Monday, April 20th 2026
Recent Linux VRAM Management Improvements Resurrect 4 GB AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT for Some Games
Natalie Vock, a well-known Valve contractor and Linux graphics driver developer, recently debuted a new patch that enabled better VRAM management on Linux for GPUs with low VRAM. When we originally covered the set of kernel patches, we noted that it could cut VRAM usage in half in some applications, potentially making certain aging graphics hardware viable for gaming where it may not have been before the patches. Aside from some early tests by Vock herself, not much other data was available at the time to draw any conclusions about the potential performance improvements. Now, thanks to NJ Tech on YouTube, we have some idea of how the patch could improve performance on a GPU like the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has a mere 4 GB of VRAM. The YouTuber tested the GPU across nine games, including some heavy hitters, like Crimson Desert, Hogwarts Legacy, and Cyberpunk 2077 in CachyOS, which was the first Linux distribution to package and release Vock's kernel patches in what it calls GPU Booster. In the current GPU market, it would be nice to have a silver bullet to make low VRAM GPUs viable, but the results are far more varied than that, with some games seeing no improvement and others seeing up to 100% increases in FPS.
In Alan Wake II, VRAM use is actually increased, but there's a more than 2× increase in FPS, going from 14 FPS to a very playable 42 FPS average. In Resident Evil: Requiem, VRAM use is identical, but there's a 16% FPS increase, and in Silent Hill f, the story is similar, with identical VRAM utilization but marginal performance increases. Crimson Desert saw a decrease in VRAM usage, but there was no measurable performance increase as a result, as was the case with Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077, both of which saw reduced VRAM usage but an increase of 1 FPS average in the former and identical performance in the latter. The Last of Us Part 2 actually saw a 1 FPS drop in both average and 1% low FPS, but it seems as though there was just too much graphics memory pressure for Vock's VRAM patches to mitigate the issue. Death Stranding 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also saw little to no improvement despite reduced VRAM utilization in the former. The full video by NJ Tech follows.
Source:
NJ Tech on YouTube
In Alan Wake II, VRAM use is actually increased, but there's a more than 2× increase in FPS, going from 14 FPS to a very playable 42 FPS average. In Resident Evil: Requiem, VRAM use is identical, but there's a 16% FPS increase, and in Silent Hill f, the story is similar, with identical VRAM utilization but marginal performance increases. Crimson Desert saw a decrease in VRAM usage, but there was no measurable performance increase as a result, as was the case with Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077, both of which saw reduced VRAM usage but an increase of 1 FPS average in the former and identical performance in the latter. The Last of Us Part 2 actually saw a 1 FPS drop in both average and 1% low FPS, but it seems as though there was just too much graphics memory pressure for Vock's VRAM patches to mitigate the issue. Death Stranding 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also saw little to no improvement despite reduced VRAM utilization in the former. The full video by NJ Tech follows.
12 Comments on Recent Linux VRAM Management Improvements Resurrect 4 GB AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT for Some Games
i read somewhere else they claim only 8gib vram or below cards benefit because of a linux kernel feature.
we are talking about a 90€ new or second hand card. i did refuse to buy it in teh past for was it 50 or 60€ because the card itself was so horrible to bad.
thard card 6500xt is the best to test such improvements because it is so bad in teh first place
edit: this news: www.techpowerup.com/348178/valve-engineer-improves-linux-memory-management-for-gpus-with-8-gb-vram-or-less
edit: When you have patience the userspace with the linux kernel is an option for gaming. stuff runs with less time invested on windows.
i crosspost my own post: www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/another-try-to-get-wine-running-after-years-wine-proton-gnu-gentoo-linux-gog-com-the-outer-worlds.342955/#post-5710857
I read about it, i test it myself. installing cachyos or whatever, bazzite, etc. is the same as setting up windows 11 pro.
wine has the same issues as several years ago, it needs work, raeding, fiddling around. best example is the heroic-run binary or wine-tricks to get stuff to run.
the outher world 1 runs flawless on windows 11 pro. i did not touch it, as ihave to go to the last planet for some reason. i spend many hours in it.
simpler less demanding games will most likely work. most games of the epic game store do not run without internet access in windows 11 pro. i doubt wine will even execute those. i was friendly not to use such a game which instantly launches the epic game store, or quits the game or refuse to startup because there is no internet connection.
A lot of the time when I buy a AAA game I click play, Proton creates a new prefix and everything just works. It is incredibly impressive compared to even 5 years ago.
Speaking of which, do you know the absolute biggest game on Earth is Roblox, and in the year of our lord 2026 it still doesn't support Linux?
That's just one casual example, stuff like League of Legends, Fortnite....etc, all doesn't support Linux.
Most people are playing those ''old'' game, most gamer aren't playing the current new AAA game, that's a matter of fact.
Just imagine a gamer hearing all the suppose benefit of Linux gaming, he try to make the transition, it is mostly smooth until he realize his ''main game'' simply refuse to work.
Surely that can't be the fault of Linux, it is the lazy game company!
That could be true, but now he still face with the reality of whether to ditch his main game just to switch to LInux.
Microsoft is also doing their very best in alienating a good chunk of the more tech savvy users, thus increasing the amount of people willing to go the other side of the fence.
More people on Linux means that more developers/publishers are going to pay increased attention to it, hence increasing their support in the platform.
It may not still be the year of desktop Linux, but if it keeps going like this it will at a certain point come much sooner than I would have expected in 1995 when I was installing Slackware 3 on my Pentium 133 Mhz. 🤷♂️
My Steam account have > 500 games, let alone epic, gog, ubi, ea play etc..
Focusing just on Steam I can assure you that Linux is very viable, but it's not there yet for all, and especially casual users.
MP games, I think it's already well known that many games don't work due to the anti-cheat solutions.
Although, it's not only those games, there is a multitude of classic games with TAGES DRM that simply don't work, there are games with GFWL that require a lot of tweaking to work and there are games that simply don't work, especially games with their own launchers.
We can all make those games to work without too much of an hassle by applying the suggested tweaks, but a casual would have big issues, especially nowadays where the new kids are generally more tech dumb than what other generations were.
Just for you guys have an idea.
Only 31% of my games are simply plug & play, 47% needs tweaks to work property, honestly I think those 47% are not all like that given that many people in here reports tweaks that are absolutely unnecessary and the games end up staying with Gold Ratings instead of Platinum.
Still, 77% of the games work very well whatever if with tweaks or not.
But there is 23% of the games that according to protonDB are not exactly running as it should.
Some of these reports are wrong, given the last feedback have years and newer versions of proton might had fix those issues, or some crashing issues reported on Linux ProtonDB also happens on Windows too.
But still as you can see there is still a lot to go through yet.
For me, all the games I want to play, I have been playing flawlessly, some run better than Windows others run worse, but not all the games will be like that.
ON-TOPIC:
AS for the 4GB VRAM news, I know that AMD managements is worse than nvidia, but Silent Hill F ran like a champ on my 1650 Super 4GB on Windows at > 60 FPS with textures loading as it should, either AMD VRAM management sucks a lot more than I imagined or the linux VRAM management was really really bad.
www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asrock-rx-6500-xt-phantom-gaming-d-oc-8-gb.b11853
www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/sapphire-pulse-rx-6500-xt-8-gb.b9734
Verpal is right of course, I'm being a bit idealistic and optimistic. I think it would be better to leave it as just "Linux is getting better for gaming". But its hard not to be optimistic with all of the positive news around Linux and gaming these days. Plus I have frankly put my Linux installs through the wringer when it comes to gaming and there are only two games (yes, just two!) games that don't work so far. That is an incredible achievement :)
EDIT: And just to add to it, some of the tech is just fascinating. "We made ray-tracing run on older cards via emulation", "We made VRAM usage more efficient on 8GB and below cards", "We have enabled FSR4 on older GPUs despite AMD not officially supporting them". It's all very neat.
Test it out for yourself before judging how well your game selection works.