AMD Radeon 290X won't clear GPU Memory, HOW to clear Radeon Memory?

[JAB Creations]

I've been playing Borderlands 3 of late since it came with my 3800X. Unfortunately I've come to realize that when the GPU RAM is no longer in use it's not emptied! So when I load the game without restarting my desktop I'll get a lot of crashes, some of which reference RAM. At first I thought it was because my card was old...but it's the damn software!

I already have to babysit hard drives by disabling the page file (which should not even exist) and the RAM via RAMMap so what utility will let me kill off lazy RAM usage in my 290X? After rebooting last night I was at a very low level and had no issues until I intentionally shut the game down. Having not rebooted since that point my 290X has 2.2GB of RAM in use. I'm on driver release 2.0.13 and will reboot before I game tonight for the driver update as someone will obviously inquire about drivers.

 

[EarthDog]

Does it reference gpu ram or system ram? I see you have a lot, but... just making sure.

I think the amd driver software has a GPU cache clear function... not sure if that will help.

 

[natr0n]

Make sure you close off browsers they also eat gpu ram up sometimes.

 

[Toothless]

Why the hate on pagefile?

Has launching a different game done anything? What're you using to monitor usage?

 

[Zach_01]

Have you disable pagefile before or after this happen?

 

[eidairaman1]

Leave the pagefile on for the OS drive

 

[JAB Creations]

Let me reiterate: how do I clear the GPU video card AMD Radeon RAM Memory? As in the 4GB of GDDR5 RAM on the video card. I made it abundantly clear that I have the system memory well under control if one reads the post with reasonably accuracy.

 

[laszlo]

vram usually clear itself; you may have a faulty ram chip; restart always clear all ram&vram

 

[Ferrum Master]

you may have a faulty ram chip

What are you smoking? Don't post rubbish.

 

[Zach_01]

Let me reiterate: how do I clear the GPU video card AMD Radeon RAM Memory? As in the 4GB of GDDR5 RAM on the video card. I made it abundantly clear that I have the system memory well under control if one reads the post with reasonably accuracy.

We did read the post with and with high accurancy!
Please let us reiterate...

Have you disable pagefile before or after this happen?

Leave the pagefile on for the OS drive

Well, as far as I know there is no clear VRAM tool... and I believe the same for @eidairaman1...
And its the first time I come across such an issue for the 20 years I "work" with PCs.

So, when did this issue first occur? Before or after disabling pagefile? Before or after RAMMap installation? Is this RAMMap only for monitor RAM assignment or did you do something more with it?
Did you try to re-enable pagefile just in case? It won't hurt you... And you can enable the page file to any drive and not just the OS drive.
And please state your OS.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Let me reiterate: how do I clear the GPU video card AMD Radeon RAM Memory? As in the 4GB of GDDR5 RAM on the video card. I made it abundantly clear that I have the system memory well under control if one reads the post with reasonably accuracy.

There are 2 places where you might find something useful, System Internals site and Nirsoft.net. To confirm whats been said, there are no vRam tools worth using. Good Luck!

 

[EarthDog]

WTH is with these ram scrubber things...lol.. It isn't 2005, people! lol

 

[W1zzard]

Does disabling and reenabling the graphics card in device manager help?

 

[eidairaman1]

What was the last driver you werre using before these problems occurred

 

[theoneandonlymrk]

I've been playing Borderlands 3 of late since it came with my 3800X. Unfortunately I've come to realize that when the GPU RAM is no longer in use it's not emptied! So when I load the game without restarting my desktop I'll get a lot of crashes, some of which reference RAM. At first I thought it was because my card was old...but it's the damn software!

I already have to babysit hard drives by disabling the page file (which should not even exist) and the RAM via RAMMap so what utility will let me kill off lazy RAM usage in my 290X? After rebooting last night I was at a very low level and had no issues until I intentionally shut the game down. Having not rebooted since that point my 290X has 2.2GB of RAM in use. I'm on driver release 2.0.13 and will reboot before I game tonight for the driver update as someone will obviously inquire about drivers.

Now honestly i may be wrong since I don't have your card but if it's using the latest drivers you can reset the shader cache and memory segment via , wattman - its settings tab, - click advanced to extend that list and near the bottom hopefully you would see the options.

 

[EarthDog]

Now honestly i may be wrong since I don't have your card but if it's using the latest drivers you can reset the shader cache and memory segment via , wattman - its settings tab, - click advanced to extend that list and near the bottom hopefully you would see the options.

Yep!

I think the amd driver software has a GPU cache clear function... not sure if that will help.

Not sure if the OP tried that suggestion or not, however.

 

[vega22]

i would try a clean driver install tbh dude.

i just checked and mine clears ok (according to aida monitoring stuffs) on the same driver.

in the cp you can clear the shader cache by going; home>graphics>advanced and the option is at the bottom.

 

[JAB Creations]

Now honestly i may be wrong since I don't have your card but if it's using the latest drivers you can reset the shader cache and memory segment via , wattman - its settings tab, - click advanced to extend that list and near the bottom hopefully you would see the options.

This looks like it's on-topic, in the latest version of Radeon Software 20.1.3:
Gaming ⇨ Global Graphics ⇨ Advanced ⇨ Reset Shader Cache

Later tonight after I'm finished working I'll load the game up, play for a bit, close out and see if the GPU RAM is still being used and if so clear it via this method.

This is clearly a software issue and I'm thinking there is an issue with the game not unloading it's assets from the GPU RAM.

 

[Aquinus]

A game shouldn't crash because you run out of VRAM, it just starts to try and stream data from system memory over PCIe and usually everything just slows down. It's not unlikely that you're running out of VRAM, but crashes shouldn't be the result unless you're running out of system memory. Something else is going on.

 

[JAB Creations]

A game shouldn't crash because you run out of VRAM, it just starts to try and stream data from system memory over PCIe and usually everything just slows down. It's not unlikely that you're running out of VRAM, but crashes shouldn't be the result unless you're running out of system memory. Something else is going on.

About half of the crashes specifically mentioned lack of GPU RAM. I've run the Radeon OSD (Alt+R) and have clearly seen the RAM max out and then drop to about 2.2GB after the game would crash. "But you still have 1.8GB of GPU RAM left!" ...right, and after a fresh boot the system is using 0.1GB of GPU RAM. I'll try what I mentioned a little while ago later on tonight and report back. I'm sure I can't be the only person encountering this. That being said I can't wait for Big Navi and plan to purchase their max 80CU card. I imagine it will be called the 6950X as it seems all the cards will be RDNA 2 and their is enough ambiguity about the context of the word refresh. 2020 is shaping up to be an exciting year!

 

[EarthDog]

looks like it's on-topic

It was on topic since the second post, lol!

I test with borderlands 3 and havent seen that issue across over a dozen diferent cards. Though, nothing as old as the 290x (ex 590 is the oldest). I haven't checked memory, but I believe at 1080p it uses 4gb+ of ram...

You need to find someone with your card or that generation with the same amount of vRAM to see if one can reproduce. With as many cards of that type that are out there, if was systemic, we'd hear more about it I would think.

And to be clear, thus only happens in B3, right?

 

[Harpo]

Try "Ctrl+Shift+Win+B" theoretically it reloads the graphics driver. I have my doubts, but being one who benches a lot of different gpu's I can say it is useful for me.

 

[JAB Creations]

Last night the issue did not happen and I haven't rebooted; observer effect is obnoxious.

Windowed Borderless just seemed to fix the Alt+Tab bug. I'll keep tabs on this thread and I just tried the Ctrl+Shift+Win+B functionality. The screen blacked out quickly and the GPU usage reverse-spiked to 0 though the GPU RAM stayed the same.

 

[EarthDog]

Good luck! If it happens again, you have more troubleshooting listed to try.