Why is my computer using less vram in games than before?

[Phusius]

I used to have a 1080p monitor in place of the monitor in my signature, and it used 2200mb of vram, now in my 1440p catleap, it uses only 1350 mb or so of vram.

I don't get it, shouldn't my vram usage have gone up?

Edit:: Everything runs fine and all, settings in game are all same only thing changed was the monitor. I just don't get it.

 

[Phusius]

I have tried everything even switching monitors back and the 1080p still uses more vram, the only setting difference is obviously the resolution itself and 2x AA in 1440p and max AA in 1080p. so I am guessing the higher AA is what causes more vram usage?

 

[theonedub]

Yeah that will cause a huge increase in VRAM usage. Was going to mention that, but when you say all settings are the same that should include AA

 

[Tatty_Two]

uses 2200MB of VRAM in what? thats an aweful lot of memory, I am sure that I read that even with Ultra settings in BF3 at 1080P the most that was used was 1600 ish.

 

[slyfox2151]

what game was/is it?

 

[erixx]

my bet: a game with huge maps, like MMOFRSPLCUTHGHHMM games

 

[Flibolito]

Sometimes Vram holds onto other things for a while. If I surf the web alot like youtube my Vram at idle can be 400-600 out of the 3GB. Then add BF3 which is about 1300-1600 @1080p all out it adds up. The card will make room if it needs more for the game as long as the application requirement fit within.

 

[ISI300]

2200MB? ridiculous. in what game you get that? Impossible on 1080p.

 

[Shurakai]

If BF3 is as vram intensive as people say it is I don't know why people think it's impossible, just Skyrim and watching a show on my second monitor uses 1.8-1.9gb of memory (main monitor is 1920x1080 and my secondary is an ancient 1280x1024).



(The show in questions is 720p resolution, perfect size for the second monitor, and for reference that's only 100-120mb of vram used)

 

[Phusius]

total war shogun 2 on a single 1080p monitor. I think I had about 8-10 full size armies in battle.

 

[Goodman]

Are talking about GC ram or Mobo ram?

 

[Yo_Wattup]

uses 2200MB of VRAM in what? thats an aweful lot of memory, I am sure that I read that even with Ultra settings in BF3 at 1080P the most that was used was 1600 ish.

1800 here, only 2xaa too. Ill believe 2200 with some extar aa. Were talking 64 player massive maps though

 

[ISI300]

If BF3 is as vram intensive as people say it is I don't know why people think it's impossible, just Skyrim and watching a show on my second monitor uses 1.8-1.9gb of memory (main monitor is 1920x1080 and my secondary is an ancient 1280x1024).

[url]http://i.imgur.com/YnnOvl.gif[/URL]

(The show in questions is 720p resolution, perfect size for the second monitor, and for reference that's only 100-120mb of vram used)

I don't remember saying anything about multi monitor setups.
One thing I've just thought of, AMD or Nvidia do optimize their drivers don't they, so in case of a HD 7970, maybe they're increasing the amount of cached textures and other stuff to improve performance. I don't ever remember my 260 give stuttering in BF3, but I was running Maxed out 1080p, /w fxaa, no MSAA.

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

uses 2200MB of VRAM in what? thats an aweful lot of memory, I am sure that I read that even with Ultra settings in BF3 at 1080P the most that was used was 1600 ish.

With my setup(in sig)Vram usage in BF3 hovers between 2900 to max 3124MB on Ultra settings 1080P

 

[Tatty_Two]

With my setup(in sig)Vram usage in BF3 hovers between 2900 to max 3124MB on Ultra settings 1080P

And you don't have huge stuttering? I see you have only 2GB of Vram, if it really is using that much then in my experience if the card is having to draw over 1GB from the system the effects on the gameplay can be alarming.

 

[Shurakai]

With my setup(in sig)Vram usage in BF3 hovers between 2900 to max 3124MB on Ultra settings 1080P

That's more like 1.5gb per card (Due to crossfire memory duplication)

I don't remember saying anything about multi monitor setups.
One thing I've just thought of, AMD or Nvidia do optimize their drivers don't they, so in case of a HD 7970, maybe they're increasing the amount of cached textures and other stuff to improve performance. I don't ever remember my 260 give stuttering in BF3, but I was running Maxed out 1080p, /w fxaa, no MSAA.

Sorry if it sounded personal, but impossible is a word I just don't like seen thrown around, this thread is proof enough more than 2gb is possible at 1080; my test above is without HD textures as well.

Edit: Unless you're using SLI a single 260 cannot play BF3 at Ultra, might be time to grab an awesome GTX 680, that's my plan next week

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

And you don't have huge stuttering? I see you have only 2GB of Vram, if it really is using that much then in my experience if the card is having to draw over 1GB from the system the effects on the gameplay can be alarming.

2GB per card!
Msi AB reports 2500 + on Metro and slightly over 3000 on Kargh,Caspian and Noshahr...400 on end game menu...
I was havin a bit of problems with 4GB system memory but going to 8Gb solved everything.In both cases msi AB reported the same amount of Vram in use.

 

[Tatty_Two]

2GB per card!
Msi AB reports 2500 + on Metro and slightly over 3000 on Kargh,Caspian and Noshahr...400 on end game menu...
I was havin a bit of problems with 4GB system memory but going to 8Gb solved everything.In both cases msi AB reported the same amount of Vram in use.

In crossfire you only get 2GB, not 2 x 2GB....... unless things have changed in the last year since I had a crossfire setup.

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

In crossfire you only get 2GB, not 2 x 2GB....... unless things have changed in the last year since I had a crossfire setup.

I must admit it's weird but I get those readings everyday...!

 

[robal]

To sum up few things:

- in crossfire, your whole rendering system has got the amount of VRAM of single GPU (the one with least memory)

- it's semi-easy to reach astronomical vram usage in games by maxing out resolution and AA

 

[Tatty_Two]

I must admit it's weird but I get those readings everyday...!

I think that maybe it's reporting what the card/app is using, whether that is VRam or virtual..... it cant be whats actually on board if you physically dont have it.

 

[Phusius]

So I figured it out, a a few posts up said it was AA, and indeed it is AA.

However, I don't need AA maxed out anymore because it is hard to tell the difference between 2x AA and 16x AA on a 1440p monitor... so I guess I should have got the GTX 680 2GB I thought the 3GB 7970 would be needed at this resolution. Oh well, sad day.