8GB of VRAM could be all you can find in laptop GPUs soon — but is it enough? I tested the MSI Katana 15 HX to find out
I was left quite surprised at the MSI Katana 15HX B14W's gaming performance, but I'm slightly worried about how long 8GB GPUs will last.
(Image credit: Future / Isaiah Williams)
We're currently stuck in a PC market where RAM acquisition is the main concern, as prices skyrocket due to the ongoing AI boom, with consumers left to pay up or wait patiently for price drops, especially for the best gaming laptops.
You might be wondering why that matters in regard to the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W gaming laptop. Powered by the Nvidia RTX 5070 (laptop GPU), the Katana 15 HX B14W is also limited to 8GB of VRAM.
Maybe 8GB of VRAM isn't so bad after all?
(Image credit: Future / Isaiah Williams)
It's not unreasonable to expect an 8GB GPU to provide good performance in games that don't have demanding system requirements, but the real question is, how well can it perform in some of the most demanding games of the last decade?
That's exactly what I put to the test; in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p using DLSS balanced on the ultra graphics preset, I managed an average of 90fps, which is very impressive considering how great Nvidia's DLSS 4 is in image quality, thanks to the transformer model replacing the former CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) model.
A step up to the ultra ray tracing graphics preset gave me an average of 54fps, and it's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077's ray tracing is no easy hurdle for any graphics cards to jump over, so that's another positive for the Katana 15 HX's RTX 5070.
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Enabling Frame Generation (not Multi-Frame Generation) made performance results much better in Cyberpunk 2077, with an average of 115fps. Since the base frame rates were high enough, enabling frame gen wasn't going to significantly worsen image quality (although visual artifacts are still somewhat noticeable), and gameplay felt smooth and responsive.
It's worth noting that not all games tested feature ray tracing and DLSS Frame Generation technology. Titles such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran exceptionally, with an average of 160fps at 1440p ultra graphics settings using DLSS on balanced, with frame gen absent.
