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BF3 Actual VRAM Usage

20K views 71 replies 48 participants last post by  kcuestag 
#1 ·
I've started this thread to get folks to post their in-game vram usage. It's a hot-enough topic, with people still trying to figure out which card(s) to get. If someone (e.g. mod) thinks I should just do this in one of the BF3 threads that already exist (e.g. Performance), please feel free to say so.

As for me, well, it looks like my hopes/fears have been realized. According to MSI Afterburner, in-game vram usage almost hit 2.5GB. That's with every setting on Ultra, post-processing On, 16x AF, and 4xAA (I think; still figuring that out), played on sig rig [edit: screen resolution is 1900x1200].
proof.gif


bf3vram1.png


As for the AA thing...throughout the game, I was experimenting with AA settings in-game, and/or through NVidia Control Panel...so far, it seems like it can't be set through control panel, only in-game. So peak use - that yellow line - was probably with 4xAA set in-game.

Anyway...yeah. VRAM-hungry. Interested to how other folks are doing. Don't forget to mention settings. Screenshots of evidence welcome.

edit: I think that I had triple buffering enabled for some of the time, so that may have contributed to usage. I'll do this again w/out buffering and see what I get.
 
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#4 ·
So it seems 2GB is now not enough? What about 1600P users? I think that the game is not management memory properly. They have to test some cards and see if the fps gets effected.
 
#5 ·
Why is everyone so caught up on VRAM??? I'm maxing this game with my 570 sli test rig and the VRAM hits up to 1265mb and my 580 sli rig uses about 1340mb and still no hit on performance on either setup....About 99% of the people here are SO ignorant about the issue...
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er;15454934
So it seems 2GB is now not enough? What about 1600P users? I think that the game is not management memory properly. They have to test some cards and see if the fps gets effected.
I assume that screen size has something to do with it. I'm at 1900x1200, should have mentioned that in OP.

FPS were actually surprisingly good. Highs in the 90s-100s w/out in-game AA; high 50s-60s w/ 4x in-game (again, not sure if gfx card control panel AA settings work on this game, yet). Almost makes me wonder if I really need another card.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RawFoodPhil;15454960
Why is everyone so caught up on VRAM??? I'm maxing this game with my 570 sli test rig and the VRAM hits up to 1265mb and my 580 sli rig uses about 1340mb and still no hit on performance on either setup....About 99% of the people here are SO ignorant about the issue...
I guess all I can say is, my results differed. Different in-game settings?
 
#9 ·
I beleive it's optimizied to use up as much vram as you give it...that's what it seems like. Not having 2gb isnt gonna hurt your performance more than 1-2fps though....else everyone with older cards wouldnt be able to play. I sit at 1gb vram usage the whole play time and still get perfectly playable fps with my 560 ti 1gb on ultra with just a few settings turned down
 
#12 ·
Wow , it never goes over 1280 mb for me and i have everything maxed and at 1080p , guess im lucky!
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoomDash;15455030
I keep asking this, but I think VRAM steals from your normal ram when it needs it ( allocates it ). No one has responded to this though, I know it used to happen.
Yeah, it does. There is one map that had my vram around pretty much maxed at 1220mb and ram usage at 6GB's. Can't remember what map it was but usually it's sitting around 3.5-4GB's on normal maps with textures on Ultra.

Bought 8GB's for some reason, though it doesn't seem as though the game has enough non repetitive textures to soak that up.
 
#15 ·
The game should not use that much RAM unless there is memory leak.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by arioscrimson;15455107
Game will use whatever vRAM you have. If more vRAM is needed and the card doesn't have enough, then you'll see slow downs on huge maps since more textures need to be loaded.
It's those intermittent fps drops that I want to avoid. I think I have, but it wasn't cheap.

And of course I do have everything turned up All The Way.
 
#22 ·
Quick question,

For years I had always used FRAPS, and now I have MSI loaded for just a week or so and am using 2X 6970's in CF, both cards have 2GB...

I wanted to know how do you check for how much VRAM you are using as I have system stats showing both GPU's temp & clock + Memory and speed, so what do I need to do to see VRAM usage ?

Thanks in advance...
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sync_Bit;15455570
Quick question,

For years I had always used FRAPS, and now I have MSI loaded for just a week or so and am using 2X 6970's in CF, both cards have 2GB...

I wanted to know how do you check for how much VRAM you are using as I have system stats showing both GPU's temp & clock + Memory and speed, so what do I need to do to see VRAM usage ?

Thanks in advance...
Download the latest GPU-Z (I believe its version 5.5) and click on sensors. MSI Afterburner also shows VRam usage, but its not as condensed as GPU-z
 
#25 ·
- maxed out @1900x1080
- hovering around 50 fps
- max mem usage is 1257mb
- I'm happy
biggrin.gif
 
#26 ·
The most I've seen so far is 1.3GB on my 590 - everything
maxed out at 1080p.
 
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