Games Listed by Video Memory Usage

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:41

This thread is a summary of video memory used by popular games in March 2013. Mid-range graphics card are shipping with 2GB of video memory, AMD 79XX has 3GB, and the NVIDIA Titan has 6GB. Steam hardware survey says that ~65% of user still have 1GB or less.

Instructions

Our Experiment
Measure using Process Explorer or equivalent.
(click the little graphs at the top - screenshots here)

Provide
- Name of game
- Resolution played at
- General indication of quality (Ultra, High, Medium, Low) (xAA if you know)
- Name of GPU
- How much Video Memory was used? (max)
Crossfire: divide the number reported by the number of cards to get the true usage. Post the true usage.

Summary

Results

Crysis 3
4,174MB - 7680x1440 - Ultra (4xAA) - 3xTitan - andybird123 #117
3,852MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - Titan - Gregster #27
2,020MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (Motion Blur Medium, MSAA x8) - Titan - Blackwhite #26
1,750MB - 2560x1440 - Ultra - 7970 CF - oldestgregg #28
1,618MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (8xMSAA) - 7970 CF - pgi947 #69

Farcry 3
2,829MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (8xMSAA) - Titan - Gregster #67
1,200MB - 2560x1440 - Ultra (0xAA) - 7970 - LtMatt #58

Tomb Raider
2,822MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - Titan - Gregster #27
2,319MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (TressFX) - 7950 - Jarrod #124
1,750MB - 2560x1440 - Ultra - 7970 CF - oldestgregg #28

Skyrim
2,750MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (Modded) - 7970 - tommybhoy #29
1,997MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (Modded) - 6950 - tommybhoy #29
1,940MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (2K HD) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20

Hitman: Absolution
2,600MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - Titan - Gregster #42
1,800MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (8xMSAA) - 7970 CF - pgi947 #77

Bioshock Infinite
2,492MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - 7950 CF - Jarrod #128

Battlefield 3
2,454MB - 5760X1080 - Ultra (4xMSAA) - 7950 - Jarrod #125
1,820MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
1,490MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (0xHBAO + 0xAA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20

Max Payne 3
2,050MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (8xMSAA) - 7970 CF - pgi947 #69

Metro 2033
2,020MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (4xMSAA PhysX) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
1,800MB - 5760x1080 - High (4xMSAA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
1,495MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - Titan - Blackwhite #66
960MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (0xAA PhysX) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
920MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (0xAA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20

Sleeping Dogs
2,000MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (Extreme AA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
1,740MB - 5760x1080 - High (High AA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20

Dirt Showdown
1,330MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (4xMSAA + AMD Advanced Lighting) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
1,240MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra (4xMSAA) - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
900MB - 2560x1440 - Ultra (4xMSAA) - 7970 - LtMatt #57

F1 2012
1,100MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 570 2.5GB - Doomedspeed #79

Borderlands 2
1,040MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20
510MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 7970 CF - pgi947 #14

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky
1,004MB - 1920x1200 - Ultra (0xAA) - 480 - arc@css #65

Path of Exile
1,000MB - 1920x1200 - High - 5870 - billysielu #2

Guild Wars 2
830MB - 5760x1080 - Ultra - 680 SLI - Rusty0611 #20

Eve Online
1,338MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra (Dualboxing) - 6850 - Bacon? #23
770MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 6850 - Bacon? #4

Cities XL Platinum
363MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 6850 - Bacon? #38

Left 4 Dead 2
532MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 6850 - Bacon? #38

Modern Warfare 2
503MB - 1920x1080 - Ultra - 6850 - Bacon? #38

Information

Someone did a similar thing in 2007
Well worth a read! [here]

How much VRAM does AA use?

In the past, you'd be mostly interested in resolution, because the framebuffer was by far the largest resource. Today the resolution is generally not a very big factor in the total memory consumption. Although with huge resolutions and excessive MSAA it could matter. At 2560x1600 8xMSAA you need 281MB for the back buffer, front buffer and depth buffer. Normal settings will of course only be a fraction of that. Like 1600x1200 4xMSAA is 66MB, which is not much on a 512MB card. The things you should look for when it comes to memory these days is texture settings and geometric detail. [source]

What happens when you run out of VRAM?

Modern GPUs will run into a hybrid mode where the drivers/GPU start streaming texture data from system RAM over the PCIe bus to make up for the "missing" RAM. Since system RAM is 3-5X slower than GDDR5 with much higher latency, running out of "VRAM" would translate into a significant FPS loss. [source]

I ran out of VRAM one time and my computer exploded. Took out two and half blocks around my house. [source]

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:43

Game: Path of Exile (open beta)
Res: 1920 x 1200
Quality: High
GPU: 5870 1GB
Used: 850MB

LtMatt · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:44

I will provide 7970 AMD results at 1440p over the coming days for the following titles.

Battlefield 3
Black ops 2
Dirt Showdown
Farcry 3
Hitman
Sleeping Dogs
Tomb Raider

Bacon? · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:48

Goanna run this on my 6850 for EVE and a few other titles

EDIT. How do you get it to show VRAM usage?

Edit 2: Found it

EVE Online
- 1080P
- Ultra settings)
- 1GB MSI OC 6850

In captain quarters:
646MB

In ship hangar:
609MB

Undocked:
770MB

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:57

Bacon? said:
EDIT. How do you get it to show VRAM usage?

click the little graphs at the top - screenshots here

OP updated.

Bacon? · 17 Mar 2013 at 20:59

Oh I ended up putting in a GPU Comitted Bytes column in on the start.

LtMatt · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:00

Is it ok if i just use msi afterburner to show max vram usage?

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:02

LtMatt said:
Is it ok if i just use msi afterburner to show max vram usage?

Yup, I'd rather have as many results as possible than get too strict about it.

Can always work out average once a few results are in

LtMatt · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:05

billysielu said:
Yup, I'd rather have as many results as possible than get too strict about it.

Can always work out average once a few results are in

Great will get some results up during the week.

Bacon? · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:09

Whoo im now part of history!

arc@css · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:11

I'll have a go at testing some games later, maybe tomorrow.

LtMatt · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:13

Bacon? said:
Whoo im now part of history!

Cayman is so 1980 bacon.

Bacon? · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:15

LtMatt said:
Cayman is so 1980 bacon.

Pfffft 16 years before I was born

This deserves a Goodies picture somewhere...

pgi947 · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:32

-Borderlands 2 (The Fridge)
-1920x1080
-7970 CF
-Ultra/highest - low physx
-1020mb

Edit: not sure how process explorer is reading vram over multiple cards, the bit at the bottom says 6GB, so my above MIGHT be half of that?

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:36

pgi947 said:
-Borderlands 2 (The Fridge)
-1920x1080
-7970 CF
-Ultra/highest - low physx
-1020mb

Edit: not sure how process explorer is reading vram over multiple cards, the bit at the bottom says 6GB, so my above MIGHT be half of that?

thx for the result - we can just bear that in mind as more results come in

ShakeNBake · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:36

I think you need to standardise AA settings etc. cos they will have an impact.

It's really gonna vary from system to system, especially with all the different options available in graphics card control panels.

Like for nvidia cards, pick an option under "3-D settings -> adjust image settings with preview" for everyone to use etc.

kedge · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:37

Don't know if this is of any real value but i remember watching a video of one of Cryteks CryEngine engineers (he just strictly works on the game engine) i heard him mention that the Crysis 3 SDK Editor was peaking at 2.5GB of VRAM, although i'm not sure if the final game reaches that amount?, i know my gtx580 reaches its maximum of 1.5gb in game. In this link provided at 3.55 he talks video memory usage in Crysis3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rdGmH2AFvQo#t=235s

Randomface74 · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:48

ShakeNBake said:
I think you need to standardise AA settings etc. cos they will have an impact.

It's really gonna vary from system to system, especially with all the different options available in graphics card control panels.

Like for nvidia cards, pick an option under "3-D settings -> adjust image settings with preview" for everyone to use etc.

It changes contribution from being a "do your normal gaming session but run this program and tell us the number" to a "reconfigure everything our way, then do it" type of task. I'd like to avoid that.

It's fine though - our results will represent the real world, if it's a range then so be it

LtMatt · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:50

ShakeNBake said:
I think you need to standardise AA settings etc. cos they will have an impact.

It's really gonna vary from system to system, especially with all the different options available in graphics card control panels.

Like for nvidia cards, pick an option under "3-D settings -> adjust image settings with preview" for everyone to use etc.

I will try and run two different benches for my contribution. One using Ultra Preset (including any applied AA settings - Think BF3 4xAA) and one using my personal highest playable settings.

Rusty0611 · 17 Mar 2013 at 22:26

5760*1080