VRAM Overflow Measuring Tool?

Are there any tools one can use to monitor how far beyond a graphics cards onboard memory an application goes into shared system ram?

For obvious and completely expected reasons (mods, expanded pits etc.), I've been going over 4gb at 1080p VRAM usage. This has occurred in AC and other applications (with texture mods etc.). As such, in no way am i intending to complain about AC's vram memory use. I've brought this upon myself. Turning down definition levels has helped.

In any case, I have been giving consideration to the 1060 vs. 1070. Despite the 1070 being overkill for avg. 1080p gaming, the 1060's 6gb has given me pause for concern. Still, it'd be nice to know exactly how far over the 760's 4GB I'm going to make reasonable usage estimates both for the present moment and beyond. (It'd be nice to know if I'm using 4.2 GB for textures ... vs 5.6 GB for textures in AC.)

 

Maybe something like Process Explorer or Process Hacker could be what you're looking for?

 

To see it in realtime one option is to run AC in windowed full mode and have gpu-z always on top on the sensor tab (it shows gpu (dedicated) and shared memory (dynamic), you can watch it increase as soon as AC loads the track and skins). When you load to much stuff (such as a 4K full grid), you'll see dynamic increasing to very high levels, as opposed to something like a constant ~100-150MB when AC fits in the vram. Beware that FS windowed might increase vram usage a bit, as opposed to exclusive FS. Else, just check back in the gpu-z log (in the sensor tab you can click the current value to switch it to max readings).

 

Thank you. This has been very helpful.

 

The vram used is not the same thing as the vram needed.

 

I use MSI Afterburner. The most I saw was on the Paul Ricard mod track when I was using my GTX 970. It came close to 4GB without being on full graphics settings at 1080p. I would suspect if you do full graphics settings and a large grid you definitely will violate the 4GB limit. I haven't tried recently since I use low graphics settings with the CV1 so it doesn't push the VRAM as high.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

The OP explicitly asked for a way to show what's left out of vram. This is why I suggested a way to have an idea when stuff doesn't fit in the card's vram but is still being loaded on ram (causing swaps, which could translate into stutters), via GPU-Zs dynamic reading, which starts to increase over your usual baseline when stuff doesn't fit. Sometimes it'll even start to happen before the cards main memory shows completely full, but whats left isn't small enough to fit in. MSI Afterburner will only show current vram in use, unfortunately there's no shared reading for ram. But if the reading is some >150MB under the card's limit, it's almost certainly fitting everything in the card.

IIRC, up until a certain point, when over the vram limit AC will flush some high resolution textures and display their secondary mip-maps up close to minimize stuttering.

 

I find it seriously hard to believe you're using more than 4GB of vRAM in this game, even with mods.

You sure you're not confusing system RAM? Or just misunderstanding that used RAM is not necessarily required RAM?

I feel like so many people who just dont know what they're talking about get overly concerned with certain technical matters when they are a non-issue. Maybe that's not the case here, just sayin. At no point did the OP ever point out they were facing any performance issues.

 

Kunos content is usually very well behaved regarding vram. I can't run large grids regarding AI CPU power, but most times 15 varied AI fits under my secondary 2GB card, and probably my 3GB card wont' see it full with a >20 something grid too on Nords or Barcelona, or even a Nords Tourist server online with 30 cars preloaded. I've never experienced serious vram related stuttering on the 2GB card when content doesn't fit by a small amount, probably due to the way AC acts over the limit by discarding some stuff in favor to showing lower resolution. But on the other hand, it was quite noticeable on a 1GB card where it'd cause lengthy freezes on T1 or some lonely LOD changes when vram was missing some 800MB residing on shared memory.
The greatest problem the OP might face is with some unoptimized mods.

For screenshot purposes some modders upload uncompressed 4K skins, on which you must account mip maps fitting on vram without compression and also their secondary files + (generated) mips such as suits (sometimes also 4K), gloves, windscreen banners, requiring in worst case scenarios >100MB per skin on vram. With >20 of those in a grid, plus the remaining of each car on its LODA kn5 and an unoptimized track it's quick to fill your 4 GB vram.

 

Tested 24 ai`s @ nordschleife around about 9ish with heavy clouds, Ichill X3 1080 8gig DDR5x (memory compression)


^^^1080 X4 AA

^^^ 3840X2160 @ X4 AA


^^^ 3840X2160 @ X8 AA (driving 56-65fps)

Sorry about the quality of the pic`s, Imgur , but at least you get the general Vram Used on stock settings - in game weather/filter files.

As AlleyViper mentions, 4k skins no mip`s all add`s up, in the olden days we used to spilt the model up with 512X512 templates, several templates used for the user model.
AI`s, we just did one low quality skin, ah them were the days of only having 512mb of vram to play with, times have come a long way

 

Thanks for your testing, 4GB seems safe at 1080p as for the OP use even accounting with a bit more varied grid. 4k resolution + heaps of AA is a vram killer as you demonstrated. My previous comments were also regarding 1080p, where 3GB seems enough for usual combos of kunos content.

If you load a single car most of it will be instanced, given that kunos changes color via metal_detail.dds on street cars and then only a few details such as pit crew/banner and interior color will be added. For a heavier load that sideloads skin_oo.dds files per car (as has to load more textures in the base kn5 files), you could try all kunos GT3 to see the difference, as 24 of them is a regular combo online. Can't try it right now, as I'm on a 2GB card.

(btw, AC generates it's own mip-maps if not present on the dds files while acs.exe is loading. It seems t0 generate them compressed or uncompressed according to source file)

 

1080p AA x4 same settings but all drivers use the Porsche GT4, Vram couple of hundred meg over the 2 gig limit.

WOW clever never knew AC generates mini mip when loading the ace.exe, something I`ve learned.

 

Yep. Pure, standard AC is absolutely fine with 4gb at 1080. Perfectly fine. My post was for the most part about working out how to determine with a measuring tool what was using shared ram and to what degree (eg. does my usage style require a 1060 or 1070). Being able to pinpoint where and when ram was being used was very helpful. Thanks @AlleyViper

The (self induced) problems start when you have 40 car GT3 OSRW SPA grids, custom car textures and Eve Online running in the background (something i tend to do 23/7) taking up another 4-500 mb of vram. Fascinatingly the FPS avg's somewhere around 70-85 in these 40 car races. But on exiting the race returning to the launcher, the experience seems to seriously freeze up a moment or two (a bit like loading the lovely luca ring) while shared memory is being cleared/messed around with. The tools including GPU-Z were very helpful for monitoring which application was using what quantity of vram & dynamic/shared ram.

FWIW, ... my final conclusion on reviewing the results from GPU-Z is that i only need a 1060 for those large race sessions (or, their closures back to launcher) due to some minor shared memory overflow. Everything else is fine.