VRAM - How do you not run out?

[skyrimnub]

Howdy. I'm not sure how ya'll do it.  I have 1GB of VRAM on a native 2560x1600 monitor.  If I start a new game with STEP through 2.E "Interface", my VRAM shoots to 1021MB instantly.  If I drop the resolution down to 1920x1200, it is at 890MB.  Pretty much anything I add after that sends it to 1021MB.  How do the 1GB folk not run out of memory?

 

I've installed all the Core modules and started at 1920x1200, 60FPS mostly unless I spin around then it dips into the 40s, sometimes it'll hiccup as it's swapping textures.  Usually not.

 

Sometimes I get red/green triangles flashing all crazy if I face a certain direction but goes away if I reload the game.  Not sure what that's about; I'll probably try to capture a picture or video at some point.

[z929669]

RE: Drivers. I have been running 306.97. I've found this to be the best across multiple games. I'll check out 310.90.

RE: Resolution. My native resolution 2560x1600 is 16:10 ratio, as is 1920x1200, which is what I'm running now to reduce stutter.

RE: GPU-z. The version I have is not reporting 2x. There's a drop-down at the bottom to switch between the two cards. Toggling between the two shows exactly what Precision-X is showing, which shows graphs of both side-by-side. To wit, at 2560x1600 with all recommended Core mod texture resolutions, it remained steady 1017. At 1920x1200 resolution, it also remained steady at 1017 MB.

RE: fNearDistance. It is already 18.000 as per the STEP INI guidance.

 

If you have 2x 1 GB graphics cards in SLI, then GPU-z is reporting the additive VRAM (2 GB) ... so does Precision-X, so does Process Explorer, ... so does (n)...

 

Drop fNearDistance .... further (default is 15)

[TechAngel85]

Not even close, he's got two overclocked desktop GTX 460s, you have a mobile version of the card, which is pretty much in the same tier as the desktop GTS 450.

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/4363/nvidia-geforce-gtx-560m-highend-mobile-graphics-with-optimus

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32586-7.html

My bad, I didn't catch the second card. :P

You can disagree all you want, but using a full screen resolution with proper pixel mapping is the only way to ensure quality of the picture. Otherwise the whole thing will be stretched out, worsening as far as the monitor's scaler abilities go. 2560x1440 with black bars would work, all you need to do is enable 1:1 pixel mapping in the drivers or monitor's settings, which is a piece of cake, really.

I think you missed the part where he had an error trying to manually set the resolution. If you know a way for him to do it, please provide instructions.

RE: Drivers. I have been running 306.97. I've found this to be the best across multiple games. I'll check out 310.90.

I'm running 310.70 without any issues.

 

Let us know how the DDSopt helped and with a full STEP installation (minding the texture resolutions).

[Besidilo]

The scaling settings can be accessed in the Nvidia Control Panel, Display tab, under Adjust desktop size and position.

 

Default setting would be full-screen, you want to change that to No scaling or Aspect ratio.

 

Depending on the monitor, these settings can be accessed in the monitor's settings too (I know Dell's 30" monitors should have it in the OSD).

 

As to why the game doesn't allow for custom resolution, it could be a driver problem, but I suggest changing the desktop resolution to 2560x1440, either through Display properties in Windows or Nvidia Control Panel under the Display tab, Change resolution -> Customise setting.

 

There are also third party software that can help in setting up custom resolution, but the problem is dependent on the drivers used. First step is to check the monitor's OSD and manual for resolution support.

[PCG4m3r]

I must say, I've never tried adjusting those particular NV Control Panel settings before and it actually worked out pretty good for me (i.e. 2560x1440). This is interesting. Like the OP I also have a 30" monitor with native 2560x1600 res (16:10 ratio), but with a single GTX 580 1.5GB card. I'm running on 306.97 drivers.

 

Following Besidilo's tips, here's what I did: In the >>Display >>Change resolution of NV CP I clicked "Customize..." then "Create Custom Resolution". A nice big warning pops up with a disclaimer indicating that proceeding could cause damage to the monitor, blah blah blah. I suspect that's only a concern if raising the resolution higher than the native res (i.e. 2560x1600). In this case I only lowered "Vertical lines" to 1440, tested it and it worked fine. Then in the "Adjust desktop size and position" I set it to the "No scaling" option. Finally I set the res to 2560x1440 in SkyrimPrefs.ini.

 

I get the black bars at the top and bottom like Besidilo mentioned, but 2560x1440 is not too far removed from the native res, so it's not that noticable actually. I'll try this out for a while with a full STEP install to see if I notice an improvement with VRAM usage / FPS.

 

I was able to successfully do a full STEP installation (v2.2.0a) before, often choosing 2048K textures over 1024K, but I did DDSOpt a lot of textures and half-sized Normal Maps in most cases, which I'm sure helped. My problem has always been the significant drop from 60fps down to 30 average and sometimes dipping to 14-15fps in forested areas when moving around. I never measured VRAM much, but with EVGA Precision I always noticed it was above 1500 in most cases. HiAlgoboost helped a lot with the movement and made it tolerable due to no obvious stuttering. Still I'd prefer FPS to stay above 30 at all times.

 

I tried using 1920x1200 res in game settings like the OP, but while FPS was much improved at that res and never any stuttering, my issue had always been the apparent blurriness of everything in the game, for lack of better description. I'm not noticing any blurriness with this 2560x1440 change and it fills the screen pretty nice, so hopefully the reduction will improve VRAM usage and FPS with full STEP.

 

Now if only there was a way to retain 2560x1600 for everything else I do, but have the system (or drivers) automatically adjust to these 2560x1440 settings only when I launch Skyrim. Changing this manually before going in game is not a big deal, but would be nice to have it do it for me. Is there a utility that can do that? I'm guessing not.

 

Thanks for the tips! :)

[TechAngel85]

I suggest the following:

 

a) running lite versions of texture mods (1024x or below), no exceptions

b) optimising all large textures with DDSopt

c) making sure that there's enough swap memory to avoid potential crashes

d) INI tweaking to make sure that RAM is assigned correctly

Examples?

 

I found this in the Geforce guide written by nvidia:

You may notice that several prominent memory and caching tweaks have not been included in this guide, such as those found in guides for previous Bethesda games, e.g. the uInterior Cell Buffer and iPreloadSizeLimit and various threading variables. In experimenting with these in Skyrim I didn't find them to have any practical impact on the actual performance, resource usage or smoothness on my system. At the same time, I can't conclusively disprove their effectiveness across all systems. On balance I believe that altering them is unnecessary.

[Besidilo]

 

I suggest the following:

 

a) running lite versions of texture mods (1024x or below), no exceptions

b) optimising all large textures with DDSopt

c) making sure that there's enough swap memory to avoid potential crashes

d) INI tweaking to make sure that RAM is assigned correctly

Examples?

I found this in the Geforce guide written by nvidia:

You may notice that several prominent memory and caching tweaks have not been included in this guide, such as those found in guides for previous Bethesda games, e.g. the uInterior Cell Buffer and iPreloadSizeLimit and various threading variables. In experimenting with these in Skyrim I didn't find them to have any practical impact on the actual performance, resource usage or smoothness on my system. At the same time, I can't conclusively disprove their effectiveness across all systems. On balance I believe that altering them is unnecessary.

Like I said, no idea if they have any impact on performance and memory management, but I doubt trying them out would cause any issues and it's easy enough to revert back to the original settings.

 

They would be obsolete if you were to use ATTK anyway.

[Besidilo]

I must say, I've never tried adjusting those particular NV Control Panel settings before and it actually worked out pretty good for me (i.e. 2560x1440). This is interesting. Like the OP I also have a 30" monitor with native 2560x1600 res (16:10 ratio), but with a single GTX 580 1.5GB card. I'm running on 306.97 drivers.

 

Following Besidilo's tips, here's what I did: In the >>Display >>Change resolution of NV CP I clicked "Customize..." then "Create Custom Resolution". A nice big warning pops up with a disclaimer indicating that proceeding could cause damage to the monitor, blah blah blah. I suspect that's only a concern if raising the resolution higher than the native res (i.e. 2560x1600). In this case I only lowered "Vertical lines" to 1440, tested it and it worked fine. Then in the "Adjust desktop size and position" I set it to the "No scaling" option. Finally I set the res to 2560x1440 in SkyrimPrefs.ini.

 

I get the black bars at the top and bottom like Besidilo mentioned, but 2560x1440 is not too far removed from the native res, so it's not that noticable actually. I'll try this out for a while with a full STEP install to see if I notice an improvement with VRAM usage / FPS.

 

I was able to successfully do a full STEP installation (v2.2.0a) before, often choosing 2048K textures over 1024K, but I did DDSOpt a lot of textures and half-sized Normal Maps in most cases, which I'm sure helped. My problem has always been the significant drop from 60fps down to 30 average and sometimes dipping to 14-15fps in forested areas when moving around. I never measured VRAM much, but with EVGA Precision I always noticed it was above 1500 in most cases. HiAlgoboost helped a lot with the movement and made it tolerable due to no obvious stuttering. Still I'd prefer FPS to stay above 30 at all times.

 

I tried using 1920x1200 res in game settings like the OP, but while FPS was much improved at that res and never any stuttering, my issue had always been the apparent blurriness of everything in the game, for lack of better description. I'm not noticing any blurriness with this 2560x1440 change and it fills the screen pretty nice, so hopefully the reduction will improve VRAM usage and FPS with full STEP.

 

Now if only there was a way to retain 2560x1600 for everything else I do, but have the system (or drivers) automatically adjust to these 2560x1440 settings only when I launch Skyrim. Changing this manually before going in game is not a big deal, but would be nice to have it do it for me. Is there a utility that can do that? I'm guessing not.

 

Thanks for the tips! :)

I have a few ideas:

 

1) Try manually changing these values in SkyrimPrefs.ini:

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1440

iSize W=2560

2) Try the Borderless Windows mode, either using the Simple Borderless Window mod or ATTK.

 

3) Use an ENB that runs with black bars at the top/bottom, effectively lowering the rendered resolution AFAIK.

 

 

>>>Do this only if you're not afraid of messing up<<<

 

3) There's a program that lets you change the monitor's EDID which will effectively allow you to change the resolution to 2560x1440 in any game. Now this is the solution that allowed my Hazro 27" to run at 2560x1440 @ 72 Hz (for smooth 24p playback), but as a consequence, it might be dangerous if you mess up some values. I wouldn't try it without some feedback from other users so do your research first. If you're interested and the above ideas don't work, I can dig that program out for you.

 

 

EDIT: scrap the above, just set your desktop resolution to 2560x1600 and try switching it in game as it is.

[PCG4m3r]

@Besidilo

 

Thank you so much!

 

After I created that custom resolution in NV CP last night, I changed the resolution directly in my SkyrimPrefs.ini, but thought I needed to leave my desktop res set the same since it was custom. It appears that now because I have the new 2560x1440 Custome Res added, the Skyrim Launcher Settings now show that resolution as an option.

 

So now I'm running my full 2560x1600 desktop for everything else, but when I launch Skyrim I have the reduced 2560x1440 res!!! That's exactly what I wanted! Woot! :D

 

I learn something new every day. :)

[skyrimnub]

Yup, that's how I'm running it now. I still haven't figured out the weird texture problems I get. Like most recently, I walked into a cave. Their was a dead bandit hanging over a pole. There was a tihn line of coming off his head off into the distance. I moved him about and the line followed.

 

@PCG4m3r - How did you go about DDSopt'ing? Did you follow the settings on the STEP wiki?  Nevermind, I found the big-ass thread on DDSopt.  Some assumptions in terminology, but we'll see if I get it.  My first attempt left me with :img images in books and purple forge irons.

[torminater]

That's artifacting of your graphics card. The best would be to clean out your tower and disable all overclocking. Then check if you still get those errors, go back to a vanilla install of skyrim and if you STILL have those issues afterwards your graphics cards might already be on the brink of death.

[Besidilo]

 

 

That's artifacting of your graphics card. The best would be to clean out your tower and disable all overclocking. Then check if you still get those errors go back to a vanilla install of skyrim and if you STILL have those issues afterwards your graphics cards might already be on the brink of death.

Nothing a small voltage bump won't fix. Or underclock, for that matter.

[torminater]

If you say so... I personally went back from overclocking as it became to harsh on my piggy bank.

[Besidilo]

If you say so... I personally went back from overclocking as it became to harsh on my piggy bank.

I've been overclocking various systems for over 10 years now and never had an issue related to it.

[torminater]

I've been overclocking various systems for over 10 years now and never had an issue related to it.

 

Well I've never really been a crack when it comes to hardware... :D

[PCG4m3r]

@Besidilo

 

After living with the 2560x1440 res for a little while, I just noticed a strange graphics glitch in the game that I confirmed was due to the custom resolution. When I switch back to my native res 2560x1600 in game the problem goes away.

 

The problem I noticed, when in 1st person view, weapons and hands had a strange ghosting like outline or glow, following the shape of the object, for lack of better descrription. I especially noticed when viewing over shadows or dark textures, because the outline was very wide and it appeared as if the ghosted outlines had increased brightness or removed shadows wherever the they appeared.  

 

I uploaded a couple images to show you (in album "Skyrim - Glitch with 2560x1440 Res":

https://pcg4m3r.imgur.com/

 

The first image with black bars at the top/bottom is the 2560x1440 res. You can see the problem along the length the arms and around the outside of the hands. The issue is completely gone in the other image (native resolution).

 

Any idea what causes this and how to fix while still using the 2560x1440 res?