GTX 970 VRAM allocation problem, fixed by driver update?

[rmac8530]

Earlier, I played Shadow of Mordor at 1080p with GTX 970 after I updated my driver to 347.52. I tested the game because I've seen a video posted by Jayztwocent where he did a stress test on GTX 970 to see if the VRAM issue would affect the performance of the card. I didn't have Shadow of mordor and GTX 970 then. Shadow of Mordor is one of the games he tested, and he did see a lot of FPS drops and stutter at 1080p with all the settings maxed out when the VRAM usage reached 3500Mb mark. I was curious, so I tried playing the game at 1080p with all settings in Ultra, it was weird because I did not experience any stutter or noticeable FPS drops at all. The game was smooth, and there's absolutely nothing to complain about aside from my temp. reaching 77 degrees celcius because of my poor case airflow, which is beside the point. The average FPS was 78 FPS. According to MSI Afterburner, the maximum VRAM usage that I used was 3737Mb. Was the VRAM issue fixed by NVIDIA's driver update or is MSI afterburner not that accurate?

[wyattzx]

They may have smoothed out the transition into the last 512MB, but that's the most they could have done, if they did anything. I have a 970 as well, and I can play the game at Ultra with it never going below 60fps. However, if I enable the Ultra Textures (From the HD Texture DLC) I get constant drops into the mid-40s, but that may or may not be a CPU issue.

[SuperPug]

You cant fix it... its a mechanical limitation. But you can optimize the drivers in order for them to allocate the slow memory to less frequently used assets and kinda ''hide'' the bandwith cap in the 500mb section.

[SuperPug]

but that may or may not be a CPU issue.

 

May or may not? With the FX6300 i'd be willing to bet it is. Hows your gpu usage looking like?

[wyattzx]

May or may not? With the FX6300 i'd be willing to bet it is. Hows your gpu usage looking like?

It most likely is, but I didn't want to say for sure and be called a liar, so I left it at a maybe. I can run Far Cry 3 at 4K at 30-50fps though. 

[Tim Drake]

It most likely is, but I didn't want to say for sure and be called a liar, so I left it at a maybe. I can run Far Cry 3 at 4K at 30-50fps though. 

Bottlenecks get smaller the higher resolution you go.

 

That's why Linus did it in his 4K build.

[Snickerzz]

its a hardware design and was done on purpose. it can't be fixed with any driver/firmware

[wyattzx]

Bottlenecks get smaller the higher resolution you go.

 

That's why Linus did it in his 4K build.

I just mentioned it in that the Ultra Textures might push the card past what it can handle. (More than 4GB) and so that's where the lag is coming from for me, and not the CPU issue, BECAUSE I can play Far Cry 3 at 4K with playable rates. (I play at 1080p though and stay above 60.)