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Increasing VRAM without upgrading; is it possible? (Shadow Of Mordor, Watchdogs, etc performance)

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  • Games
  • Memory
  • Computers
  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 30, 2014 3:54:29 PM

Modern games have finally started to really slow down my computer and I'm having trouble getting the visual fidelity I want on the hardware I currently have. I first noticed a problem in Rome 2(which was mostly fixed when they finally implemented SLI support) and since then games like Watchdogs have simply made my computer cry. I am installing Shadow of Mordor as I type this out and I have seen that its highest settings seem to require at least 6 gigs of VRAM!

That is absolutely amazing to me and I have no way to upgrade my system currently so I am hoping to find a way that could possibly increase the performance of my cards without having to fork over money I would rather keep for textbooks.

My hardware is 4 years old or so now (an i7 980x, 12gigs ram, two 580s 1.5gig VRAM, two 2 terabyte 7200 RPM HDs on Windows 7 Ultimate with nothing overclocked) and it has done me well and still has ALOT of kick left in it but the VRAM is holding me back substantially and it just tears me up.

I completely understand if there is nothing I can do to prolong the effectiveness of my PC but I really hope I can do something that even marginally increases its effectiveness when it comes to VRAM.

Thank you for any and all support on my issue.

More about : increasing vram upgrading shadow mordor watchdogs performance

a b } Memory
a c 419 U Graphics card
September 30, 2014 3:56:52 PM

Upgrade or turn down settings. There is no way to increase hardware specifications short of upgrading.
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September 30, 2014 4:04:42 PM

To lower VRAM usage you can sacrifice AA, resolution or texture resolution.

Other that that the only choice is upgrading your cards to ones with larger amounts of VRAM (pair of 7950s should be a relatively cheap way of doubling your VRAM and increasing general graphics grunt).

For the 2 games you have mentioned, unfortunately they have been made in a way that very inefficiently uses VRAM (possibly due to the way the ram works on PS4/Xbone) and as such don't run well on a lot of systems despite not being mind blowingly detailed.
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a b } Memory
a b U Graphics card
September 30, 2014 4:22:33 PM

As Gam3r said, lower settings or upgrade. Those are your only solutions.
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Best solution

September 30, 2014 5:11:56 PM

Barring your 580s being of the 3GB variety, you'll have to drop all the way down to Low textures in Shadow of Mordor because it takes 2GB VRAM just to run Medium, and the stock VRAM on a 580 is only 1.5BGB.

It's time for an upgrade, and it's looking like if you want it to be a future ready one, you might even have to go 6GB VRAM, and there's limited models of those, the cheapest of which I've seen lately is a refurbed Sapphire 7970 Ghz for $300.

Personally I'd wait for an Nvidia 970 6GB model though. SoM doesn't look horrible even at Low textures, and it's about the only game with such high VRAM requirements.
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October 2, 2014 12:26:36 PM

Thank you all for helping me out!

I'm sad to see there is no home baked plan to remedy this issue but I do understand. At least a minor silver lining is that the game runs decently well once I found a SLI solution to help with the performance of Shadow of Mordor. Apparently setting the Nvidia Inspector SLI profile to FEAR 3 allows the game to run SLI properly and it did greatly increase my FPS from 35-40 to around 70-80, around 80% in non VRAM heavy situations. There is slow down here and there but not horribly so. Playing with everything on Ultra except Shadows(High), Textures(High), Ambient Occlusion(High), and turning off Order Independent Transparency at 1920/1080. Its a decently fun game and I would recommend it, especially if you have 6gigs of VRAM!

It appears I have somewhat staved off the need to upgrade for at least a small while longer! Hopefully someone more skilled than I will release a mod as well to help performance for non VRAM happy cards like they did for Watchdogs.

Thanks again!
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