Battlefield 3 Video Memory Usage

[LtMatt]

Show us yours. (screenshots)

Provide screenshots with settings pls.

 

[LtMatt]

Not necessarily. Just because it's using that much VRAM doesn't it needs it.

For me though, i do hit a VRAM issue with a GTX580 no AA for me, just FXAA.

I used to eat into the page file constantly when i had 2x6950's with the same settings.

 

[LtMatt]

Buy a GTX680 and watch as Nvidia manage to have a 2GB 680 use 20% less VRAM than a 3GB 580 at 2560x1600 4AA on close quaters.

Different GPUs use different amounts of VRAM. Not by much but the 6 series cards do seem to eb more efficient than previous gens.

Try alt tabbing a few times mid game, you'll start chewing into the page file before you know it.

 

[LtMatt]

Then just play the game and stop messing about.

Have you had a look at this thread?: Battlefield 3 total system resource benchmarks.

I alt tab during gaming for a whole host of reasons. Nothing to do with messing about.

This thread is for people to post screenshots in game at various resolutions showing how much video memory their game is using.

 

[LtMatt]

Million discussions on this.

Basically, even 2GB cards have some form of caching going on as excess VRAM is available. 3GB will cache even more as more is available. It doesn't mean it will go to page-file.

I alt tab loads as well and I never have even come close to exceeding 2GB on full Ultra 1080p.

2GB is way more than enough for 1080p. Arguably 1.5GB is OK as well if you disable Aero.

It also won't go to the page-file on 1950~ usage. I run at this level and higher while benching max settings @ 5760*1080 continuously and suffer no page-file streaming slowdowns .

Screenshots please with settings, this is not a discussion thread.

Read the first post ladies.

 

[LtMatt]

It turns into a discussion thread with comments like:



Which are frankly completely factually incorrect. (as confirmed by everyone above )

I presume it was eating into the page file after a while because if i disabled it, after a few rounds played and some alt tabbing i would get a crash with an out of video memory error.

Disabling aero would help, as would closing battlelog down as they were all using up vram taking me close to the 2gb limit.

That's not a problem any more though with the extra vram my card has.

I don't believe any of what i said to be factually incorrect in my case.

Messing about or not, if that causes performance issues then you stop doing it or live with it.




As the thread I linked was for something similar I thought you might have a passing interest.

It doesn't effect my performance, simply adds some more vram usage. I have to control rcon and server tools so alt tabbing is a frequent occurrence for me.

Thanks for the link, lots of arguing and debate in that thread which is what im trying to avoid here. Just want screenshots and settings for comparison.

 

[LtMatt]

Just wait until Gregster sees this thread and that comment Matt .

I'm not saying this applies to everyone but in my case its what i found. I don't see what the problem is.

Its a fairly common problem if you disable the page file while playing battlefield 3 and ride close to or beyond your cards vram limit you will get an out of video memory error.

Please, i don't want this turning into a debate. I'm not interested, screenshots and settings only.

 

[LtMatt]

Your comments aren't factually correct because you've applied a generalisation which doesn't hold true.

In fact if you want to apply an extreme at 5760*1080 full Ultra I still don't page file stream or crash so I'm not sure why yours was crashing. Perhaps a problem your end which the extra VRAM is masking.

A 680 user with the same problem, he was seeing around 1.6 video ram usage in the game alone, not including windows/aero/battlelog usage.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=367517

Was using a disabled page file/small size. Out of video memory error, same as me. Fixed by using a windows managed page file.

In my instance, it was correct. I don't see how you can prove otherwise as you weren't using the pc.

I've removed the 'factually incorrect' comment so can we please drop this now.

 

[LtMatt]

Its the same issue i had, running out of video memory. (at least according to the what the error says)

If the error is wrong and it means something else then so be it, im just going on what the actual error says.

I found the thread i started on this problem ages ago.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18353136

If you google battlefield 3 out of video memory pagefile you will find its a common problem, or it was.

 

[LtMatt]

I used to disable Aero when i had my 6950's just to give me a bit more breathing room. Say bf3 uses 1.6-1.7 video memory at full ultra+4xaa @ 1080, aero uses 200mb, that doesn't leave you much to play with.

 

[LtMatt]

Ah ok didn't know that.

As a test im going to stop using auto page file and change it to 2048-4096. I used to get an out of video memory with my 2gb card before after a certain amount of time will see it it still happens now i have an extra 1.gb free

 

[LtMatt]

Simple solution - don't fiddle with the page file when there's no need to. Especially if it's causing the game to crash when otherwise it's OK. .

I think 2-4GB will be large enough and it won't crash. But as I say I don't know why you'd need to change it anyway unless you have one of those small 60GB SSD's??

I do have a small 60gb ssd, and i have 16gb ram so i normally have a 16gb page file.

I have another ssd drive for games but if i can now get away with a smaller page file then its all good.

No crash so far, vram at 1.6gb so far after a few minutes. It will increase the longer i play and the more maps i play.

 

[LtMatt]

It can increase as much as it likes it won't become an issue by streaming data from the page-file . The crashes you had historically sound like a combination of the application / Windows spazzing out due to the page file settings you used.

Fair enough on the 16GB / 60GB SSD comment.

Sorry I'm a little lost - not being funny or anything (honest!) but what are you exactly trying to prove now? Or are you just testing to see if you can shrink the volume of your page file to save space?

Seeing if i still get a running out of video memory error with a small page file.

 

[LtMatt]

The plot thickens.

No crash so far and surprisingly lower vram usage so far. 1.7 now, third map in.

 

[LtMatt]

I played Bf3 single player last night (and finished it at last) for around 4 hours. I had AB monitoring VRAM whilst I was playing and in those 4 hours, the max vram which was used was 2026MB in 3D and the max vram used in non 3D was 2012MB. This is full settings @ 5760*1080. I also turned off my page file to see if I could break my 2048 available but it didn't. I have my .exe set to disable aero in BF3 also.

So many forums I have read recently regarding vram issues and so many times people have been badly advised to buy 4GB Nvidia cards or 3GB AMD cards to play at 1080P with full settings, purely on the basis of answers to the question "Will I need 2/3 or 4GB cards to play BF3 at 1080P. Replies are "Full settings you will need 3GB minimum as my card uses 2.4GB" (do a google search to find many forums with those kind of answers). If somebody is staunch team Green, the 4GB cards are loads more than the 2GB cards and bad advice can cost the OP's lots of money for even worse performance.

Sorry to go off on one Matt but this is the one point of vram that angers me.

I do wish people would do some research sometimes.

You can go off on one if you like, its nothing to do with me. I just wanted to create a comparison thread with screenshots and setting detail for comparisons.

Is that using 4xaa?

Sounds about right for single player, i get less vram usage for that.

I'm only speaking from personal experience that 2Gb is fine, but it doesn't leave you with much to spare, and i used to get out of video memory crashes after a length session including alt tabbing as my vram usage approached 1900mb.

I'm not getting those crashes now, if thats because of a 3gb card or a change in the game code ive no idea. As long as it works im happy.

 

[LtMatt]

You're not getting the crashes anymore because you've probably corrected your page file settings.

It was to do with you until you edited your post out Matt .

And no, I would imagine Gregster's figures are from MP.

No, i tried various page file sizes before. The only one that fixed the issue was using an Auto sized page file.

However now that doesn't seem to be an issue when i use a small page file, i presume as im not running out of video memory.

 

[LtMatt]

Mate you weren't running out of video memory before . You may have thought the symptoms of it were but they weren't.

I'm just going on what the directx error said.

Not saying its right or wrong, don't care regardless.

It doesn't happen any more so that's the main thing, just used to happen with my 2gb cards.

 

[LtMatt]

Errors boxes are just whatever they're coded to say. A 580 running out of VRAM is more believable but not a 6950/70 or 670/680.

That's just the error i used to get but replace that with a 6950. It used to happen as the vram usage crept up to 1800+.

Maybe it was a game bug thats now been fixed, i dont know as i dont have a 2gb card to test it, but it was a real issue for me and many others that was only fixed (at the time) by having a system managed page file.

 

[LtMatt]

Yeah they've probably changed something. It just wasn't VRAM running out. I mean that's pretty clear - 1800MB still have 200MB spare...

I firmly believe it was due to a combination of Windows and BF3 and maybe some other unknown variable (as Tommy had the same set up and didn't suffer) causing the issue.

Who knows .

Agreed.

Now make with the damn screenshot for spoiling my thread.

 

[LtMatt]

I just played 6 rounds of Armoured kill 64 man on my server. 1.8 gig vram usage at the end just before i quit, made sure i didnt alt tab once this time.