All of it is usable . The slower vram is 4 x faster than standard system memory , and stuttering occurs under rare conditions exceeding 3 . 5 gb of vram . For instance , maxing out GTA V settings and upping the resolution a bit , you might notice serious stuttering when it ' s raining . But the 970 isn ' t meant to max out the newest games anyway . It ' s midrange . People using it how it ' s intended won ' t see these issues . That being said . if you ' re planning on getting a new card , best go with a GTX 1050 or 1060 instead . Much better priceperformance . <| sep |> Not sure if its what you want , but you can disable the modui nameplates and use customnameplates addon in its place . IMO they look much better and dont take up so much room .