Why "only" 4GB RAm and not 8GB for 980M? Not in line with competitors...

[Richdog]

As per title, the ASUS G751 comes with "only" a 4GB 980M. While that is of course still respectable for this year, games are being released that actually take more VRAM than this (Shadow of Mordor being one example), and this will only continue thanks to the new gen consoles.

To add to this, Gigabyte and MSI (and others) both use 8GB 980M's in their top gaming laptops... which I really think makes sense in the high-end market, and to ensure that the machines have longevity.

So, why did ASUS only use the 4Gb VRAM version of the 980M in their top-spec laptop, when their competitors are using the 8GB versions? :confused:

[ciccio80]

Zombievac wrote:
All these posts justifying the 4GB are short sighted. There are ALREADY games that can use more. Having more memory actually helps compensate for the relative weakness of the mobile cards overall. Neither of you will be singing the same tune a year from now. The new consoles have 8GB shared memory, and most of it is used for the GPUs (textures, among other things). Games are, and will continue to be, optimized for 6GB-8GB VRAM for the foreseeable future. This is a short sighted mistake on Asus's part. Though, it does follow in line with their decisions to not support their products after release, so it's to be expected. We'll only get some BIOS updates from now on, and they'll be nothing special.

You are fondamentally wrong whenyou compare PC to consoles.
Consoles (like PS4) have a total of 8Gb RAM that has to be "shared" between the OS and the games. So no way a game from PS4 uses 8Gb....more like 3-4GB. The rest is OS, internet and background applications to makle the console work.
So 4GB VRAM is more than enough for all the games in FullHD our 980m can handle.

[Zombievac]

ciccio80 wrote:
You are fondamentally wrong whenyou compare PC to consoles.
Consoles (like PS4) have a total of 8Gb RAM that has to be "shared" between the OS and the games. So no way a game from PS4 uses 8Gb....more like 3-4GB. The rest is OS, internet and background applications to makle the console work.
So 4GB VRAM is more than enough for all the games in FullHD our 980m can handle.

LOL, dude, all you did was assert I was wrong and then repeat what I said... except your UN-educated guess about how much the PS4 uses for the OS when running a game. It uses less than 1GB while a game is running, I assure you. And most of the remaining 7GB+ is being used for textures and other GPU related functions, note I said MOST as it depends on the game. But some already use well over 4GB for GPU functions and that will only increase in the future as they optimize games on the consoles and stay wasteful as always on the PC versions.

[ciccio80]

Zombievac wrote:
LOL, dude, all you did was assert I was wrong and then repeat what I said... except your UN-educated guess about how much the PS4 uses for the OS when running a game. It uses less than 1GB while a game is running, I assure you. And most of the remaining 7GB+ is being used for textures and other GPU related functions, note I said MOST as it depends on the game. But some already use well over 4GB for GPU functions and that will only increase in the future as they optimize games on the consoles and stay wasteful as always on the PC versions.

The PS4 has had a few new updates since launch date...now the OS does so many things more, so I sincerly doubt It uses less than 1Gb in 2015.
The reality is the PS4 has 8GB RAM to do everithing.
We have 16/24/32GB system RAM for everything + 4GB VRAM exclusivly for GPU.
Not to mention that the 980m is A LOT faster than the PS4 GPU.
So everithing the PS4 can do, our G751JY can do bettere (higher resolutions, antialiasing and better FPS). Today and in the future.

You don't need more than 4Gb VRAM for graphics with HD resolution (1080p). You would only need it if you played games in 3-4K or extreme antialiasing options (but there the 980m would be the limiting factor anyway).

8Gb of VRAM would have brought the G751 price up 200-250 euro/dollars more....for no reasone. At least Asus made a good decision there.

Don't worry, by the time games will need 8Gb VRAM, you will also need a better GPU than the 980m.
Not trying to troll, these are just plane facts 😉

[Bridger]

Zombievac wrote:
The new consoles have 8GB shared memory, and most of it is used for the GPUs (textures, among other things).

The last time I read about the PS4 and the XBox they could not run Watch Dogs at Full HD and only with 30FPS.

[joshindaphils]

It is rather a mute issue. Can't recall where I read it, however the reason why is that these are the configurations offered by nVidia. As well if you look at existing laptops you will see this is exactly what is offered; 8GB = MXM, 4GB = on board.

It makes perfect sense from an engineering standpoint. If you are integrating the graphics on board the space being taken up by the graphics solution will be of importance, and are likely taking this route to save on cost. The lower chip count with providing 4GB of RAM is a double win.

[Sh4Sh]

As everyone said, 4Gb is overkill for 1920x1080.
As for 8Gb, even in 3840 x 2160 you barely go past 5 or 6Gb, and on very few games.
You're probably just trolling

[rolloo]

if you need 8gb just get yourself a g750JY (better looking , more powerful , more reliable) lol

[bluepinapple]

I do not believe this thread is for trolling. I am not a heavy pc gamer, but I do output the g751 to a 4k monitor.
I do photo editting, but obviously I'm going to game as well, so to utilize the 4k monitor and still have stable high frames, 8gb would have been nice.
At least this isn't alienware though.... they really skimp out on hardware and bump up the prices

[Edweird]

Yes, for heavy tasks at 4K resolutions, while doing video intensive work, memory helps, there can be no doubt about this. Worth saying that this machine is an all-round powerful computer with a focus on gaming, it isn't meant to be a mobile workstation powerhouse although as many people are finding, there is little that can actually really stress it out. NVidia's Quadro line of cards comes to mind for those sort of applications.

[Clintlgm]

Well I guess your only solution would be to buy one of the competitors that has the 8GB Card. Its highly improbable that Asus is worrying much at all by what is said in this forum. We always want more and we buy what we can afford that fits our purposes. My G75 is still relevant and beast for my purposes it will be 3 years old next month.