Why does VRAM increase in interiors? PCB frees 1GB

[tVEC]

I'm posting two graphs showing the need for some kind of fix to how the game handles memory.

 

In this, I load a save inside a fully furnished Lakeview Manor. I exit, walk around, re-enter, and save and exit the game.

 

 

 

In this, I do the same as above, except I use PCB before saving. (at about 77 samples)

 

 

 

You can see how this frees up over 1GB of VRAM.

 

Is everyone experiencing this?

 

 

PS- I also use bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=0 and bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1 in my .ini because of this problem, but seemingly with no effect.

Edited February 25, 2013 by tVEC

[jet4571]

bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=0 is shutoff, the purge wont happen and unused will remain in memory. use bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1.

 

What the game is doing is creating a buffer to decrease loading times. you enter an interior cell and some of whats outside is placed into the buffer. Now when you exit the interior the game loads from the buffer instantly and the rest from the HDD and the load time is reduced. when you use PCB you clear that buffer increasing the load time if you reenter a cell.

 

As for RAM/VRAM, if you enter a cell that pushes the memory limit the game will remove buffered to make room for it. All the buffered does is use unused memory, and unused memory is wasted memory.

[ripple]

'bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1' isn't really necessary unless you have low ram (do you?). Unless I am mistaken, this means PCB every time you transition a cell. If you really need to, you can do it manually through console (or set up an autohotkey script for it), after every 5 or 6 cell transitions (and really, you shouldn't have to do that if you are using stock ini settings and have above minimum system specs).

[SineWaveDrox]

I've had to constantly use the PCB command in order to avoid crashes from trying to use more memory than Skyrim is allowed to use. This occurred most commonly when running several extreme texture packs, which would try to push RAM usage well over 3GB (according to Task Manager) which would cause Skyrim to crash, due to it being 32 bit, and not able to handle the amount of RAM that would have been required.

[ripple]

I've had to constantly use the PCB command in order to avoid crashes from trying to use more memory than Skyrim is allowed to use. This occurred most commonly when running several extreme texture packs, which would try to push RAM usage well over 3GB (according to Task Manager) which would cause Skyrim to crash, due to it being 32 bit, and not able to handle the amount of RAM that would have been required.

But that shouldn't be necessary since Skyrim is now LAA enabled, unless you have a 32bit OS and can't utilize 4GB ram? The only other exception I've seen are setups where the user has fiddled with ipreload in the ini (which can improve performance but has been know to cause the cell transition instabilities alleviated by PCB). I use to have this problem until I reverted to stock ini settings, and haven't experienced cell transition instabilities since then.

Edited February 26, 2013 by ripple