Nvidia's groundbreaking VRAM solution only works best on its fastest GPUs

Nvidia's Neural Texture Compression (NTC) promises to reduce in-game VRAM usage by up to 6x by replacing traditional block compression with compact neural representations reconstructed in real time via AI. However, NTC relies on Tensor cores rather than CUDA cores, meaning older GPUs like the RTX 20 and 30 series can technically use it but won't see meaningful gains. The real benefits are reserved for newer RTX 40 and 50 series cards with stronger matrix acceleration engines. This mirrors the pattern seen with DLSS, where Nvidia's most impactful rendering innovations favor the hardware that already has the most headroom — and could serve as justification for continuing to ship GPUs with just 8GB VRAM.