Low VRAM Error? How to Use System RAM as Video Memory

By Lloyd Ingram Updated September 25, 2026

Quick Tips

VRAM and RAM are both volatile memory, but serve different purposes.
RAM cannot handle the bandwidth required for GPU performance, leading to speed drops.
Windows and integrated graphics already split resources between RAM and VRAM.
GreenBoost is a third-party tool to help use RAM as VRAM, but it still suffers from slower speeds.

Have you ever wondered if RAM can be used as video memory instead? The answer is yes, but with a lot of caveats. Straight up front, we’re going to tell you that system RAM isn’t a replacement for dedicated VRAM when it comes to graphics performance, but there are ways for GPUs to use system memory when necessary.

Can you turn RAM into VRAM? This article will explore how it does, and what it can’t do.

Can You Turn RAM Into VRAM?

Low VRAM Error How to Use System RAM as Video Memory 1

Graphics cards are dedicated pieces of hardware for a reason. Dedicated GPUs typically use dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM to handle the demands of graphically intensive apps, from games to design software. Your system RAM handles the other memory needs of your PC, while GPUs can also access shared system memory when supported. By and large, system RAM provides less memory bandwidth than dedicated GPU memory.

DDR5 cannot compete with GDDR6.

Integrated Graphics

Integrated graphics use system RAM rather than relying exclusively on dedicated VRAM. Certain devices (especially budget PCs and laptops) have integrated graphics instead of dedicated cards. Some gaming PCs have dual graphics cards, allowing for smaller apps to use integrated graphics and games to use the VRAM.

If you ever try to run a more demanding app off integrated graphics, the RAM bottleneck will immediately make itself apparent, with low frame rates and frequent stuttering.

Shared Memory

Perhaps what we think of when we want to turn RAM into VRAM is allocating memory space to share with our graphics cards. Interestingly enough, Windows 11 (and Windows 10) already do this and quite efficiently.

Shared system memory is system RAM that the GPU can access when needed, alongside dedicated video memory on systems that have it. Because of that bottleneck, the speed of the RAM would be too slow to manage anything heavier.

If you manually increase the amount of system memory reserved for an integrated GPU in the BIOS, you may reduce the amount of RAM available to the operating system and applications. Whether this improves graphics performance depends on the hardware and workload.

GreenBoost for NVIDIA

Low VRAM Error How to Use System RAM as Video Memory 2

So, if you are still wondering how to turn RAM into VRAM, then there is a third-party, open-source solution. GreenBoost is a recently released Linux kernel module that allocates RAM to use in addition to VRAM. Primarily developed as a CUDA caching layer for LLMs that overrun the limits of graphics cards, GreenBoost is a way to bring your DDR RAM into the fray.

It sounds great until you realize that all we’ve covered above still comes into play. While GreenBoost can use system RAM as an additional memory tier when dedicated VRAM is insufficient, accessing data outside the GPU’s dedicated memory can significantly reduce performance because of the lower bandwidth and additional transfer overhead. It should be seen as a workaround for those who can’t afford a better graphics card rather than a viable solution.