6, GDDR6X, or HBM2/HBM3 memory types. VRAM capacity determines the maximum size of models and datasets that can be loaded. Memory bandwidth (measured in GB/s) determines how quickly data can be transferred between VRAM and the GPU cores. Higher bandwidth reduces bottlenecks in memory-intensive operations.
COMMON USE CASES
- Loading large AI models (LLMs, diffusion models)
- Processing high-resolution images and videos
- Running large batch sizes during training
- Multi-GPU training with model parallelism
- Real-time ray tracing with high-quality assets