'Majority of gamers are still playing at 1080p': AMD chief claims there's still a place for 8GB GPUs, and he's got a point

Frank Azor, AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Gaming Marketing, shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) last week in response to a gaming account questioning why AMD is still offering GPUs with 8GB of VRAM in 2025.

"Majority of gamers are still playing at 1080p and have no use for more than 8GB of memory," Azor wrote. "Most played games [worldwide] are mostly esports games. We wouldn't build it if there wasn't a market for it. If 8GB isn't right for you then there's 16GB. Same GPU, no compromise, just memory options."

There's data to support Azor's claims—according to the Steam Hardware Survey, over half of gamers (55.27%) are playing on 1080p monitors. The survey data also suggests plenty of people are holding out for more budget GPUs: One of the top five GPUs among Steam users in 2025 is still somehow the GTX 1650, which only has 4GB of VRAM. The number one GPU as of April is the RTX 4060 laptop version with 8GB of VRAM.

Limited VRAM has become a bit of a sore spot during the current, Nvidia-led GPU doldrums, with 8GB already proving an issue in the biggest, most graphically advanced games.

It's even an open question whether the 5070's 12GB of VRAM is sufficiently "future proof," and the $379 MSRP of the 8GB 5060 Ti is a hard sell before you even get to the endemic price bloat from AIB partners.

But with a $299 MSRP, the 8GB RX 9060 XT is a different beast⁠—that is approaching a truly budget price. With so many gamers sticking to 1080p, and some of the biggest games in the world being less demanding "esports" picks like Marvel Rivals, or otherwise dark horse indie phenoms like Schedule One, REPO, and Palworld, the 9060 XT is shaping up to be an 8GB card that makes a good deal of sense, one on the more expensive side of "budget."

Azor's stance is in line with my personal gaming experience, too. I've been gaming on an 8GB Radeon RX 6600 for a couple of years now and have yet to run into performance issues, even running most of my games through a compatibility layer on Fedora Linux.

Most gamers don't need a top-of-the-line GPU, and for some time now, it's felt like all the buzz has been around Nvidia's prohibitively expensive 30, 40, and 5090 cards, while the sub-$350, 1080p set has had to settle for hand-me-downs and mediocrities.

Those budget cards are not meant to be hooked up to high-end monitors, and the people who can afford a 1440p or 4K gaming monitor need to be realistic about the GPU they'll need to power it.

There's no harm in offering budget-oriented GPUs for those who need that option. It serves to keep PC gaming more accessible for those who want to play less demanding games like Fortnite or Minecraft, or the treasure trove of fantastic indie and retro games on PC.

If you're not in that crowd, there's always the 16GB version of the RX 9060 XT, along with plenty of other 12GB and 16GB cards. Now the only issue is making sure those juicy MSRPs are actually reflected in reality.