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Out of VRAM?

Roflcat

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Roflcat

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Hey all,

 

Let me first say that I'm a huge fan of STEP!  :D  I got into it at the 2.2.0 release.  I did a fresh install for the 2.2.1 version and everything went very smoothly.  However usually after ~1hr of play some of the textures in my game turn blue/purple or black, and eventually it CTDs. Normally I would assume I have too many high-res textures loaded (I went all 2048x), but is that really the case?  I don't get frequent stuttering.  Why does the corruption only build up over time?  Doesn't Skyrim unload resources it doesn't need anymore?  Why didn't this happen on my 2.2.0 based installation?  What can I do to troubleshoot the issue?  

 

Here is my setup and other info:

 

PC specs:

-win 7 64-bit

-i5-3970k @4.2Ghz

-8GB Ram (can't remember the specs of this sorry)

-Gigabyte GTX 670 OC'ed to some degree

-p8z77-v pro mobo

-750W corsair power supply

-The game is running on a HDD but my OS is running on an SSD

 

Game Specs:

 

-1920x1080 @ ultra all draw distances max no FXAA no AA no AF

-filtering LOD bias set to clamp in NVcontrol panel, all other settings default (texture filtering is high quality globally)

-installed S.T.E.P. version 2.2.1 from a clean game + some other mods not included in STEP (see list below), used texture pack combiner + 90% of optional texture mods supported by the combiner, always choosing up to 2048x where possible

-INI is default + S.T.E.P. tweaks

-Running Phinix ENB which uses an SMAA hook and handles AF

 

Mod list:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Realistic Lighting, non-leveled items and the divine punishment mod are disabled everything else is enabled.

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NiennaNenmacil Citizen

NiennaNenmacil

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Since I've last posted I have not had any more instances of black or purple textures, other than when I was actually missing the textures from the game files. I am still crashing however, and the only thing I can tie it to is my VRAM. It's maxed constantly, and it's making the game unstable. The crashes are completely random, or so it seems, and they always happen outdoors in heavily wooded areas. I don't get stuttering however, and I've never gone over 3GB of system RAM used. My RAM is always relatively low when I crash, but it's gone well above and been fine, so I'm fairly confident it's my VRAM.

 

I've installed a few more mods since last time, but nothing graphical. Nothing I would've expected to jack up my VRAM usage. I've even optimised all of my textures and my 2GB are still used up. It runs fine after uninstalling my TPC file. I'm going to stop using the TPC entirely however, because it seems I now need a bit more control over which textures I use. I've got the SRO file, but only the 4K version, and there isn't anywhere to get the lite version from what I understand. Going to try to trim down my texture files and my tree mods to keep myself under my VRAM cap. A new GPU will probably be my next upgrade hehe.

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MontyMM General

MontyMM

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AFAIK, vram itself isn't implicated in causing crashes, just stuttering and lousy performance. Have you increased your ugrids settings above 5?

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NiennaNenmacil Citizen

NiennaNenmacil

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Also no. I had moved Skyrim to my SSD through Steam Mover, but I had a lot of trouble with different programs, including Steam and the Steam Mover, forgetting where Skyrim was. I had to move it back when Steam decided to redownload Skyrim and I had no way of running it.

 

I suppose I can reinstall Steam to my SSD, I was just reluctant to do that because of the limited space there, and thus not being able to have many Steam games installed at once. In any case, when it was on my SSD for that brief period, I didn't seem to notice any significant increase in stability. But that may change now with the adjustments I've made since then.

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MontyMM General

MontyMM

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I did some testing way back when, where I mirrored my whole system onto an SSD and a two regular HDDs (to reduce the risk that a faulty HDD could taint the results.) There was no doubt in my case - the HDDs would CTD the game regularly, especially when travelling through the woods, whereas the SSD was almost entirely stable. I'm not aware of anyone else repeating the experiment, but my suspicion is that sometimes the engine demands a large texture load, and that some HDDs do not respond quickly enough.

 

I'd say it's worth a try, though of course the perennial problem with Skyrim is pinning down which of the many gremlins may be responsible for each crash.

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NiennaNenmacil Citizen

NiennaNenmacil

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Yeah, I'm really not sure what's going on with this. With Extreme STEP, plus a couple extra textures from the TPC (including 4K SRO), and a whole whack of extra gameplay mods, I crash often. Anywhere between 5 mins and 40 mins depending on where I am. I remove the TPC file and I have no signs of instability. I played for 2 hrs 15 mins last night with no crashing and I was around the wooded areas in Falkreath. However, even with the few textures I have, I'm am averaging 1600 MB of VRAM use, and it did max out at 2 GB once, albeit very briefly. I have the creature/armor textures, and a couple of the clutter textures, but almost none of the environment textures and I do not have the official Hi Res DLC enabled. That usage seems high to me.

 

If I get around to it today, I will do a fresh install on my SSD, and I will actually do the benchmarking as I reinstall STEP and my other mods to see where my VRAM is getting used up. It could be that with my experimenting I've got some files leftover somewhere, so things could be different once I clean up the Skyrim folder.

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