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App to read and record memory and GPU usage?

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

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Joined
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This is relevant as I need to be able to do the above in the tests I want to perform in BF3.

I've found plenty of apps and gadgets that show memory and CPU use, but doesn't record data of the min and max etc.

Edit. Title is typo. I can monitor GPU and GPU memory usage, I need something to record the CPU and memory usage.
 
I've looked at that but it's incredibly complicated.

Looking around it seems such an app doesn't exist. How dumb is that. Plenty of them for Linux though.
 
For the GPU and vram yes.

However, I want to do far more thorough tests than that before coming to a conclusion.

I want to run BF3 with the paging file disabled to see if I get the paging error with 3gb vram (because I got it with 2gb) and so forth.

So, to do that I need to see what BF3 is doing in depth and what it is accessing and using.

People argue that vram is not a big issue. Well, basically if I can run the game with no paging file with 3gb vram and I can't with 2gb then obviously the game is using more than 2gb. What I want to know is if it needs the paging file with 3gb.

Obviously that part I can test without monitoring usages. But, to destroy any shadow of doubt I want to see how much ram it uses at peak, how much CPU power it uses, how much GPU power and how much vram.

Edit. I also want to see if I can disable the paging file and see if it makes any difference to how fast the game runs.
 
insejn said:
That's quite astonishing in this day and age. Especially since it can be done using built-in Windows features.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your incredibly informative post. That has to be one of the best I've seen in months. Seriously, you should go to Google and see if there is a competition for amazing forum posts and then add it as your entry.

I'd have a fiver you would win.
 
I've been thinking along similar lines Andy, I think however measuring vram usage wont give that much useful info as you wont know what in the memory is redundant (I presume you are interested in the impact on performance due to a lack of vram at various settings)

What I am after is an app that will consume a fixed amount of vram with no chance for the video card to reclaim it.

That way I can run say a BF3 benchmark with 2GB/1.5GB/1GB and see what the actual real world performance hit is.
 
ALXAndy said:
For the GPU and vram yes.

However, I want to do far more thorough tests than that before coming to a conclusion.

I want to run BF3 with the paging file disabled to see if I get the paging error with 3gb vram (because I got it with 2gb) and so forth.

So, to do that I need to see what BF3 is doing in depth and what it is accessing and using.

People argue that vram is not a big issue. Well, basically if I can run the game with no paging file with 3gb vram and I can't with 2gb then obviously the game is using more than 2gb. What I want to know is if it needs the paging file with 3gb.

Obviously that part I can test without monitoring usages. But, to destroy any shadow of doubt I want to see how much ram it uses at peak, how much CPU power it uses, how much GPU power and how much vram.

Edit. I also want to see if I can disable the paging file and see if it makes any difference to how fast the game runs.
Click to expand...

@ALXAndy

Wonder if you've seen this:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1131405/do-you-need-2gb-vram/20

post #26 of 30.

It would seem you want to watch the RAM in the first instance.

AMD/ATi termed "Hypermemory" and nVidia terms "TurboCache" swapping to system RAM when the GPU runs out of texture room.
Click to expand...

I could give it a go (I mean to help out) unless you're not running out of memory (i.e. page files for me are 800MB on my 64GB setup [32GB RAM committed for Windows OS])
 
Last edited:
Can't you just setup a windows performance monitor job? That will poll whatever you set up and log to a file (which can be csv if I recall correctly) and should be able to provide cpu and memory usage for the system and specific tasks as well.

Used it pretty extensively for performance testing and problem solving on servers.
 
ALXAndy said:
Thank you for your incredibly informative post. That has to be one of the best I've seen in months. Seriously, you should go to Google and see if there is a competition for amazing forum posts and then add it as your entry.

I'd have a fiver you would win.
Click to expand...

This coming from a person who thinks starting perfmon and clicking the mouse a few times is challenging. I'm humbled. I hope some day to be as strong on the internet as you are, and only post amazing information all the time.
 
Using PerfMon is too complicated for someone who supposedly understands the ins and outs of VRAM, RAM and Page Filing?

Proi Tip - If you cannot use PerfMon you have no hope in hell drawing any conclusions on Windows file system technologies.
 
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