VRAM Usage

[Jstn7477]

Hey guys,

I did some more testing with GPU-Z's Memory Usage and Load counters (available on NVIDIA cards) and found some pretty high memory usage while playing Team Fortress 2. Feel free to discuss about these results and any others you may have, as well as VRAM for certain resolutions, etc.

System Specifications:
AMD Phenom II X4 955BE underclocked to 2.8GHz/2000/2000/1.175v
4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24
ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 790FX/SB750 motherboard
2x Samsung F1 1TB HDDs, RAID 1 on SB750
Windows 7 Professional x64

Video cards (all are inside system, NO SLI, only BFG (primary display) used for games:
BFG 9800 GT 1GB 65nm, Primary Display 666/1666/950
PNY 9800 GT 1GB 55nm, Second Display 650/1600/950
GeForce 210 512MB 40nm --------------589/1400/400

Displays:
1. Sceptre X226W-1920 1920*1080 5ms display (primary display, primary BFG 9800 GT)
2 Samsung Syncmaster 1440*900 5ms display (secondary display, PNY 9800 GT, info display)

Game Settings:
Team Fortress 2 (latest version)
1920*1080 resolution
All texture/model settings highest
16x Ansiotropic Filtering
8x MSAA
NO Motion Blur
Full HDR
Map: pl_swiftwater (community map) with 10 players

Test setup:

GPU-Z + CPU-Z

GPU-Z + Task Manager, showing hl2.exe game process)

GPU-Z (caught just as I alt-tabbed out of game)

 

[erocker]

I think if you increase your North Bridge and CPU frequency it will help. More so with the North Bridge though.

 

[Mussels]

if you turn the AA down, you'll notice the mem use drops right off.


erocker: wrong thread?

 

[Jstn7477]

if you turn the AA down, you'll notice the mem use drops right off.

It also seems to depend on which map you are on too (for this particular game). This time, I selected cp_dustbowl.

I might try some other games later. I think my examples show that for games at this resolution, you really should have >512MB VRAM.

Test run (looks like I managed to capture some LCD lag in the bottom left corner):

cp_dustbowl, same settings, 0x AA

cp_dustbowl, 8x MSAA

 

[ktr]

Nice thread. This just shows you that community maps are in need of some srs optimization.

Also, if you don't mind, tell whats the memory usage between HIGH and VERY HIGH texture setting.

 

[Jstn7477]

"High" texture setting appears to use 50-100MB less RAM with 8xAA than "Very High".

 

[erocker]

if you turn the AA down, you'll notice the mem use drops right off.


erocker: wrong thread?

Nope! For some reason with AMD rigs, increasing the North Bridge frequency has an effect on both system RAM and VRAM. Don't know why really.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Dude almost 1GB on TF2 at only 1920x1080? Even with 8x AA that seems high to me though I haven't tested this since the 2900 Pro days with Riva Tuner when I still ran XP 32. Couldn't do it under Vista due to shared vram so I welcome the feature back in GPU-Z (and I happen to have an Nvidia card atm). I do remember I got close to a gig used with Oblivion modded to hell and back at 1920x1200 4xAA. Nothing else even came close except STALKER. TF2, which had just come out, was a few hundred megs iirc.

 

[Jstn7477]

Dude almost 1GB on TF2 at only 1920x1080? Even with 8x AA that seems high to me though I haven't tested this since the 2900 Pro days with Riva Tuner when I still ran XP 32. Couldn't do it under Vista due to shared vram so I welcome the feature back in GPU-Z (and I happen to have an Nvidia card atm). I do remember I got close to a gig used with Oblivion modded to hell and back at 1920x1200 4xAA. Nothing else even came close except STALKER. TF2, which had just come out, was a few hundred megs iirc.

Yep, using 657MB right now on Dustbowl (with 8xAA).

EDIT: now 690MB.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Interesting. Well now that I can again (yay) I will check for myself too.

UPDATE: Yeah something isn't right. Try what erocker said cause this must be an AMD thing. TF2 at 1920x1200 8X MSAA (in game) and textures on very high maxes out for me at 264MB.

 

[Jstn7477]

I bumped up my NB and HT to 2400MHz and the highest memory usage I have seen was 665MB in-game in pl_swiftwater. Similar results with pl_Cashworks. I'll try higher HT/NB clocks (my CPU tops out at about 2.9GHz for those, but it takes a lot of voltage to get it stable.

 

[Mussels]

it might be related to other settings.

Vsync, NV control panel settings, whatever.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I need to test it more obviously but playing Forgotten Hope 2 in BF2 it didn't register any additional vram usage at all. I do notice it jump in 2D such as when I open a browser window...

 

[Jstn7477]

it might be related to other settings.

Vsync, NV control panel settings, whatever.

Does VSYNC consume more VRAM than without it? I always use VSYNC with these games.

The only things that are On by default in the NV Control Panel are AA-Gamma correction, negative LOD Bias, Quality texture filtering, and trilinear optimization.

 

[RX-7]

wow your temps are a lot hotter than my 8800gt's run @ 60% fan speed

are yours single slot coolers

 

[Jstn7477]

wow your temps are a lot hotter than my 8800gt's run @ 60% fan speed

are yours single slot coolers

The primary one is a single slot cooler and the other has a Zalman VF1000 (which isn't too much better.)

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Interesting. Well now that I can again (yay) I will check for myself too.

UPDATE: Yeah something isn't right. Try what erocker said cause this must be an AMD thing. TF2 at 1920x1200 8X MSAA (in game) and textures on very high maxes out for me at 264MB.

I agree there is just no way that TF2 is using that much vram especially at only 1920x1080 with 8xAA on an 8800gt. Every review that I saw for the 1GB 4870 (a more powerful card) vs the 512 showed no improvement with more AA at 2560x1600.

 

[Mussels]

i wonder if his card was leaving textures loaded in from previous levels or something.

 

[TheCrow]

Interesting stuff, and on a plus side i dont feel so bad about my 9800GT reaching 50-55 degrees on load!

 

[erocker]

Interesting stuff, and on a plus side i dont feel so bad about my 9800GT reaching 50-55 degrees on load!

Good, because that is better than normal.

Justin, has anything changed since the patch yesterday?

 

[Jstn7477]

Good, because that is better than normal.

Justin, has anything changed since the patch yesterday?

I took my rig home yesterday for Christmas break, so I only brought home my small Samsung monitor (can't recreate 1080p here ATM). I'll try to see if my 21" Sony tube monitor next to me can get that high resolution-wise.

And yep, Justin is my name.

EDIT: My tube does 1800*1440 @ 60Hz, or ~2.5MP so that should put enough load on the GPU. Will try later tonight.

 

[TheCrow]

I took my rig home yesterday for Christmas break, so I only brought home my small Samsung monitor (can't recreate 1080p here ATM). I'll try to see if my 21" Sony tube monitor next to me can get that high resolution-wise.

And yep, Justin is my name.

EDIT: My tube does 1800*1440 @ 60Hz, or ~2.5MP so that should put enough load on the GPU. Will try later tonight.

Crickey that is scary! Justin is my real name also! I thought erocker had some psychic thing going on!

 

[karatekid430]

I know this is old but I was surprised about this a few years on....

To show you the extent of the VRAM hogging, I have an AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB.

TF2 ate its way through every last MB of it! 2048MB. Not good. So it is not limited to 1GB or NVIDIA cards.
Settings are MAX // VSYNC // 1920x1080 @ 60Hz // 8xAA.

If it is a program that expands to fill higher-end systems, then that is fine. I have no problem with a game which uses all available resources to save CPU usage, bandwidth on the PCI-E bus, etc. But TF2 which is old and lacking on shaders and graphics? I find that hard to believe. There would be almost no point. It doesn't stress any systems anyway. Probably never did. It came out in the same year as Crysis I.

I play on Steam and would like to know why it takes so long to connect the account, open, etc. And then takes several minutes to join servers? Why the HUGE flurry of disk activity? If that is the VAC then I will stab someone.

Just showing you how far TF2 will go a couple of years on with 2GB of GDDR5 and an AMD/ATI graphics card. I would be interested if someone knows the answer to this or the sluggish loading times. (Though Windows 7 startup time has gone through the roof, too, recently -- WD Caviar Green 1500GB WD15EARS).

Thanks and happy gaming!

Julia Gillard as Spy: She would be very well suited to backstabbing.

 

[EarthDog]

Caviar Green = SLOW.

TF2 = leaky.

 

[karatekid430]

Fair enough