Vram usage needs to be understood better.

[LokiFire]

I am finding games with great graphics that ask more from my GPU but little from it's Vram, and others that can hit refresh rate of 75hz no problem and hit the limit (not actually hitting the limit just caching) Vram.
 
For instance, my Fallout 3 is heavily modified and won't run any faster than 35-40FPS due to my ENB and textures, but Vram hit's 1GB rarely, this is the same story for original Crysis using the CryZenX shaders and better textures.

 

 
My game here Alien VS Predator stores what it can in Vram even if not needed, it also uses the cards tessellators and all the DX11 features, an early DX11 title that pushed DX11 features.
A side note the games does not detect my higher refresh rate which is a small annoyance, but i can live with it, gotta tweak that FOV though if i can.
 
At the top the GPU Vram is completely filled yet i don't drop below 60FPS, and GPU usage is also not maxing out.
 
I did drop to around 50FPS when heavy tesselation is used (close up to Aliens etc) as i am also pushing the DX11 4xMSAA mode which is quite intensive.
 
 
 



GTA IV i ran at 4K and the GPU was obviously taxed, but performance was 30-40 like Fallout 3 with mods, Vram was only 1200MB in GTA IV's graphics menu, however in game the Vram did fill to around 1448MB.

 

GTA IV with IcenHancer stresses the GPU it's self and i can only run it in 1080p with good frames.

 

I don't have too many newer games to test but judging from my experience most games either hit the GPU harder than Vram or the GPU is exceedingly good at handling a game even if it's Vram is filled for caching.

 

For instance BF3 maxed at Ultra with 2xMSAA (i don't use 4 as i drop below my desired minimum FPS for 75hz)

 

Small clip of the performance, the biggest hit in BF3 i find is a mixture of view distance and particle effects which is all GPU core centric and CPU.

 

 

 

Battlefield 4 i can run on Ultra with no MSAA and manage a nice steady 45-70FPS, 4xMSAA is too much for the GPU core.

 

People need to stop telling everyone you need X amount of Vram for Y game, it's not as simple as this, drivers, operating system, driver settings and even GPU architectures play an important role in the grand scheme of things.

 

For all that would like to know i run Forceware 361.43 (i hate to break it to the butthurt people but NV drivers have not decreased performance either)

 

 

What i will mention however is that modding with ridiculous sized textures is a completely different scenario, Shadow of Mordor will happily run on 1.5GB without the texture pack, Skyrim with some nice texture will run fine, an ENB will plummet GPU core performance, 4K textures though and say a grass mod will rek 1.5GB however.

[samcool55]

Tesselation is a factor....

And fancy textures don't always equal high res textures.

Also it depends on how the in-game engine handles textures...

[manikyath]

should also add that 4GB vram is no problem for higher resolutions, heres some proof: (in both my examples, neither is 2GB)

 

and no, shitty game devs is NOT a reason for getting more vram.

[Sauron]

Vram usage depends on texture resolution, how many different textures there are in a given scene, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, tessellation and a few others. It is not heavily affected by high quality polygons, lighting, particles and other effects that are worked out on the go rather than read from somewhere.

[QueenDemetria]

OP, what GPU did you test with?

[LokiFire]

OP, what GPU did you test with?

GTX 580 1536MB with a 900mhz OC (not max OC)

[xAcid9]

Try Shadow of Mordor or Hitman Absolution.

Cryengine dynamically load according to VRAM capacity iirc.

[LokiFire]

Try Shadow of Mordor or Hitman Absolution.

Cryengine dynamically load according to VRAM capacity iirc.

I can run Absolution for you now, that's NP.

 

I will max it out and run the benchmark

[LokiFire]

Try Shadow of Mordor or Hitman Absolution.

Cryengine dynamically load according to VRAM capacity iirc.

[LokiFire]

According to this my GTX 580 destroys the GTX 680???

 

[Hiebly]

According to this my GTX 580 destroys the GTX 680???

 

 

you had 8x MSAA on too?

[LokiFire]

you had 8x MSAA on too?

Everything cranked yes, 8xMSAA, AO, tesselation everything, i can even run a video of it.

[LokiFire]

Uploading video of my 580 running Absolution.. it's crazy smooth too.

[LokiFire]

Even the 7950 lost to my GPU WTF

 

It takes a Gigabyte SOC GTX 680 to match my 580...

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/124077-13-hitman-absolution

 

 

RIP GTX 680 lol.

 

@Hiebly @xAcid9

 

Play music then play my vid.

 

 

[VagabondWraith]

This is a very cool thread. I wish more people would take multiple cards and see if 2GB is truly enough for the average scenario. Also take 4 & 8 GB cards and truly see how much each game "needs" compared to what it just caches just because its there. It would be a good project and we can solve a lot of misunderstandings/misinformation going around that on whether or not you "need" 4, 6 or 8 GB of vRAM, or if 2 GB is enough. Its something I wish @LinusTech would do in a video.

[xAcid9]

Even the 7950 lost to my GPU WTF

 

It takes a Gigabyte SOC GTX 680 to match my 580...

#rekt

Can't find my older screenshots, probably in one of my dead HDDs gone with my few year collection of hentai stash KPop videos.

 

Can you run the benchmark in Ultra Preset+4xMSAA?

Also, can you show MSI OSD with VRAM usage in your screenshot in one of the missions?

Eg:

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Have you tested moded skyrim?

[LokiFire]

#rekt

Can't find my older screenshots, probably in one of my dead HDDs gone with my few year collection of hentai stash KPop videos.

 

Can you run the benchmark in Ultra Preset+4xMSAA?

Also, can you show MSI OSD with VRAM usage in your screenshot in one of the missions?

Eg:

Can do, dunno which mission that is though.

[LokiFire]

@xAcid9 i'm getting like 55-75FPS with 4xMSAA in mission...

[LokiFire]

[LokiFire]

[xAcid9]

@xAcid9 i'm getting like 55-75FPS with 4xMSAA in mission...

Sry I need benchmark score with Ultra+4xMSAA.  

 

So it did used all of your VRAM.

[LokiFire]

Sry I need benchmark score with Ultra+4xMSAA.  

 

So it did used all of your VRAM.

Oh lol will do that.

[LokiFire]

Sry I need benchmark score with Ultra+4xMSAA.  

 

So it did used all of your VRAM.

[xAcid9]

Oh lol will do that.

I searched high and low for my old screenshots but all i can find was an old post w/o screenshot, but i knew it's legit. 

 

My oc'ed 7950 gotten 56fps on the same settings.

Sauce: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=2739960&st=1880&p=62623792entry62623792

 

I wish i still have the card.