How important is VRAM?

[Leon Lao]

For context, I'm upgrading my hardware for long duration 1440p, H.264, 2-D animation workflow that heavily utilizes dynamic link timeline on Premiere and having PS + AE open simultaneously. My new hardware specs are i9-13900k and 128gb ddr5-5600MHz. I'm having a hard time choosing my GPU. I'm debating between the Nvidia 40 Series cards around 4070, 4070ti, 4080, and 4090. I see 4090 being the only 40series card that offer 24GB of VRAM, but the high pricing is turning me away. How important is vram? Will 12gb of vram be suffice?

[RjL190365]

It depends in large part on how many effects layers and video tracks that you're going to be working with simultaneously in the same project. For single-track projects with few to no GPU-accelerated effects, even 8 GB would more than suffice. However, value is another matter: The RTX 4060 Ti with only 8 GB of VRAM was recently released, but given the high price of that GPU without an accompanying increase of VRAM, the RTX 4070 is a much better value than the RTX 4060 Ti at the moment (even with a $200 price premium).

And the RTX 4070 is also a better value than the RTX 4070 Ti (which I have in my main system) since the former is only slightly slower in CUDA applications than the latter while costing $200 less.