8800/9800 GTX and V-RAM Usage

Hey all,

So I realize that my question cuts across other threads that have already made the cases for the 8800 vs 9800 GTX's. So I'll try not to rehash the old stuff in asking my question. Basically, my situation is this:

I'm configuring a system to run a 3D-intensive architectural design program called Chief Architect. In general, what I'm trying to figure out is how much V-RAM is being used by this application while it's doing intensive 3D operations. The thing is, it all depends on the model I'm creating - some models are more or less developed than others, and consequently have more or less textures, meshes, objects, etc involved.

So I guess I'm asking if there is perhaps a little app of some sort that can tell me how much V-memory is being taken up as I push Chief through some graphically intensive stuff? Because the Chief community is rather small, I have had a difficult time finding benchmarks that specifically compare one videocard to another in terms of this specific application; thus I find that gaming benchmarks comparing these cards tell me very little... so I'm having to investigate the characteristics of Chief's video memory usage from other angles....

I have the feeling that the application does not come close to using 512mb - if I'm correct in this, then the 768mb 8800GTX is, as far as I can tell, a waste, and the 9800 becomes a better option.

Opinions and info? Much appreciated if someone could comment.

P.S. Yes, I realize a Quadro would be the "right" card here... but 10x the price for marginal performance increases over high end gamer cards just ain't worth it!

The program you're looking for is called RivaTuner:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163.

To get it to display the V-RAM usage; Open RivaTuner and click on Customize under Target Adapter; Click on Hardware Monitoring; On the new window click Setup; Click Plugins; Towards the bottom of the list select VidMem.dll; Click OK, and it should show you both Local and Non-Local usuage of the V-RAM. Hope this helps =)