how much gpu memory is the normal amount to be used?

Muath_

Honorable
Oct 18, 2015
305
0
10,780
So when im playing arma 3, my gtx 750ti memory usage is 45%. is this bad and will make my gpu memory run out?

also i have a weak cpu, so in arma 3 i crank up all the gpu settings to ultra and cpu settings on low, is this bad and will make my vram run out?
 
Solution
Not to worry.
Your game does not need much vram so it simply does not use what it does not need.

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, and by the game. There may be differences in effectiveness between...
Not to worry.
Your game does not need much vram so it simply does not use what it does not need.

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, and by the game. There may be differences in effectiveness between amd and nvidia cards.
And differences between games.
Here is an older performance test comparing 2gb with 4gb vram.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Spoiler... not a significant difference.
And... no game maker wants to limit their market by
requiring huge amounts of vram. The vram you see will be appropriate to the particular card.

 
Solution

gran172

Reputable
Jan 22, 2016
327
1
4,810


Arma 3 is more of a CPU demanding game actually, usually games should be close to 100% gpu usage. If you're worried about VRam usage things you should check are texture options, resolution and anti aliasing, try to keep em down.
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Nothing to worry about.

So many factors:
Screen resolution: higher=more VRAM
Texture Detail level: higher=more VRAM
Post Processing levels (Anti-aliasing and such): higher=more VRAM
Game engine. Games with a lot of repeated textures don't require as much VRAM, since the data can just be re-used, but the more repetitions the more CPU is required to direct the GPU. RTS often use a lot of CPU for this reason as well as all the individual unit 'commands'
Available system resources. System RAM can be a factor, GPUs will store less critical data here and the driver will also preemptively pull things from disc if it is possible to predict what is required.

A GPU should only be hitting 100% if you let it run wild, as in make as many frames as possible. For FPS this can be good for response time, but bad for screen tearing (when the FPS is above or below the monitor refresh you will see runt frames)