High VRAM usage @4K in Windows 8.1

[Bahn Yuki]

Been noticing that my VRAM usage is up to 700MB in 4K on Windows 8.1. If I disable DWM, it goes down to about 300MB, Unfortunately things act quite odd so it's not a simple fix like disabling Aero is.

Problem is I like to game @4K and Shadows of Mordor chokes up my 4GB of VRAM easily. Even with fullscreen apps it only goes down to about 650MB of VRAM. My findings are similar to what these folks have http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/761654-windows-8-high-idle-vram-usage.html

Anyone else having this issue?

 

[Unknown-One]

Windows 8.x has the ability to run DWM entirely in software (on your CPU and in System RAM). This allows the OS to provide a consistent user experience, even when no hardware acceleration is available.

This what allows Windows 8.x to display UAC prompts without a video mode reset. It just flips to software mode while displaying the prompt.

Games should also trigger this behavior, causing DWM to transparently migrate into System RAM. The way Windows now maps memory may make it difficult for VRAM monitoring tools to determine where DWM's memory usage actually resides at any given moment.

 

[Bahn Yuki]

I see, do you have any links on this? I'd like to read more about it myself. I find that my games are becoming more and more VRAM limited. I'm trying to salvage as much VRAM as I can.