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Battlefield 3 total system resource benchmarks.

Basically what I am saying is this. When you disable the paging file and run BF3 you do so purely based on the vram you have on your GPU. If that vram runs out (which it didn't for me, and it wouldn't either unless it uses more than 3gb at peak) then it begins to use the percentage it has allocated in your paging file.

Hows this lol
Ok only 1 of them in over the 3gb mark but the rest are dam close to it.

3028mbvram
3028mbvram.jpg


2949mbvram
2949mbvram.jpg


2926mbvram
2926mbvram.jpg



Not bragging or any thing lol ;)

2918mbvram
105kround.jpg

By steven_belfast at 2012-04-03
 
For every game I play I set the Disable Desktop Composition/Disable Visual Themes flags on the .exe Properties Compatibility tab. Even in Windows 7 that is an extra 150MB of VRAM saved right there.

It turns Aero On/off quickly and painlessly automatically no matter where I launch the game from.

+1

I do the exact same thing.
 
Interesting little test Andy, cheers for that. :) It's a shame some of the forum are incapable of 'discussing' things in a grown up manner. :(

There's no question that when you run out of VRAM, performance dies rapidly. I'd always assumed that it was because the system would then have to start caching, swapping, paging, etc (dunno the correct term, lol). I don't know the real details but whatever happens it's not as good as when the VRAM isn't full up.

I had 2 x 1gb cards that performed really well, somewhere in between a 580 and a 7970, yet when the 1gb was gone performance dropped off a cliff. It's possible to do that in Skyrim without using graphics settings that the GPU would struggle with i.e. adding more texture packs. As long as VRAM stayed under 1gb, even with high levels of AA etc, all was fine. Now that I have 3gb to spare there's no issue. Yeah, a better GPU helps but there's no doubt in my mind that it's important to have plenty of VRAM on tap for the future.

I'm fairly sure that a 2gb 680 is fine now but the 3gb 7970 will last a bit longer, a bit like how the 480 has outlasted the 5870. Ironic that really, unless Nvidia have something in their driver that makes more efficient use of some kind of paging/caching. TBH though I haven't seen any reviews that force the 680 to use up all of it's VRAM to see what effect that has on it.
 
As you can see from these screens. This is 1080P @ full ultra (all the trimmings)

What are you showing us here? You still have plenty of VRAM left there, sig says GTX680.

I have the page file on also.

Have you tried disabling it to see if your VRAM usage increases?

Hows this lol
Ok only 1 of them in over the 3gb mark but the rest are dam close to it.

You're running xfire, so it's a total of both cards which are duplicated data so really you're using half of the reading you get. ~1.5gb.
 
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You're running xfire, so it's a total of both cards which are duplicated data so really you're using half of the reading you get. ~1.5gb.

He says he's running one I think? So that would mean one GTX 580 3GB or one 7950/7970 3GB... not 1.5GB
 
He's definitely running two GPUs. Look at the Afterburner overlay in the corner of the screen shots.

So his usage shown is a total of both cards.
 
As you can see from these screens. This is 1080P @ full ultra (all the trimmings)

I have the page file on also.

And of what relevance is that?

Please don't tell me that after nearly a full 24 hours you still fail to grasp what this thread is about?

Honestly is it really that? do you really not understand what is going on?


Have you tried disabling it to see if your VRAM usage increases?

That's what people need to do here. We've now established how much vram it uses. What's hilarious is if he disables his paging file then he will highly likely see a boost in FPS.
 
Maybe it's like this:
Your pc has physically 6GB RAM
In use before BF3 starts: 2GB
Free before BF3 starts 4GB

BF3 is 32bit so can only address 4GB
There is already 2GB in use so that leaves 2 / 1.8GB usable (32bit) left for BF3 RAM.
IF all that is full... and the VRAM exceeds your GFX card memory it can't address more in the normal ram as it's full 32bit 4GB cap... then it might go to the pagefile?
 
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