An enthusiastic software engineer with the Twitter handle, Strife212, has demonstrated that the RTX 3090 is so powerful, it can install and run Crysis 3 directly from its 24GB of VRAM.
To do so, Strife212, used a program called VRAM Drive to make a 15GB virtual disk on the GPU’s VRAM before physically installing the game there. That left 9GB of VRAM for Crysis 3 to use as graphics memory which proved to be plenty.
It sounds a little wacky but the results were impressive. She posted screenshots that showed 75FPS and explained that she ran it at 4K resolution on very high settings. It barely crossed the 20GB total VRAM utilisation line.
It’s not the kind of thing many people will probably do themselves but it’s a fascinating one. VRAM Drive has been around for a few years now but it’s still intriguing seeing what can be accomplished with a little tinkering. After all, graphics memory is one of the fastest memory subsystems on a PC, proving faster than system RAM in terms of performance.
You’d think that would mean incredibly fast loading times compared to using an SSD but Strife212 has pointed out that loading times didn’t actually improve compared to a fast NVMe drive. Still, it’s a neat looking experiment. Not that, admittedly, you’re probably going to be doing this too often. It’s basically a cool concept and fun way to waste a little time trying something new.
Having said that, if you happen to have some spare time and you’ve got a relatively high spec graphics card, this should be achievable with quite a few games and different GPUs, if you feel like seeing what happens. Just make sure to pick a game with a small install size so maybe give Call of Duty: Warzone a miss. We’re not saying it’ll be life-changing or anything but it’s an interesting example of what can be done when thinking outside of the box.