DirectX and wrong amount of video RAM

[KCShelby]

This echoes an un-answered thread I posted in the Microsoft "community"...

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I was having problems with "running out of video memory" errors in the Aces High online flight sim, so I did a full wipe-and-reinstall of my system. I deleted all the hard disk partitions on both of my hard drives and completely reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I downloaded the latest video drivers from AMD and installed those, too. Here is my setup:

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E
Processor: Intel i7-930 2.8 GHz (@3.4)
Memory: 12 GB Corsair (2 x CMX6GX3M3C1600C7 @ 1624)
Video Card: XFX FX-795A-TDBC Radeon HD 7950
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro
Hard Drive #1: Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM (WD1002FBYS)
Hard Drive #2: Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM (WD1002FBYS)
Optical Drive #1: Plextor PX-880SA DVD writer
Optical Drive #2: ASUS DVD-E818A6T DVD ROM
Monitor #1: ASUS VE258Q
Monitor #2: ASUS VE258Q
Monitor #3: ASUS VE258Q
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W
Case: Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P50
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Dxdiag reports incorrectly that my 3 GB AMD 7950 card has less than 1 GB of video RAM:
...
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x679A)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_679A&SUBSYS_32201682&REV_00
Display Memory: 734 MB
Dedicated Memory: 3043 MB
Shared Memory: 1787 MB
Current Mode: 5760 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
...

The "msinfo32.exe" program reports exactly 1 GB of video RAM (actually 1,073,741,824 bytes).

And when I navigate to "control panel...display...screen resolution...advanced settings... adapter" it reports the following:

Total Available Graphics Memory: 4859 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 3072 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 1787 MB

The video RAM shortage errors continue to plague me, both in Aces High as well as other games. What's going on? Why does a fresh install go so very wrong?

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I've followed this up by updating the system BIOS, then clearing the CMOS, then yet another re-install of Windows and the AMD drivers. No joy.

I just don't know what else to try, except maybe to RMA the video card.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by KCShelby

as well as other games

What other games?

[KCShelby]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

What other games?

Skyrim and Napoleon: Total War

[W1zzard]

Originally Posted by KCShelby

Total Available Graphics Memory: 4859 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 3072 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 1787 MB

Your card has 3 GB memory, and if the card runs out of memory, it will use up to an additional 1.78 GB of main memory for graphics data.

seems accurate to me?

[FordGT90Concept]

Yeah, I'm thinking memory leak which could potentially be caused by a bad overclock or unstable card.

I think AMD recently released new drivers. You could try that.

[Kaynar]

I have the XFX 7970. the msinfo32.exe also reports 1.073,741,824 bytes for Adapter RAM in the "Display" tab. DXdiag reports 1768MB of "Approx. Total Memory. Lastly, in "control panel...display...screen resolution...advanced settings... adapter" I get
Total Available Graphics Memory: 5887 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 3072 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 2815 MB

As you can see for both of us, what counts is the "Dedicated Video Memory" just above. The "total available" will change depending on your system's configuration. Most programs, including windows identification programs, will detect the wrong stats of resources (not just RAM) on a 7000 series GPU because that is how the GPU achieves power saving.

EDIT: since you are playing games, just use MSI AB to monitor your card. You will see that during games (modded Skyrim for eg) the card may go near the 3GB mark without issues.

[KCShelby]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

Your card has 3 GB memory, and if the card runs out of memory, it will use up to an additional 1.78 GB of main memory for graphics data.

seems accurate to me?

But that report is the *only* part that's accurate.

DirectX and DxDiag report and act like this card has only 734 Mb of VRAM.

And the "msinfo32.exe" windows utility reports exactly 1.0 GB of VRAM.

[Kaynar]

The virtual RAM that you PC system sees (called Shared System Memory) is automatically configured by Windows according to the system's needs. The values will depend from system to system.

[OneMoar]

Originally Posted by KCShelby

But that report is the *only* part that's accurate.

DirectX and DxDiag report and act like this card has only 734 Mb of VRAM.

And the "msinfo32.exe" windows utility reports exactly 1.0 GB of VRAM.

dxdiag reports the inuse vram not the 'available'

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by KCShelby

DirectX and DxDiag report...

Originally Posted by KCShelby

And the "msinfo32.exe" windows utility reports...

Well there is your problem. Use GPU-Z instead! It also says "Display" memory and I'm willing to bet that means the maximum amount of memory that can be used as the display's frame buffer as opposed to what the maximum the GPU has is. So I think you're getting the terms "display memory" and "video memory" confused where video memory represents all dedicated memory for the GPU and "display memory" is memory accessible by the frame buffer.

[belladabin]

good,Yeah, I'm thinking memory leak which could potentially be caused by a bad overclock or unstable card.

[qubit]

Could be a driver/bios issue, perhaps. Check that you have the latest mobo bios. Not really likely to affect it, but doesn't hurt to update it. Are you running the latest video driver?

[KCShelby]

First off, I'd like to send out a hearty "thank you!" to all the folks who read and replied to this thread. Your input is most appreciated.

My problem seems to be that the Windows DirectX subsystem sees and uses the wrong amount of VRAM. Programs that should run very well on this brand-new 7950 card run out of VRAM.

Immediately after installing only Windows and the AMD drivers, I ran DxDiag and it once again reported that "Display Memory" was 734 MB. I think that is a problem. I simply cannot believe that the Windows desktop eats up over 2 GB VRAM.

Various utilities (including GPU-Z) report 3 GB VRAM, but it's not clear how they arrive at that figure: do they simply read a string somewhere in the video card BIOS, or actually *count* the number of bytes in the VRAM?

After updating my system BIOS, I then cleared the CMOS (no overclock at all), and then re-installed Windows with the latest (non-beta) AMD drivers. This did not help.

What's wrong with DirectX on my machine, and how can I fix it?

[Kaynar]

Dude it is very simple. You didnt need to spend time with formatting...

Just install MSI Afterburner to monitor the amount of VRAM used. If during an application you run out of VRAM (an I guess the program crashes?) then you go back to MSI Afterburner and see how much Max VRAM was used. If it is 768MB then u got a problem, if you got near 3GB, you are fine!

Since you say you play Skyrim, even with no addons this game should use nearly 1.5GB VRAM at 1900*1200 (my own resolution). WIth your 5760x1080 it should be near 2GB. So it is easy to check with MSI AB.