1GB VRAM cap should be increased

[Bel]

It seems like the Steam Deck caps out at 1GB VRAM for most games, but most modern games would likely want more than that. I've heard someone say that they have increased the VRAM allowance to 4GB in the BIOs and it smoothed out frametimes in Death Stranding after it could use the ~3GB the game was trying to use instead of just 1GB.

It would be nice if the Deck could put aside ~4GB VRAM so that games had a more comfortable amount to work with.

Although if it is simply a case of the overlay incorrectly reporting VRAM usage, fixing that would be nice.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Publicado originalmente por Red Star Gopnik:

Publicado originalmente por KittenGrindr:

People have reported it helps improve performance and also battery life since the system isn't needing to constantly allocate more RAM on the fly.

how could the battery be even affected by this??

Since there is more reserved, it won't have to canstantly pull as much when or if it goes over the reserved amount.

[Prezidentas]

Publicado originalmente por KittenGrindr:

Publicado originalmente por Red Star Gopnik:

how could the battery be even affected by this??

Since there is more reserved, it won't have to canstantly pull as much when or if it goes over the reserved amount.

but the RAM and VRAM of the deck is the same physical chips - do you think ram transfers actually use a measurable amount of electricity?

[Boblin the Goblin]

Publicado originalmente por Red Star Gopnik:

Publicado originalmente por KittenGrindr:

Since there is more reserved, it won't have to canstantly pull as much when or if it goes over the reserved amount.

but the RAM and VRAM of the deck is the same physical chips - do you think ram transfers actually use a measurable amount of electricity?

Don't know, just relaying what I've seen people report with increasing the reserved amount.

[⸸ Torment ⸸]

Hi,

thought id chip in here, ive increased the UMA to 4gb and i can confirm that games do run much more smoothly than the default 1gb. for example Spiderman remastered runs around 45-60fps on maxed out settings with 4gb of UMA, and with the same settings but 1gb of UMA it struggles to even reach 40fps, it mainly sits around high 20s low 30s fps.

[Sleepy Buddha]

Been trying 4GB FB as well and it does feel like frame times are significantly more consistent. Tried it with Outriders Worldslayer and Necromunda Hired Gun. Even though SteamOS can manage VRAM on demand there seems to be a struggle for resources when it's not already reserved, resulting in some frame time issues with 1GB FB.

[fender178]

I would like to chime in here as well. There is a YouTube video on this and it says by increasing the frame buffer it helps non Steam games to run better. It also increases Windows performance as well for those who are running Windows on their deck. It also fixed issues with some non steam games locking up after launching such as the Epic Game Store version of Lawn Mowing Simulator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt7l2_SmGnc

[Jackets]

Might be a bit late to this, but is there any downside in increasing the Min Ram?

[Xamindar]

Publicado originalmente por Jackets:

Might be a bit late to this, but is there any downside in increasing the Min Ram?

Yes, Setting vram to 4G means you only have just over 11G available to everything else. People who claim it improves performance are a placebo. Best is to make a larger swap file and keep vram at 1G. I ave tested my games with 1G vs 4G and have not seen any difference whatsoever.

[deaddoof]

Publicado originalmente por ⸸ Torment ⸸:

Hi,

thought id chip in here, ive increased the UMA to 4gb and i can confirm that games do run much more smoothly than the default 1gb. for example Spiderman remastered runs around 45-60fps on maxed out settings with 4gb of UMA, and with the same settings but 1gb of UMA it struggles to even reach 40fps, it mainly sits around high 20s low 30s fps.

I would report it as a bug to Valve. APU should have unified memory. The OS should be able to device whether this segment of RAM is better suited for the GPU than the system RAM. If increasing the reserve allocation improves performance, it is a sign there is room to improve the steam deck memory manager.

[kAzAAkAs]

There is no 1GB cap, just a 1GB reservation. Obviously the Deck wouldn't be able to run games like Elden Ring at all with 1GB VRAM. The thing is, there are some performance drawbacks to going above the reservation due to data having to be transferred more. So while increasing the reserved amount of ram boosts performance a few percent, it doesn't give it actually more VRAM.

[Xamindar]

Publicado originalmente por Sjaak Trekhaak:

there are some performance drawbacks to going above the reservation due to data having to be transferred more.

You got a source to explain this comment? As it makes no sense. What data is being transferred more with a higher reservation? data to vram? makes no sense the game is going to use and ask for what it needs regardless.

[vigilant007]

Publicado originalmente por Xamindar:

Publicado originalmente por Sjaak Trekhaak:

there are some performance drawbacks to going above the reservation due to data having to be transferred more.

You got a source to explain this comment? As it makes no sense. What data is being transferred more with a higher reservation? data to vram? makes no sense the game is going to use and ask for what it needs regardless.

I am not an expert of UMA design and implementation but I will say one thing. When architected from a software and hardware perspective there are benefits. For one the CPU isn't needing to page out things to the GPU over a slower channel since they share the same memory pool. I've got I think 3 or 4 devices using Apple Silicon and I'll tell you that at least within that implementation I've seen basically no impact as the system handles memory management fantastically.

It's hard to say if this is a result of the memory being in the same package as the SOC, or aggressive memory management by the OS. I don't know that deep beyond loving to see how things work.

[vigilant007]

Publicado originalmente por Xamindar:

Publicado originalmente por Sjaak Trekhaak:

there are some performance drawbacks to going above the reservation due to data having to be transferred more.

You got a source to explain this comment? As it makes no sense. What data is being transferred more with a higher reservation? data to vram? makes no sense the game is going to use and ask for what it needs regardless.

I have no inside info on this, but if the memory is needing to utilize the memory at a higher rate to fill the RAM, I could theoretically see that causing the storage controller needing to manage this especially in an open world game could cause a performance hit, especially depending on the speed of the storage.

No source, but it is my thought from an overall system architecture perspective.

[PetGhost]

Does anyone have any actual reliable sources instead of just placebo and anecdotal evidence? It's really clear that nobody on Reddit knows what they're talking about and I still don't understand why this is set to 1GB by default. I've seen the video where it does seem to help performance but that seems like an anomaly.

Someone mentioned Valve has talked about this, does anyone have a link to that or some other knowledgeable person's explanation?