Crossfire video memory...

Yo_Wattup · Jun 12, 2012, 10:42 AM

I thought the amount of video memory, when crossfiring, equals the amount of memory on the card with the lower amount of memory, e.g. if you have a 1GB HD6950 and crossfire it with a 2GB HD 6970, there will only be 1GB available video memory.

Likewise, if you have 2x 2GB 6950's (which is what I have), there will only be 2GB available.

Well check out this picture.. this is a picture of gpu-z just after I closed a 64 player game of Battlefield 3, a game known to eat video memory.

You can see that while I am playing, the video memory usage (dedicated) is at around 3GB, suggesting maximum video memory is 4GB (I hovered my mouse over the part of the bar graph that was highest, this screenshot doesnt show my cursor though).

This information correlates to when I was running one card, because before I crossfired, I was unable to play Battlefield 3 on maximum settings, only 2xMSAA and 0xAF, and memory usage was sitting at 1800MB, now I have MSAA at 8x and AF at 16x, so the fact that theyre using 3000MB kind of makes sense

Is this correct? Or am I missing something? The memory usage (dynamic) never rose above 300mb, so that cant be right.

Mussels · Jun 12, 2012, 11:43 AM

GPU-Z shows the video memory, doubled. its a driver/GU-Z bug.

HossHuge · Jun 12, 2012, 12:27 PM

I had the same thing happen to me with my 6850's.

I have another sorta related question. If my vram memory is is being fully utilized will it start to use my system memory?

Mussels · Jun 12, 2012, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossHuge

I had the same thing happen to me with my 6850's.

I have another sorta related question. If my vram memory is is being fully utilized will it start to use my system memory?

yes. and thats why you get those sudden tanking FPS drops at 8x aa, yet 2x or 4x runs just fine...

GotNoRice · Jun 12, 2012, 03:04 PM

My 2x 4870x2 monitored via MSI Afterburner also shows 4GB as the memory. When I see it using say 2800/4000 memory, that is actually using 700/1000 per GPU.

Yo_Wattup · Jun 12, 2012, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mussels

GPU-Z shows the video memory, doubled. its a driver/GU-Z bug.

Okay, thanks. Does w1zz know about this bug?

erocker · Jun 12, 2012, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yo_Wattup

Okay, thanks. Does w1zz know about this bug?

I don't think it's a bug, it's just reading off of each individual card. Perhaps a memory used bard could be implemented for multi cards, maybe not though.

You are also using a version of GPU-Z that I believe came out before the 79xx series was released. Update that.

Yo_Wattup · Jun 12, 2012, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erocker

I don't think it's a bug, it's just reading off of each individual card. Perhaps a memory used bard could be implemented for multi cards, maybe not though.

You are also using a version of GPU-Z that I believe came out before the 79xx series was released. Update that.

Well I would call that a bug. Strange, it only shows memory usage on one of the cards (when I click AMD radeon 6900 series down the bottom)

erocker · Jun 12, 2012, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yo_Wattup

Well I would call that a bug. Strange, it only shows memory usage on one of the cards (when I click AMD radeon 6900 series down the bottom)

So if you click on "AMD radeon 6900" at the bottom and it shows usage on one card wouldn't that be the correct reading for both cards? Again, try it with the latest GPU-Z.

Wrigleyvillain · Jun 12, 2012, 07:40 PM

I don't know all the details either but yeah the video memory usage monitoring on AMD cards is more recent functionality and doesn't seem to work quite right, at least yet.

Jun 12, 2012, 10:42 AM	#1
Yo_Wattup Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 704 (1.47/day) Thanks: 176 Thanked 199 Times in 125 Posts System Specs	Crossfire video memory... I thought the amount of video memory, when crossfiring, equals the amount of memory on the card with the lower amount of memory, e.g. if you have a 1GB HD6950 and crossfire it with a 2GB HD 6970, there will only be 1GB available video memory. Likewise, if you have 2x 2GB 6950's (which is what I have), there will only be 2GB available. Well check out this picture.. this is a picture of gpu-z just after I closed a 64 player game of Battlefield 3, a game known to eat video memory. You can see that while I am playing, the video memory usage (dedicated) is at around 3GB, suggesting maximum video memory is 4GB (I hovered my mouse over the part of the bar graph that was highest, this screenshot doesnt show my cursor though). This information correlates to when I was running one card, because before I crossfired, I was unable to play Battlefield 3 on maximum settings, only 2xMSAA and 0xAF, and memory usage was sitting at 1800MB, now I have MSAA at 8x and AF at 16x, so the fact that theyre using 3000MB kind of makes sense Is this correct? Or am I missing something? The memory usage (dynamic) never rose above 300mb, so that cant be right. __________________ Less is not more. More is more.

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Jun 12, 2012, 11:43 AM	#2
Mussels Doctor Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bendigo, Australia (NOT THE USA) Posts: 34,545 (10.98/day) Thanks: 3,699 Thanked 8,686 Times in 6,387 Posts System Specs	GPU-Z shows the video memory, doubled. its a driver/GU-Z bug. __________________ Edumacational thread about PC Audio My external HDD's.5x samsung 1TB + 2x Seagate 1.5TB = 8 TB external storage 32 Bit OS vs 64 bit OS information How to get hardware accelerated H264 playback (DXVA) Netbook Owners United!

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Jun 12, 2012, 12:27 PM	#3
HossHuge Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Taiwan Posts: 1,809 (1.01/day) Thanks: 513 Thanked 448 Times in 301 Posts System Specs	I had the same thing happen to me with my 6850's. I have another sorta related question. If my vram memory is is being fully utilized will it start to use my system memory? __________________ But they are useless. They can only give you answers. ~Pablo Picasso, about computers

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Jun 12, 2012, 03:04 PM	#5
GotNoRice Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Pleasant Hill, CA Posts: 126 (0.11/day) Thanks: 5 Thanked 57 Times in 41 Posts System Specs	My 2x 4870x2 monitored via MSI Afterburner also shows 4GB as the memory. When I see it using say 2800/4000 memory, that is actually using 700/1000 per GPU.

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Jun 12, 2012, 07:40 PM	#10
Wrigleyvillain Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 4,498 (2.20/day) Thanks: 1,524 Thanked 1,573 Times in 1,116 Posts System Specs	I don't know all the details either but yeah the video memory usage monitoring on AMD cards is more recent functionality and doesn't seem to work quite right, at least yet. __________________ “i dont care what consoles have they dont have mouse and keyboard” -crazyeyesreaper

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