diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/Statistics.cpp b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/Statistics.cpp
index 1497a3df30..0a4a9236b0 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/Statistics.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/Statistics.cpp
@@ -68,8 +68,7 @@ std::string Statistics::ToString()
   str += StringFromFormat("Uniform streamed: %i kB\n", stats.thisFrame.bytesUniformStreamed / 1024);
   str += StringFromFormat("Vertex Loaders: %i\n", stats.numVertexLoaders);
 
-  std::string vertex_list;
-  VertexLoaderManager::AppendListToString(&vertex_list);
+  std::string vertex_list = VertexLoaderManager::VertexLoadersToString();
 
   // TODO : at some point text1 just becomes too huge and overflows, we can't even read the added
   // stuff
diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.cpp b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.cpp
index ce637401ac..21a149c169 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 // Licensed under GPLv2+
 // Refer to the license.txt file included.
 
+#include "VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h"
+
+#include <array>
 #include <cinttypes>
 #include <cstring>
 #include <memory>
@@ -15,7 +18,6 @@
 
 #include "VideoCommon/DataReader.h"
 #include "VideoCommon/VertexLoader.h"
-#include "VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h"
 
 #ifdef _M_X86_64
 #include "VideoCommon/VertexLoaderX64.h"
@@ -70,55 +72,56 @@ void VertexLoaderBase::SetVAT(const VAT& vat)
   m_VtxAttr.texCoord[7].Frac = vat.g2.Tex7Frac;
 };
 
-void VertexLoaderBase::AppendToString(std::string* dest) const
+std::string VertexLoaderBase::ToString() const
 {
-  dest->reserve(250);
+  std::string dest;
+  dest.reserve(250);
 
-  dest->append(GetName());
-  dest->append(": ");
+  dest += GetName();
+  dest += ": ";
 
-  static const char* posMode[4] = {
+  static constexpr std::array<const char*, 4> pos_mode{{
       "Inv", "Dir", "I8", "I16",
-  };
-  static const char* posFormats[8] = {
+  }};
+  static constexpr std::array<const char*, 8> pos_formats{{
       "u8", "s8", "u16", "s16", "flt", "Inv", "Inv", "Inv",
-  };
-  static const char* colorFormat[8] = {
+  }};
+  static constexpr std::array<const char*, 8> color_format{{
       "565", "888", "888x", "4444", "6666", "8888", "Inv", "Inv",
-  };
+  }};
 
-  dest->append(StringFromFormat("%ib skin: %i P: %i %s-%s ", m_VertexSize, (u32)m_VtxDesc.PosMatIdx,
-                                m_VtxAttr.PosElements ? 3 : 2, posMode[m_VtxDesc.Position],
-                                posFormats[m_VtxAttr.PosFormat]));
+  dest += StringFromFormat("%ib skin: %i P: %i %s-%s ", m_VertexSize, (u32)m_VtxDesc.PosMatIdx,
+                           m_VtxAttr.PosElements ? 3 : 2, pos_mode[m_VtxDesc.Position],
+                           pos_formats[m_VtxAttr.PosFormat]);
 
   if (m_VtxDesc.Normal)
   {
-    dest->append(StringFromFormat("Nrm: %i %s-%s ", m_VtxAttr.NormalElements,
-                                  posMode[m_VtxDesc.Normal], posFormats[m_VtxAttr.NormalFormat]));
+    dest += StringFromFormat("Nrm: %i %s-%s ", m_VtxAttr.NormalElements, pos_mode[m_VtxDesc.Normal],
+                             pos_formats[m_VtxAttr.NormalFormat]);
   }
 
-  u64 color_mode[2] = {m_VtxDesc.Color0, m_VtxDesc.Color1};
-  for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
+  const std::array<u64, 2> color_mode{{m_VtxDesc.Color0, m_VtxDesc.Color1}};
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < color_mode.size(); i++)
   {
     if (color_mode[i])
     {
-      dest->append(StringFromFormat("C%i: %i %s-%s ", i, m_VtxAttr.color[i].Elements,
-                                    posMode[color_mode[i]], colorFormat[m_VtxAttr.color[i].Comp]));
+      dest += StringFromFormat("C%zu: %i %s-%s ", i, m_VtxAttr.color[i].Elements,
+                               pos_mode[color_mode[i]], color_format[m_VtxAttr.color[i].Comp]);
     }
   }
-  u64 tex_mode[8] = {m_VtxDesc.Tex0Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex1Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex2Coord,
-                     m_VtxDesc.Tex3Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex4Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex5Coord,
-                     m_VtxDesc.Tex6Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex7Coord};
-  for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
+  const std::array<u64, 8> tex_mode{{m_VtxDesc.Tex0Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex1Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex2Coord,
+                                     m_VtxDesc.Tex3Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex4Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex5Coord,
+                                     m_VtxDesc.Tex6Coord, m_VtxDesc.Tex7Coord}};
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < tex_mode.size(); i++)
   {
     if (tex_mode[i])
     {
-      dest->append(StringFromFormat("T%i: %i %s-%s ", i, m_VtxAttr.texCoord[i].Elements,
-                                    posMode[tex_mode[i]],
-                                    posFormats[m_VtxAttr.texCoord[i].Format]));
+      dest += StringFromFormat("T%zu: %i %s-%s ", i, m_VtxAttr.texCoord[i].Elements,
+                               pos_mode[tex_mode[i]], pos_formats[m_VtxAttr.texCoord[i].Format]);
     }
   }
-  dest->append(StringFromFormat(" - %i v", m_numLoadedVertices));
+  dest += StringFromFormat(" - %i v", m_numLoadedVertices);
+  return dest;
 }
 
 // a hacky implementation to compare two vertex loaders
diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h
index 0c1c3c50cb..a895300466 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderBase.h
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ public:
   virtual bool IsInitialized() = 0;
 
   // For debugging / profiling
-  void AppendToString(std::string* dest) const;
+  std::string ToString() const;
 
   virtual std::string GetName() const = 0;
 
diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.cpp b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.cpp
index c7a2f46bab..463094e66b 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.cpp
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ struct entry
 };
 }
 
-void AppendListToString(std::string* dest)
+std::string VertexLoadersToString()
 {
   std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(s_vertex_loader_map_lock);
   std::vector<entry> entries;
@@ -106,19 +106,24 @@ void AppendListToString(std::string* dest)
   size_t total_size = 0;
   for (const auto& map_entry : s_vertex_loader_map)
   {
-    entry e;
-    map_entry.second->AppendToString(&e.text);
-    e.num_verts = map_entry.second->m_numLoadedVertices;
-    entries.push_back(e);
+    entry e = {map_entry.second->ToString(),
+               static_cast<u64>(map_entry.second->m_numLoadedVertices)};
+
     total_size += e.text.size() + 1;
+    entries.push_back(std::move(e));
   }
+
   sort(entries.begin(), entries.end());
-  dest->reserve(dest->size() + total_size);
+
+  std::string dest;
+  dest.reserve(total_size);
   for (const entry& entry : entries)
   {
-    *dest += entry.text;
-    *dest += '\n';
+    dest += entry.text;
+    dest += '\n';
   }
+
+  return dest;
 }
 
 void MarkAllDirty()
diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.h b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.h
index bff6d4e8eb..30ceb41aec 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.h
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderManager.h
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ NativeVertexFormatMap* GetNativeVertexFormatMap();
 int RunVertices(int vtx_attr_group, int primitive, int count, DataReader src, bool is_preprocess);
 
 // For debugging
-void AppendListToString(std::string* dest);
+std::string VertexLoadersToString();
 
 NativeVertexFormat* GetCurrentVertexFormat();
 
diff --git a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderX64.cpp b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderX64.cpp
index 6b3f538bf4..92edf8dd5c 100644
--- a/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderX64.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/VideoCommon/VertexLoaderX64.cpp
@@ -51,8 +51,7 @@ VertexLoaderX64::VertexLoaderX64(const TVtxDesc& vtx_desc, const VAT& vtx_att)
   GenerateVertexLoader();
   WriteProtect();
 
-  std::string name;
-  AppendToString(&name);
+  const std::string name = ToString();
   JitRegister::Register(region, GetCodePtr(), name.c_str());
 }