They will all debut on November 6, 2014, supposedly

Oct 30, 2014 08:14 GMT  ·  By

We've just finished talking about NVIDIA's plans to release some graphics cards with high memory capacities this November, so we shouldn't be surprised that AMD is preparing to do the same thing.

Indeed, NVIDIA's decision to release GeForce GTX 980 graphics adapters with 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM is more of a response to AMD's plans than anything else.

Advanced Micro Devices already has a few Radeon R9 290X video boards with that RAM amount up for sale, through OEMs or otherwise.

It still feels that some new ones are warranted though. For the sake of the 4K gaming community if nothing else.

The need for 8 GB VRAM

In truth, you don't actually need that much video memory even for the most absurdly detailed games on the market right now.

However, that only goes if you have a normal monitor, and don't plan to buy another two to extend your field of view.

In essence, as long as you stick to Full HD or below (1920 x 1080 or lower resolution), 4GB are more than enough. Even 2 GB for the less hardcore video boards.

4K resolution needs more memory though, and while SLI configurations help somewhat in those scenarios, the VRAM doesn't stack, so it's not like having more RAM per GPU.

Thus, gaming at a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels kind of does need more random access memory to go smoothly, unless you turn off anti-aliasing or something.

Maybe the issue won't crop up with current-generation PC games, but you can be sure that future 4K titles will start to strain your card a few years from now.

Availability and pricing

We’ve already said that the video cards are going to show up this November. Unlike for NVIDIA's side, though, there actually is a precise launch day associated with them: November 6. According to SweClockers anyhow. They will be around 10% more expensive than the 4 GB counterparts. Sapphire, PowerColor and Club3D will be the only brands to ship the things though. Until then, you can buy the Sapphire Vapor-X version which is already out.

The premium price isn't so off-putting at all. Only people with money to spare are likely to even consider acquiring a high-end video card, and having to pay just 10% extra for double the RAM will probably work well for AMD and its partners. We can only hope that retailers don't inflate the prices like they did earlier this year, before AMD put its foot down.