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Bf3 gtx680 4gb vram question
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While I don't have that card (I have GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme 3GB) at 2560x1600. Usually at most, in BF3, is some 2.3gb. Often well less than that, I'll have to to re-create the circumstances that allowed me to use so much vram because its generally well under 2gb.
Now you say everything at max, I don't know about other games and programs vram usage, can only speak for BF3. Also don't know if the 680's architecture can allow it to use less vram, I doubt it, but I never looked into the 6xx series very hard.
Now you say everything at max, I don't know about other games and programs vram usage, can only speak for BF3. Also don't know if the 680's architecture can allow it to use less vram, I doubt it, but I never looked into the 6xx series very hard.
D
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BF3 handles VRAM differently. You will see different usage depending on how much VRAM the card has..
cached is the same as used that way it doesn't need to load into memory and i would rather have that.
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There was a review done before, I forget who or where it is, but it showed that from 1gb to 2gb each card performed at 60FPS but used the max ram each time(or close to it). So...doesn't mean anything, just means more textures in the distance for you if you have more VRAM I guess.
dblinkhorn
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I have a 3GB card and I haven't been able to directly compare the performance/visual differences between 2GB and 3GB in BF3, but I know that I regularly exceed 2GB of usage in several games and I'm only gaming at 1080p, which makes me wonder why so many people are saying that 2GB is plenty for every game unless you are multi-monitor.
I believe the actual difference was that it was loading higher resolution textures for far distant objects. There were some comparison pics floating around a while back, and the differences were almost impossible to pick out even on a static image.
Got any examples? There are plenty of [H] reviews that show the 2GB GTX 680 keeping up with the 3GB 7970 even at high resolutions/multi-monitor.
dblinkhorn
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Yes. In BF3 I often go above 2GB according the the MSI Afterburner OSD. In Skyrim with the mods I'm using I am almost always above 3GB. Again, I'm at 1080p. Also in Metro 2033 I am almost constantly above 2GB. However, I don't know how this affects performance.
This is an excellent question filter. Will the 4GB of VRAM exceed 2.32GB of usage if the game knows there is VRAM to spare. I want to know the answer to this also
This is an excellent question filter. Will the 4GB of VRAM exceed 2.32GB of usage if the game knows there is VRAM to spare. I want to know the answer to this also
i can only check at 1920x1080 and 5760x1080 tomorrow, my galaxy 4gb 670 arrives some time tomorrow
this is the one i orderd
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162118
going to check vram usage with a few diff settings,
single screen,
single screen with a second screen at the desktop for IM,
single screen and streaming to twitch tv,
single screen with second screen for monitoring a twitch channel while streaming.
Triple screen
Triple screen and streaming
i dont expect the triple screen setup to be playable but i dont plan playing BF3 triple since i prefer to make use of my middle 120hz lcd fully
i chose the 4GB model mainly for skyrim which i plan to test that also but on a later day not sure if i want to mod skyrim now or later i want to wait until i have dawnguard dlc but i blew all my money on the videocard so i cant afford to pick up the dlc right now lol.
CleanSlate
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I have two gigs of ram and windows annoyingly pops up every 20 minutes during bf3 saying low vram. Of course this is with windows 7 pro with everything turned up in windows.
So, yea 2 gigs is not enough to avoid annoying win messages. Have to set bf3 to turn off window's desktop prettiness for them to stop popping up....
So, yea 2 gigs is not enough to avoid annoying win messages. Have to set bf3 to turn off window's desktop prettiness for them to stop popping up....
ive never seen that message with my 2 1gb 6870's never told bf3 to disable aero or anything.
the only time aero disables is when i start FFsplit to stream to twitch but i dont use it that often since ffsplit is bugged and randomly decides to stop streaming.
That's a bug. It will pop up even in games that use next to no VRAM.
CleanSlate
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One annoying ass bug if it is.
I was playing bf3 as usual tonight just to check it out (with windows settings all up) and it was hovering around 1 gig at 1080p. No buggy pop ups, however.
Yes it is. I eventually turned off Aero on most of my games (via the shortcut) so my second monitor would display correctly in full screen games, and that got rid of the pop up as well. Used to really annoy me in MP3. I thought I read somewhere that one of the newer drivers (probably a beta) fixed it, but I never followed up on it.
im seeing around 1500mb used with all the single screen options i was going to test at 1920x1080 and 5760x1080 only moved the usage upto 2300MB
i havnt messed with any settings in the nvidia control panel yet so its a fresh driver install and max ingame settings minus motion blur on caspian 64player full server
i havnt messed with any settings in the nvidia control panel yet so its a fresh driver install and max ingame settings minus motion blur on caspian 64player full server
IdiotInCharge
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Still does it to me, in BF3 MP. 301 drivers, so I'm really doubting this has been remotely addressed- but then again it's probably more of a game issue than a driver issue.
defaultluser
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Xbit labs just did a review comparing 2GB to 4GB, including BF3:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/evga-geforce-gtx-670-4gb_10.html#sect0
Their conclusion: no game on earth needs more than 2GB ram maxed-out on 2560 resolution. And many games handled 3240x1920 + AA without a hitch with only 2GB to work with, so there's some room for growth in the 2GB cards as well.
The only case where you will benefit from 4GB ram is if you plan on running mufti-monitor with SLI.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/evga-geforce-gtx-670-4gb_10.html#sect0
Their conclusion: no game on earth needs more than 2GB ram maxed-out on 2560 resolution. And many games handled 3240x1920 + AA without a hitch with only 2GB to work with, so there's some room for growth in the 2GB cards as well.
The only case where you will benefit from 4GB ram is if you plan on running mufti-monitor with SLI.
How can you be above 3GB when you only have 3GB?
i saw 1.7gb used on one video card and 1.05GB used on one of them at the same time which really confused me when i was using 2 1GB 6870's in crossfire so im wondering if windows is caching it some where?
I think this and the other guys claim is pretty good evidence that these software readings are not an accurate measure of how much VRAM you're using, much less need. Ultimately the only way to know if you will benefit is to actually try and benchmark the different configs. Based in the reviews who have actually done this, there does not appear to be any tangible benefit to >2GB on a single monitor setup.
In Windows 7/Vista go to Start menu. Go to Accessories. Locate the command prompt shortcut and hover mouse over it. Right Click on the shortcut then select Run as Administrator.
* In the command prompt type this exactly:
bcdedit /set increaseuserva 2500 or 4500 depending on the amount of memory you have and hit enter.
* Make sure you get a message back confirming the change was made. To verify the entry is there you can type just bcdedit, hit enter, and you should see the entry now listed.
* Then close the command prompt. You just told Win 7/Vista to increase your user virtual address (userva) space to 2500MB or 4500MB.
* Changes take effect on reboot.
Now reboot the PC because Windows needs to set the userva at 2500 or 4500 which will only happen after startup.
If you skip any step it will not work. When you have rebooted you should be good to go. Run the game as normal with the original game shortcut.
TO UNDO THE CHANGES
Open command prompt as administrator and type: bcdedit /deletevalue increaseuserva. That deletes the entry.
Reboot to reverse the process.
Anyhow, this worked for me... been playing BF3 three days in a row with zero crashing or directx errors.
Cheers,
Stephen
* In the command prompt type this exactly:
bcdedit /set increaseuserva 2500 or 4500 depending on the amount of memory you have and hit enter.
* Make sure you get a message back confirming the change was made. To verify the entry is there you can type just bcdedit, hit enter, and you should see the entry now listed.
* Then close the command prompt. You just told Win 7/Vista to increase your user virtual address (userva) space to 2500MB or 4500MB.
* Changes take effect on reboot.
Now reboot the PC because Windows needs to set the userva at 2500 or 4500 which will only happen after startup.
If you skip any step it will not work. When you have rebooted you should be good to go. Run the game as normal with the original game shortcut.
TO UNDO THE CHANGES
Open command prompt as administrator and type: bcdedit /deletevalue increaseuserva. That deletes the entry.
Reboot to reverse the process.
Anyhow, this worked for me... been playing BF3 three days in a row with zero crashing or directx errors.
Cheers,
Stephen
IdiotInCharge
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Sorry, what was this supposed to fix?
dblinkhorn
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I will post screenshots.
I'm not doubting that's what you're seeing but I'm assuming you know basic math so I'm assuming you know it's mathematically impossible to use more than 3gb of VRAM if you only have 3gb. What that means is those readings are inaccurate and don't mean anything.
Last edited:
Sorry IdiotInCharge, I'm a noob at posting on forums.
I was responding to "CleanSlate's" post on 08-07-2012, 08:34 PM saying that in BF3 "2gigs is not enough to avoid annoying win messages."
My earlier post is to fix directx memory errors in BF3 by increasing the user virtual address (userva) space in Win 7/Vista.
Someone had posted this fix on another site back in late 2011. Apparently there seems to be a slow memory leak in BF3, and increasing the virtual address in Win 7/Vista has corrected the problem for some.
I too was experiencing random directx errors and screen going blank in BF3 15-20mins into play. I was thinking it was due to only having 2GB's of memory on my GTX 690's, but apparently this was not the case. Been playing for three days now (roughly 3-4 hours at a time) and have had no more errors or crashing in BF3, everything runs smooth. Am also running on the oldest NVIDIA Beta drivers that support GTX 690, 301.34... will probably upgrade later to the new 305.53's, but hate to mess with since everything's finally working.
Now I'm not saying that this fix will resolve for all, but it definitely worked for me after having set my virtual address to 4500MB.
System specs:
Intel i7 930 @ 4.2GHz
Gigabyte G1.Sniper X58
EVGA GTX 690 SLI
12GB Corsair Dominator
BFG 1200w PSU
Win 7 64-Bit
Dell 30" 3007WFP
Cheers,
Stephen
I was responding to "CleanSlate's" post on 08-07-2012, 08:34 PM saying that in BF3 "2gigs is not enough to avoid annoying win messages."
My earlier post is to fix directx memory errors in BF3 by increasing the user virtual address (userva) space in Win 7/Vista.
Someone had posted this fix on another site back in late 2011. Apparently there seems to be a slow memory leak in BF3, and increasing the virtual address in Win 7/Vista has corrected the problem for some.
I too was experiencing random directx errors and screen going blank in BF3 15-20mins into play. I was thinking it was due to only having 2GB's of memory on my GTX 690's, but apparently this was not the case. Been playing for three days now (roughly 3-4 hours at a time) and have had no more errors or crashing in BF3, everything runs smooth. Am also running on the oldest NVIDIA Beta drivers that support GTX 690, 301.34... will probably upgrade later to the new 305.53's, but hate to mess with since everything's finally working.
Now I'm not saying that this fix will resolve for all, but it definitely worked for me after having set my virtual address to 4500MB.
System specs:
Intel i7 930 @ 4.2GHz
Gigabyte G1.Sniper X58
EVGA GTX 690 SLI
12GB Corsair Dominator
BFG 1200w PSU
Win 7 64-Bit
Dell 30" 3007WFP
Cheers,
Stephen
Last edited:
dblinkhorn
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I'm going off the memory usage on the MSI Afterburner OSD readings. Are those accurate?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77937160@N04/7764118676/in/photostream/lightbox/
Read my previous reply.
dblinkhorn
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If they are inaccurate, is it a bug on my end or some problem with Afterburner?
dblinkhorn
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Oh okay. So basically just take half of whatever it says and that's probably close.
IdiotInCharge
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See above where amounts of VRAM usage are essentially wrong.
I've seen this too. We really have no idea what those measurements are taken from in things like Afterburner and GPU-Z, and they aren't consistent with performance testing.
dblinkhorn
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Are there any tools which give a reliably accurate measurement of real-time VRAM usage? If not, then all speculation on the subject is pointless...
IdiotInCharge
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I don't think so- this information is reported by the drivers, after all. What we'd need is accurate reporting by the drivers that shows all of the variables involved.