VRAM in 2020-2024: Why 10GB is enough.

[Darktalon]

How does 4K VRAM compare to 1440p DLSS -> 4K VRAM?

Click to shrink...

This is a great point I forgot to cover, DLSS reduces the VRAM used, just as if you were using that resolution, give or take some VRAM that the DLSS technique uses. So for games that will support DLSS, people REALLY are worried for no reason.

I EXTREMELY doubt that the TweakTown reviewer is using Special K, so of course these numbers are likely based on allocated and may be inflated, impossible to know, but regardless you can see that DLSS absolutely has an effect.

From https://www.tweaktown.com/articles/...dex.html#Introduction-and-Graphics-Cards-Used

 

[Ra]

Great write up Darktalon

People need to stop and understand something. Saying "10GB VRAM isn't enough to last the entire console generation" is not the complete statement. What you're actually saying is, "10GB VRAM isn't enough to last the entire generation at 4K Ultra settings". The response is "Well, of course not." But that's only because the RTX 3080 itself isn't enough to last the entire console generation at 4K Ultra settings.

As the RTX 3080 ages, the compromises which will need to be made will in kind reduce the VRAM usage. Over thee course of its existence, the RTX 3080 is going to transition from a native 4K card, to a 1440p card, to a 1080p card. Graphical settings it can handle will be changing over the passage of time as well.

Guess what all of this means? The card's 10GB VRAM is never going to be its primary bottleneck.

The video posted in this thread of the GTX 780 3GB trying to run Red Dead Redemption 2 is the perfect example. Its 3GB VRAM is not its main issue with one of 2018's most graphically intensive games, it's the reasterization performance where it comes up short.

edit - and please keep in mind that the new consoles are not going to be running everything at native 4K? The assumption that every game built for them is going to utilize every bit of RAM isn't healthy either.

 

[Darktalon]

Reposting with timestamp for threadmark

 

[Darktalon]

What you're saying seems to be one of two things:

1. What you said in the OP about how Flight Simulator's monitoring overlay showing the "accurate amount of VRAM in use" you are disavowing. You're now claiming that the overlay is inaccurate, and counting idle VRAM as being in use.
- or -
2. The monitoring overlay (or Special K) is accurately reporting used VRAM, but some of it is being used as cache.

Obviously the first possibility seems suspiciously like moving goalposts to save the phenomena by moving goalposts. I therefore doubt this is what you mean. But in the second possibility, I don't see why it matters. Allow that some of that real VRAM usage is for cache, rather than for other things. It's still being used, so it's a resource that still has to exist.

Either cache is necessary for the game to function properly, in which case 10GB is truly in danger of being exceeded already. Or else cache is completely unnecessary, in which case your claim that monitors other than RTSS are accurate was (knowingly) false. To save yourargument, you'd need to add a discussion to detail exactly how we could tell when, and how much, cache is being used.

And again, this scenario that's forcing you to break out further caveats and exceptions is for a game that has already been released, running at 1440p. Versus your claim that all games for the next several years, even running at more than twice that resolution, will not have any VRAM issues at all.

Click to shrink...

It is #2. Each engine and game will be different.
Allocation is a useless number. Completely useless.
Usage is the correct number to make comparisons and judgements on.

Some games will cache as much vram as they possibly can regardless of the benefit. For example you can use a 16GB card, and see it is using 13GB, and then test the same game with a 2080 ti and see that it is using 9.5GB in the exact same scenario.

Yet the 2080 ti has no performance issues at all despite using less total vram. Because the engine will cache far more than is necessary.

I'm not trying to move any goal posts. I'm just stating a fact of how game engines work. And games SHOULD cache as much as they can, because empty vram is wasted vram.

But having a smaller cache doesn't necessarily mean that you have a vram problem, or any negative performance in any way.

Edit: In DX11 games I always use special K to create a texture cache for the rest of the vram the game is not using. This often will help certain games that aren't doing it on their own. For example, Divinity Original Sin 2 is a game that greatly benefits from having a cache. But I can make a 2GB cache, or an 8GB cache and it won't make any difference in benefit. Smaller cache just means it starts to cycle unused items out of the cache sooner. There is no stutter for cycling unused items out of the cache. DX is very smart.

 

[Darktalon]

Tech Jesus discusses this in his review of the 3080. I've time stamped the coverage.




And Tech Jesus just talked about VRAM again for a few minutes, I can't timestamp it because its a live video but it is 49 minutes into the video. I'll edit into a timestamp once the live video is over.

 

[Darktalon]

Good news everyone, MSI Afterburner developer Unwinder saw my thread, and added a way to see per process VRAM in the current beta!

1. Install MSI Afterburner 4.6.3 Beta 2 Build 15840 from https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/msi-afterburner-beta-download.html
2. Enter the MSI Afterburner settings/properties menu
3. Click the monitoring tab (should be 3rd from the left)
4. Near the top and next to "Active Hardware Monitoring Graphs" click the "..."
5. Click the Checkmark next to "GPU.dll", and hit OK
6. Scroll down the list until you see "GPU Dedicated Memory Usage", "GPU Shared Memory Usage", "GPU Dedicated Memory Usage \ Process", "GPU Shared Memory Usage \ Process"
7. Pick and choose what you want to be tracked using the checkmarks next to them. "GPU Dedicated Memory Usage \ Process" is the # that most closely reflects the # we find in FS2020 Developer Overlay and Special K (DXGI_Budget, except Unwinder uses D3DKMT api)
8. Click show in On-Screen Display, and customize as desired.
9. ???
10. Profit

Important Note:

"GPU dedicated memory \ process" and "GPU shared memory \ process" are currently not supported for EAC/BattleEye protected games (as they require opening game process from external application, such request won't work for EAC/BE protected games).

Click to shrink...

-Unwinder

 

[Darktalon]

Lol. Who would've thought?

On a side note, I'm looking forward to when you get your 3080 and make those sweet VRAM tests for us to clear things up and shut up trolls.

Will you do it for us? :)

Click to shrink...

Since I have two similar threads, I've been posting all my results over here:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/msi-afterburner-can-now-display-per-process-vram.291986/

I would prefer that people learn about the hidden msi afterburner setting, so that people will be able to spread this information along.

 

[Darktalon]

Bumping this ancient thread to add this. So many people still aren't monitoring their VRAM properly.