GPU not using VRAM

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virtual_axolotl

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Apr 10, 2018
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Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here. If I posted wrong my bad.

I recently built my first pc and have run across my first (and seemingly only) problem. It seems that my EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SSC card is not using it's VRAM, or rather an extremely small amount. When I ran the Firestrike and TimeSpy benchmarks as well as MSI Kombuster, the peak V RAM in all three of those cases was 291 MB out of 6144MB listed as available and Bus Usage % was 0. Additionally, PageFile utilized roughly 5,000MB, and my actual RAM is using roughly 5,000MB and 8,144 MB (for two 8gb sticks). So I'm a bit confused...why is my system running standard ram and pagefile before it even begins tapping into its own VRAM? If the VRAm modules were broken though, I would not expect MSI Afterburner to read 6144MB as available, nor would I think that the graphics card is damaged. In addition, the peak temperature during these tests was 64 C. I have the logs if more information is required.

Here is my system information:

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair VI Hero Wifi AC
Processor: Ryzen 7 1700X
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SSC
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design Celsius S36 (with three Phanteks F15 (I think?) fans)
Memory: GSKILL TridentZ RGB 16gb (x2 8gb) 3200 (not yet overclocked, running at 2133)
SSD: Crucial MX500 1TB
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 (with one of the 140mm case fans in bottom, one in rear
and three Be Quiet! SilentWings3 120mm Fans in front)
Monitor: Acer Pedator XB241H 24" TN 1920x1080 Gsync Monitor (gsync was turned off for
testing)


Please let me know if the VRAM usage I am seeing is a problem and what I can do to fix it. Thank you very much in advanced for your time and help. If you need any more info or anything else from me please let me know.
 
Solution
jr9
RAM is addressed by the CPU and VRAM to the GPU/driver. GPU doesn't use RAM as VRAM unless you're running a shared memory setup which isn't the case with dedicated graphics cards. These two types of RAM are separate.

Your VRAM usage depends on scene/game details and resolution. You won't use very much VRAM at 720p. 1080p games generally run in the 1.5-2.5GB range and benchmarks less. I would try playing an actual game and see what your VRAM usage is. If you had faulty VRAM you would be getting graphical artifacts/glitches/crashes.

HWinfo can tell you your GPU memory usage as well as your actual page file usage. You should have low "Page file usage" with 16GB of RAM unless you have inactive running programs that have been paged...
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stdragon

stdragon

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Apr 5, 2018
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A couple of things.

1. I'm assuming you're running a 64bit version of Windows. I ask, because 32bit editions will only address up to 4GB of RAM, and THAT will limit how much both system and VRAM is addressed.

2. VRAM is used at the discretion of both the game and video driver. The OS doesn't move kernel and user memory into VRAM, only system RAM.
 
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dontlistentome

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Sep 5, 2016
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Run benchmark tests and pay attention to framerate and scores, are they what you expect from a card like that? That's what's important.

Vram usage depends on factors which do not necessarily have anything to do with how the card is performing. A test program may only need to use 300mb of vram, so that's all that will get used.

The idea of vram is to have enough for your needs. If you plan to play a game at high settings, and that game uses 3gb vram at high settings, a 2gb vram card won't be enough. A 6gb vram card will be enough, but that game will still only use 3gb of that 6gb vram the card has.
 
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jr9

jr9

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Dec 6, 2017
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RAM is addressed by the CPU and VRAM to the GPU/driver. GPU doesn't use RAM as VRAM unless you're running a shared memory setup which isn't the case with dedicated graphics cards. These two types of RAM are separate.

Your VRAM usage depends on scene/game details and resolution. You won't use very much VRAM at 720p. 1080p games generally run in the 1.5-2.5GB range and benchmarks less. I would try playing an actual game and see what your VRAM usage is. If you had faulty VRAM you would be getting graphical artifacts/glitches/crashes.

HWinfo can tell you your GPU memory usage as well as your actual page file usage. You should have low "Page file usage" with 16GB of RAM unless you have inactive running programs that have been paged out of active memory. Page file has nothing to do with GPU or VRAM though.
 
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Solution
Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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Unless you're using integrated graphics, VRAM and system RAM have nothing to do with each other. The system cannot touch VRAM, and the GPU cannot touch system RAM (nor the pagefile). VRAM is used solely for video framebuffers, models, and textures used in the rendering process. Mostly textures. A framebuffer is only a few MB, as are most models. A single 4k texture is around 85 MB (4096x4096 x 4 bytes per pixel x 1.33 for lower-res MIP maps). Each notch you drop down in texture quality cuts VRAM used by that texture to 1/4. So a 2k texture is about 21 MB. A 1k texture about 5.3 MB. More if you've enabled anisotropic filtering.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering#/media/File:MipMap_Example_STS101_Anisotropic.png

If the benchmark isn't designed to use many 4k textures or a ton of lower-res textures, VRAM use will not be very high. You're better off checking VRAM usage in a game, as that will usually result in (a lot) more textures being loaded than a benchmark.
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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Not to confuse the OP, but from his perspective, that's all true. Technically however, yeah...not so much.

The system can leverage VRAM other than just graphics. Examples include physics modeling, scientific computing, and crypto currency. But in all cases, all API calls must go through the video driver to leverage this memory space.

As for the OS (system), no, it can't say, run MS Office out of a pool of VRAM. That can't happen. If there's GUI acceleration, perhaps some of that memory does get addressed, but it's negligible.
 
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virtual_axolotl

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Apr 10, 2018
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Hello,

Thank you very much for your answer. This cleared up the concepts very well for me. As you might have guessed I am still learning much., Given that I am using a 1080p monitor, it seems that my usage is in line with what you suggest. Furthermore, playing Total War Rome 2 on highest settings yield an average framerate of 110 FPS and worked excellent without issues for about four hours. The Benchmark for that game hit 115 FPS average, and Firemark benchmark scored over 11,000 (with an avg framerate of 62), which is something I would expect given my system components.
 
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virtual_axolotl

Honorable
Apr 10, 2018
5
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10,510


Hello,

Just wanted to say thanks a lot for the answer. It helped clear up some concepts for me, and your first point was absolutely right; further testing and real world usage yielded results and performance I would expect from my system regarding the programs used. It seems that my system is working fine.

 
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virtual_axolotl

Honorable
Apr 10, 2018
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10,510


Hey,

Thanks for your explanation of textures and related VRAM usage. I really appreciate when someone takes the time to explain something like that to me, and it helped me to determine that my system is running as it should be.

Honestly I wish I could pick everyones answer, they were all good and mostly explained different concepts to me. They all also helped me to determine my system works fine. Thanks everyone.
 
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