High VRAM (Video memory) not virtual memory Usage

[G.Paws]

I need help with my game why is it using so much video memory? at stock vanila game level a 3070 rtx 8gb that i have is running 90-96% of video memory

[MaxFX]

You've got:
- VRAM (Video memory)
- RAM (physical memory)
- Pagefile (Virtual memory)

This game uses a lot of RAM memory. Aren't you confusing that with your VRAM?

[Longhaul]

Originally posted by MaxFX:

You've got:
- VRAM (Video memory)
- RAM (physical memory)
- Pagefile (Virtual memory)

This game uses a lot of RAM memory. Aren't you confusing that with your VRAM?

Most likely....

@OP How much ram you got?

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by MaxFX:

You've got:
- VRAM (Video memory)
- RAM (physical memory)
- Pagefile (Virtual memory)

This game uses a lot of RAM memory. Aren't you confusing that with your VRAM?

Nope my VRam usage is constantly up to 95% In game even when graphics and resolution is lowest setting.. My Nvidia control panel settings are also on normal power option well its irrelevant because my gpu performance stays 55 or 30 %

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by Bruenor:

Originally posted by MaxFX:

You've got:
- VRAM (Video memory)
- RAM (physical memory)
- Pagefile (Virtual memory)

This game uses a lot of RAM memory. Aren't you confusing that with your VRAM?

Most likely....

@OP How much ram you got?

I have 16 gb and it runs 10gb and not more than 11 sometimes

[G.Paws]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784186924

made my own fix but vram is stil in high usage

[MarkJohnson]

VRAM is assigned to virtual memory. It also has it's own page file.

I upgraded from 8GB VRAM card to a 16GB VRAM video card and my city played much smoother and less lag, from video swapping in and out of VRAM. I even went from 41fps to 51fps. No FPS mods either.

I was hoping it would help a little, but it helped a hell of a lot for me.

Task Manager and win11 will track GPU now, I noticed when I bought my Ryzen 5700G and its integrated graphics. It has a lot of GPU info and the dedicated GPU has even more (or maybe it was upgraded after my dedicated GPU purchase?) Or maybe some game optimization with airport DLC?

But check task manage to get the full story on your GPU usage, if you have win11.

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

VRAM is assigned to virtual memory. It also has it's own page file.

I upgraded from 8GB VRAM card to a 16GB VRAM video card and my city played much smoother and less lag, from video swapping in and out of VRAM. I even went from 41fps to 51fps. No FPS mods either.

I was hoping it would help a little, but it helped a hell of a lot for me.

Task Manager and win11 will track GPU now, I noticed when I bought my Ryzen 5700G and its integrated graphics. It has a lot of GPU info and the dedicated GPU has even more (or maybe it was upgraded after my dedicated GPU purchase?) Or maybe some game optimization with airport DLC?

But check task manage to get the full story on your GPU usage, if you have win11.

Strange cities skylines never used so much VRAM on my pc with 6GB I think it utilized everything to make it work better.. I originally thought it was because I hooked up my monitor to my laptop or 4k settings.. In the end uninstalling Loadingscreen mod helped me gain more FPS and vram availability.. Maybe a bug for its the new Loadingscreen (temporary fix) as they call it mod for the original one is outdated

[G.Paws]

But thanks for the info seems pagefile is the bridges for physical memory between cpu anf ram and vram tgats what I believe page file is for and just sad you can't utilize all your ram while cities skylines use a ton of virtual Ram

[MarkJohnson]

Page file is more of a holding cell. It kicks data out of RAM that is no longer needed at the current time. Then if it needs certain data now, it kicks the least important data out of RAM and into virtual memory so it can swap the important data into RAM to be utilized at they moment.

It does this over and over. Especially if you have exceeded RAM limits.

The horrible things about simulators, are that our CPUs are doing double duty. CPU had to do complicated AI calls (Simulation), and then try doing easier GPU calculations. But then it has to wait on the AI again to finish up its calculations before giving control back to the GPU calculations. This is why this game gets terrible FPS and low quality graphics.

This is why good simulators always get poor FPS & Graphics. The GPU is always on hold, while the CPU is doing complex AI calculations which hogs more CPU time than a GPU.

Since the 70s, it's always been good graphics or good simulation, you can't have both. But recently, this is changing with CPU tech improvements. But this game is still DX11.

DX12 and soon to be announced Dx13 will change this a lot.

[AoD_lexandro]

V-ram usage is normally based on resolution scale and texture sizes. Anything above 1080p is going to eat through V-ram in a heartbeat with quality textures in usage.

[Stealthy]

Originally posted by G.Paws:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784186924

made my own fix but vram is stil in high usage

So what exactly did you fix then?

VRAM usage is high if the need for it is high. 4K res, sharpen textures mod etc. and it goes up significantly. It's not a bad thing, you know. Memory is there to be used and it likes to be used.

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by Stealthy:

Originally posted by G.Paws:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784186924

made my own fix but vram is stil in high usage

So what exactly did you fix then?

VRAM usage is high if the need for it is high. 4K res, sharpen textures mod etc. and it goes up significantly. It's not a bad thing, you know. Memory is there to be used and it likes to be used.

I got more fps in my game possibly from enabling Rebar of Nvidia that is not enabled by default but is active with Nvidia inspector I force it to run just on cities skylines.. But did another tweek to make interrupts better of my gpu.

My VRam is throttling and not staying the same anymore so lets just say I fixed a optimization issue of memory traffic no more jaggy intersections on my software for Nvidia

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Page file is more of a holding cell. It kicks data out of RAM that is no longer needed at the current time. Then if it needs certain data now, it kicks the least important data out of RAM and into virtual memory so it can swap the important data into RAM to be utilized at they moment.

It does this over and over. Especially if you have exceeded RAM limits.

The horrible things about simulators, are that our CPUs are doing double duty. CPU had to do complicated AI calls (Simulation), and then try doing easier GPU calculations. But then it has to wait on the AI again to finish up its calculations before giving control back to the GPU calculations. This is why this game gets terrible FPS and low quality graphics.

This is why good simulators always get poor FPS & Graphics. The GPU is always on hold, while the CPU is doing complex AI calculations which hogs more CPU time than a GPU.

Since the 70s, it's always been good graphics or good simulation, you can't have both. But recently, this is changing with CPU tech improvements. But this game is still DX11.

DX12 and soon to be announced Dx13 will change this a lot.

Thanks well said.. Makes sense so you should definitely check out my guide if it may work depending on your GPU.. I literally obliterated this problem boosting my fps from town view in cities skylines from 14FPS - 34 more than double just by forcing Rebar (Resizable BAR) in nvidia injector that gets rid of that queues expanding the cpu traffic with GPU.. Even did something else that I highly recommend every Nvidia user must change. Go take a look at my guide and please let me know if you have a FPS increase

[MarkJohnson]

In theory, you should be able to just enable rebar or in my case AMD SAM (Smart Access Memory) and it should just work.

You do need a compatible motherboard and updated drivers/vBIOS.

I find very little difference, I see some benchmarks that show maybe 1fps increase. but that's negligible and accounts for +/- 2% errors. With this game being so old, I doubt it can take much advantage of it at all. considering games and better graphics drivers (DX12/DX13) aren't making much gains. Maybe after it matures and we start seeing DX13 titles one of these days. Sadly there are few games that utilize DX12 effectively and haven't heard of any DX13 titles yet.

I am not worried about fps in this game. I can sustain ~50fps without fps mods already. But I overspent on my rig thanks to covid making me stay indoors with little to do but spend money on my gaming rig. Luckily I got a 6800 XT 16GB before prices went sky high.

[G.Paws]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

In theory, you should be able to just enable rebar or in my case AMD SAM (Smart Access Memory) and it should just work.

You do need a compatible motherboard and updated drivers/vBIOS.

I find very little difference, I see some benchmarks that show maybe 1fps increase. but that's negligible and accounts for +/- 2% errors. With this game being so old, I doubt it can take much advantage of it at all. considering games and better graphics drivers (DX12/DX13) aren't making much gains. Maybe after it matures and we start seeing DX13 titles one of these days. Sadly there are few games that utilize DX12 effectively and haven't heard of any DX13 titles yet.

I am not worried about fps in this game. I can sustain ~50fps without fps mods already. But I overspent on my rig thanks to covid making me stay indoors with little to do but spend money on my gaming rig. Luckily I got a 6800 XT 16GB before prices went sky high.

.

Thanks for sharing.. Fascinating so you are telling me the game engine can handle more ig you have a powerful setup? Like you have a beast GPU but still doesn't make sense to me for my cpu hardly reach 50 % and had 8 cores i7 11 gen.. And graphics runs though but not much no at least it runs 80% we're iy did 20%

Its doing more to enable stability strange that Rebar has that effect on your pc maybe it is because its already setup with proper memory interrupts.. Or MSI (message Signaled-Based interrupts) basically communications are on most Graphics cards limited for some reason of Queuing anf bottlenecks the performance.. I believe they limit it based on stock resources for customers or something.. Don't believe its optimization for it actually slows your performance..