MASSIVE Video Memory Usage With 0 Texture Mods

[blitzen]

 

Even on default textures and settings, as soon as I load the game, the VRAM maxes out immediately. And in areas where I was using 2k and 4k texture and got 35fps, I still get 35fps with default textures.

The game is generally going to max out whatever VRAM is available. That's normal. It will continue loading new textures as your character moves around. It's not going to unload textures that aren't in use until it fills up and needs to load in textures that aren't already in VRAM. It shouldn't be maxing out when you first load the game, since only a small set of textures is going to be viewable in one location. It would be inefficient to simply remove textures that aren't being rendered at that second, only to have to reload them when the character rotates the viewpoint and looks at those textures again. Keeping it full is the most efficient way to handle textures.

 

 

In that case, something is wrong. Is that true even for small interior cells? Have you saved inside an inn or house, shut down the game, then restarted it?

Edited July 31, 2014 by blitzen

[camaro_69_327]

 

The game is generally going to max out whatever VRAM is available. That's normal. It will continue loading new textures as your character moves around. It's not going to unload textures that aren't in use until it fills up and needs to load in textures that aren't already in VRAM. It shouldn't be maxing out when you first load the game, since only a small set of textures is going to be viewable in one location. It would be inefficient to simply remove textures that aren't being rendered at that second, only to have to reload them when the character rotates the viewpoint and looks at those textures again. Keeping it full is the most efficient way to handle textures.

I believe that is not true. At least for vanilla skyrim. Using USKP only here. I've never seen more vram usage than 1200~mb. 2gb gpu here...

 

It is strange that you have those problems. 3570k running @ 4.2Ghz should bottleneck your 780 (although the secong gpu must be useless). As far as I know Skyrim runs much better with sli turned off.

But... Anyway you shouldn't get such problems. I have single gtx 680 and I get 100 avg fps. Well. That is when disabling vsync and ipresentinterval, but you shouldn't do that except when benchmarking... I mean I never drop below 60fps.

Since you have capable hardware there must be something wrong with drivers/windows. Maybe you have some virus.

I am sorry for stupid suggestions but that's the only thing that comes to my mind. Also I'll repeat: skyrim never caps vram for me. 1.2k mb was the maximum I've ever saw.

 

 

Skyrim will only load what you give it, I have run a ton of benchmark runs..(because it is 100% repeatable) the "Intro" from the beginning, to the second you jump off the wagon and the Game Auto saves. Depending on vanilla or with mods i load anywhere from 800 MB VRAM all the way to MAX on my cards (3GB).

 

Vanilla...not one mod = 748.95 MB

Vanilla +SKSE w /SKSE.ini = 853.08

SKSE +ENBboost + HD-DLC = 1291.25

Full STEP install + HD DLC = 2076.95

FULL STEP + My MODS (total 254 mods) with HD-DLC** and HD 2k (lite) = 2.8 GB + or -

 

The game plays amazing on a SLI setup.

 

** HD DLC 's and Skyrim texture BSA were DDSopt'ed, necessary to keep me below 3 GB VRAM usage.

Here, for reference a 2 hour play session, the beginning is in a dungeon, later part is outside world, as you see the game never filled the GPU it cleans up after itself as you load cells.

 

As posted before...Get and run SPM (screen shot above is from SPM.) Skyrim Preformance Monitor..will show you just what is going on.

Edited July 31, 2014 by camaro_69_327

[blitzen]

duplicate removed

Edited July 31, 2014 by blitzen

[blitzen]

 

 

 

 

Skyrim will only load what you give it,

 

 

 

 

Obviously. If there simply aren't enough textures to fill VRAM, it won't fill. But the game isn't going to limit how much VRAM it uses, It will keep loading textures until it runs out or VRAM is full, whichever comes first. And if your scenario only covers the intro, it's not very complete. The increase occurs as the character moves around and encounters a variety of different textures. You would have to collect data over time, moving to different parts of Skyrim with different texture sets. That test only covers a specific subset of textures.

** I collected my data using SPM.

Edited July 31, 2014 by blitzen

[blitzen]

 

 

The game is generally going to max out whatever VRAM is available. That's normal. It will continue loading new textures as your character moves around. It's not going to unload textures that aren't in use until it fills up and needs to load in textures that aren't already in VRAM. It shouldn't be maxing out when you first load the game, since only a small set of textures is going to be viewable in one location. It would be inefficient to simply remove textures that aren't being rendered at that second, only to have to reload them when the character rotates the viewpoint and looks at those textures again. Keeping it full is the most efficient way to handle textures.

I believe that is not true. At least for vanilla skyrim. Using USKP only here. I've never seen more vram usage than 1200~mb. 2gb gpu here...

 

It is strange that you have those problems. 3570k running @ 4.2Ghz should bottleneck your 780 (although the secong gpu must be useless). As far as I know Skyrim runs much better with sli turned off.

But... Anyway you shouldn't get such problems. I have single gtx 680 and I get 100 avg fps. Well. That is when disabling vsync and ipresentinterval, but you shouldn't do that except when benchmarking... I mean I never drop below 60fps.

Since you have capable hardware there must be something wrong with drivers/windows. Maybe you have some virus.

I am sorry for stupid suggestions but that's the only thing that comes to my mind. Also I'll repeat: skyrim never caps vram for me. 1.2k mb was the maximum I've ever saw.

 

 

Skyrim will only load what you give it, I have run a ton of benchmark runs..(because it is 100% repeatable) the "Intro" from the beginning, to the second you jump off the wagon and the Game Auto saves. Depending on vanilla or with mods i load anywhere from 800 MB VRAM all the way to MAX on my cards (3GB).

 

Vanilla...not one mod = 748.95 MB

Vanilla +SKSE w /SKSE.ini = 853.08

SKSE +ENBboost + HD-DLC = 1291.25

Full STEP install + HD DLC = 2076.95

FULL STEP + My MODS (total 254 mods) with HD-DLC** and HD 2k (lite) = 2.8 GB + or -

 

The game plays amazing on a SLI setup.

 

** HD DLC 's and Skyrim texture BSA were DDSopt'ed, necessary to keep me below 3 GB VRAM usage.

Here, for reference a 2 hour play session, the beginning is in a dungeon, later part is outside world, as you see the game never filled the GPU it cleans up after itself as you load cells.

 

As posted before...Get and run SPM (screen shot above is from SPM.) Skyrim Preformance Monitor..will show you just what is going on.

 

 

Certain conditions do seem to trigger texture unloading. I'm guessing transitioning between interior and exterior cells is one of those. Try wandering around just exterior cells. As I have mentioned, I used SPM to study this behaviour. It's what I saw. It may also depend on other factors that aren't as obvious. As we have discovered, this game can be complicated. But my initial point was simply that seeing VRAM maxed is not, by itself, an indicator that something is wrong. For me it's the normal state, once the game has been running for a bit.

Edited July 31, 2014 by blitzen

[camaro_69_327]

The testing of the into only showed what skyrim loads by default...IF you looked at the Screenshot i posted above that was a 2 hour play session (Not a intro test.)...the GPU never once MAXed out and the section where i was outside was about a half hour long....have a look.

 

Yes, if you only run around outside for hours on end and never once transition to a building, i could see that Skyrim would eventually fill a gpu. But i actually play the game, so a constant interior exterior switch is common for me.

:)

[AsaHerring]

I started with unchecking every single mod in my load order which was 250, and that seemed to bring my Vram usage down a good bit. With most of my texture mods reinstalled I am around 2Gb in towns and 2.5Gb outside, and 55-60fps everywhere. I am now going back and hand picking each mod, and making sure I am able to load the important saves and which mods have an impact on Vram usage and FPS hits.

From my monitoring of how my Skyrim has acted over the past year or so with my secondary monitor, it seems that Skyrim only likes to purge any textures, resulting in ram usage change, on loading new cells or quickloading. Loading a new cell does not always seem to free up any usage for me, but quickloading does, even if it is the exact same spot.