The VRAM Lie

So today is the first time I'm going to do something a little bit different in this series.

I usually compare used enterprise GPUs to new consumer GPUs.

In the past, there was no contest.

The used enterprise GPUs were the-- my recommendation.

However, because most of the models, whether they're for LLMs, meaning chat models or for image or video, they now have, uh, you know, they were either FP8, they were floating point eight, if you don't know what I'm talking about, or either BF16, which is not, uh, supported on, uh, older GPUs, especially enter-- even consumer ones.

Uh, it's not supported, so it would have to be upcast, meaning that then you need even more VRAM or RAM and all that as well, so it would be, it, it be v- much slower as well.

Now the core will be better, but it will be much, much, much slower.

Okay? So, um, as you guys know, in the past probably three weeks or so, I've been saying that, uh, new consumer GPUs are actually, you know, getting to a point where they might actually be a better option, especially in twenty twenty-six when the prices of everything is just ridiculously overexpensive.

So you're probably better off buying something new.

Uh, yeah, you pay a few hundred dollars more, sometimes even a thousand dollars more, but it's actually-- that's the way it is in twenty twenty-six, unfortunately.

However, today, I'm gonna actually break down and show you real live examples of why new consumer GPUs are better.

So it's not always just the VRAM, uh, uh, because you, you're actually better off running things through even on your disk.

I know some people, even on my own channel, they will say things like, "No, no, no, never run it on disk," or whatever.

No, you can run it on disk.

Obviously, it's just gonna be for loading.

Uh, it's not-- I'm not-- I, I know Windows has that thing where they have, I think it's called virtual memory, where they use the-- your disk drive as virt-- That's what I'm talking-- I'm talking about just simply loading.

Like you load it, uh, you load the model onto the disk, and when it's needed, it will then be pushed straight to the, um, to the VRAM of your GPU, right? So it-- instead of loading it from, uh, uh, a memory if you don't have enough memory.

Of course, if you have enough memory, then just leave it in memory.

Okay? But as I said, memory prices are ridiculously high.

So we'll talk about all that, uh, today.

So, uh, stop chasing cheap VRAM with ancient enterprise cards.

Learn why the new consumer GPUs crush older enterprise hardware in AI image and video generation due to the missing core architectures.

You can-- You see a cheap Tesla T40, uh, with twenty-four gigabytes of VRAM.

It looks like a bargain for the high-resolution AI video.

This is a dangerous trap for most creative professionals today.

So today is the first time I'm going to do something a little bit different in this series.

I usually compare used enterprise GPUs to new consumer GPUs.

In the past, there was no contest.

The used enterprise GPUs were the-- my recommendation.

However, because most of the models, whether they're for LLMs, meaning chat models or for image or video, they now have, uh, you know, they were either FP8, they were floating point eight, if you don't know what I'm talking about, or either BF16, which is not, uh, supported on, uh, older GPUs, especially enter-- even consumer ones.

Uh, it's not supported, so it would have to be upcast, meaning that then you need even more VRAM or RAM and all that as well, so it would be, it, it be v- much slower as well.

Now the core will be better, but it will be much, much, much slower.

Okay? So, um, as you guys know, in the past probably three weeks or so, I've been saying that, uh, new consumer GPUs are actually, you know, getting to a point where they might actually be a better option, especially in twenty twenty-six when the prices of everything is just ridiculously overexpensive.

So you're probably better off buying something new.

Uh, yeah, you pay a few hundred dollars more, sometimes even a thousand dollars more, but it's actually-- that's the way it is in twenty twenty-six, unfortunately.

However, today, I'm gonna actually break down and show you real live examples of why new consumer GPUs are better.

So it's not always just the VRAM, uh, uh, because you, you're actually better off running things through even on your disk.

I know some people, even on my own channel, they will say things like, "No, no, no, never run it on disk," or whatever.

No, you can run it on disk.

Obviously, it's just gonna be for loading.

Uh, it's not-- I'm not-- I, I know Windows has that thing where they have, I think it's called virtual memory, where they use the-- your disk drive as virt-- That's what I'm talking-- I'm talking about just simply loading.

Like you load it, uh, you load the model onto the disk, and when it's needed, it will then be pushed straight to the, um, to the VRAM of your GPU, right? So it-- instead of loading it from, uh, uh, a memory if you don't have enough memory.

Of course, if you have enough memory, then just leave it in memory.

Okay? But as I said, memory prices are ridiculously high.

So we'll talk about all that, uh, today.

So, uh, stop chasing cheap VRAM with ancient enterprise cards.

Learn why the new consumer GPUs crush older enterprise hardware in AI image and video generation due to the missing core architectures.

You can-- You see a cheap Tesla T40, uh, with twenty-four gigabytes of VRAM.

It looks like a bargain for the high-resolution AI video.

This is a dangerous trap for most creative professionals today.