Question about VRAM usage

[VagabondWraith]

I noticed while playing RotTR with Ultra textures, that my VRAM usage goes to 6144 MB... which is maxed out. Yet when I turn it down to Very High, it drops to around      3 GB. I have no performance decrease either way.

 

So my question/concern is, does the game STOP at my max VRAM amount, or does it flood over and try to use system RAM too? I'm not entirely sure how games utilize memory once it hits the limit.

 

I appreciate the answers.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, VagabondWraith said:

 

a game only uses as much vram as it needs

 

but vram usage rises with resolution

 

what resolution are you playing at? 4k?

 

2 minutes ago, VagabondWraith said:

I'm not entirely sure how games utilize memory once it hits the limit.

after it caps the vram, it will try and use the system ram but thats very slow compared to vram so your game will stutter like crazy and even have fps drop dramatically

ie. from 90fps to 4fps

[SeanAngelo]

3 minutes ago, VagabondWraith said:

I noticed while playing RotTR with Ultra textures, that my VRAM usage goes to 6144 MB... which is maxed out. Yet when I turn it down to Very High, it drops to around      3 GB. I have no performance decrease either way.

 

So my question/concern is, does the game STOP at my max VRAM amount, or does it flood over and try to use system RAM too? I'm not entirely sure how games utilize memory once it hits the limit.

 

I appreciate the answers.

once you reach the cap, the performance goes down i think

[Guest]

You can force most games to use more VRAM than you have available and this is where your graphics driver takes over. Driver updates, such as ones that get released specifically for AAA titles will try and optimize your available resources for the game's demand. Your drivers in combination with the game itself will make sure that your GPU is swapping out textures with your system RAM so that the textures you're looking at on screen are always available in your VRAM. If this is optimized well enough, you can push the boundaries of your VRAM limitations without noticing preformance loss.

 

However, if you are trying to use too much VRAM for your graphics card to handle, you will most likely experience horrible lag / fps drop that does not seem to correspond with your GPU usage. Nothing to be concerned about, just a sign that you need to bring down that VRAM usage by lowering texture settings or post processing.

 

Keep in mind that a game's recommended VRAM is sort of an estimation, and you may get away with more or less. In GTA V for example, you might only notice performance drop if you're driving really fast. Move through the world at a slower pace and your system has enough time to swap those textures out.

[VagabondWraith]

47 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

a game only uses as much vram as it needs

 

but vram usage rises with resolution

 

what resolution are you playing at? 4k?

 

after it caps the vram, it will try and use the system ram but thats very slow compared to vram so your game will stutter like crazy and even have fps drop dramatically

ie. from 90fps to 4fps

I'm gaming at 1080p. 

 

I just thought it was weird that RotTR required 3 more GB of VRAM for Ultra textures compared to 3 GB for Very High. I don't know if the game is buggy or what. But I've never seen a game that required all 6 GB of VRAM on a 980 Ti. Even the buggy mess of Arkham Knight only hit a max of 4.8.

[VagabondWraith]

52 minutes ago, SeanAngelo said:

once you reach the cap, the performance goes down i think

I didn't notice any performance hit though. It just capped all 6 GB of VRAM going from Very High to Ultra textures, which I found weird. Like 1 setting requires 3 more  GB of VRAM?

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, VagabondWraith said:

I'm gaming at 1080p. 

 

I just thought it was weird that RotTR required 3 more GB of VRAM for Ultra textures compared to 3 GB for Very High. I don't know if the game is buggy or what. But I've never seen a game that required all 6 GB of VRAM on a 980 Ti. Even the buggy mess of Arkham Knight only hit a max of 4.8.

shouldnt consume 6gb of vram at 1080p ultra tbh

not sure whats wrong lol

 

but im going to blame the nvidia's latest driver 364.47 or 364.51 or 364.xx in general

[VagabondWraith]

Just now, Moonzy said:

shouldnt consume 6gb of vram at 1080p ultra tbh

not sure whats wrong lol

 

but im going to blame the nvidia's latest driver 364.47 or 364.51 or 364.xx in general

Yeah you may be right. I have seen other posts elsewhere where people were saying the same thing. 

 

I I guess I'll just leave the textures on Very High since there's not much difference between that and Ultra.

 

Thanks for the answers though.

[zberry7]

The same happens with my 980Ti at 1080P on ROTTR, I just got a 1440p monitor and I'm interested in trying to see what happens with the ultra textures

 

i don't see a performance decrease when I hit 6GB, it just stays pinned at 6 and doesn't go over