Assassin's Creed Unity

you will run out of gpu power before you run out of Vram

 

*sigh*

Have you looked at any of the screenies ive posted? Vram completely full, but gpu load is always well below 100%....

 

stop falling for the hype and BS of poor optimisation.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTBusekcd54

Dead Kings, cinematic trailer whatever that means.
(I haven't watched it myself yet, pre-rendered? )

 

The VRAM usage can easily be explained in that most of it is being used as cache. From what I understand, it doesn't really take much VRAM to buffer an actual frame, so most of it is being used as a caching mechanism..

 

If it was purely acting as a cache, then surely it wouldnt cause stutter, if you only have 2gb vram? But it does on 2gb vram gpu's, like my GF's 680 sli.

 

The shuffling that I spoke of earlier is likely what causes the stutter. Specifically, when data is swapped from system memory to VRAM, or from SSD/HDD to system memory.

That's the advantage of a large VRAM/system memory pool. When you have a lot of VRAM/system memory, there is less swapping to main memory/main storage that will take place which means less pauses and stutters..

The overhead caused by shuffling can be affected by several factors, such as how fast your system memory is and the latency of the memory controller, whether you're using an SSD/HDD, and also the type of interconnect between the GPU and the other components..

An interesting experiment would be to reduce the PCI-e slot speed from 16x to 4x to see how it impacts the stuttering. Frame rate should definitely be affected, but I'm curious to see how stuttering would be affected as well.

 

Well thats what i mean - if it was purely acting as a cache, then it should be able to reduce that cache size, without it causing a significant amount of stuttering. Alot of people (not necessarily trustworthy ones) say that you cant go by the vram consumed, cause the games cache as much as possible, Thus can easily do with less vram - but this is clearly not the case

 

I didn't say it was acting purely as cache. Just that most of it was.

A card with 2GB of cache will swap data more to system memory than a card with 4GB. It's the frequent swapping that is likely causing the stuttering..

Just think. A card with 2GB of VRAM has LESS memory than what is found in the PS4 and Xbox One. In the PS4, developers can currently use about 5GB of RAM for games. So out of that, I'd approximate that 3GB is used for GPU resources, and 2GB for CPU.

So you really need a card with at least 3GB of VRAM to have parity with the PS4 and Xbox One in terms of frame buffer size.

Plus, AC Unity being open world and seamless magnifies the issue because there are very little restrictions on where the character can go, unlike in a linear game where resource management is much easier.

As for whether games will cache as much as possible, it's dependent on the developer. For example, I once saw Bioshock Infinite, a last gen UE3 game use 3.5GB of VRAM on my system. How could a game like that which has last gen graphics, tie up so much VRAM?

Because it's caching data..

However, Crysis 3 was different. It caps itself at about 2.3GB of VRAM no matter what from my experience, with the game running at 1440p max settings.. Similarly, I haven't seen DAI go over 3GB of VRAM..

Whereas Watch Dogs will hit 3.5GB and so will AC Unity..

 

Well as you point out yourself, the vram consumption doesnt always correspond with the visuals... the vanishing of ethan carter is open worls aswell, and uses about 1gb vram with super sharp textures... granted, the game is alot less complex, but the difference is still staggering.

But aside of caching etc, i really dont get how the game can use 2.2gb vram, while looking like this
http://i.imgur.com/tt1hXcA.jpg

 

just saying
he has 80% more gpu horse power than you do if the sig's are correct and maybe 2 x with the cpu difference. [I have maybe 80% more]


and for the record when I first set up acu my vram was sitting @ 30xx mb [maxed] and the game did slow down/stutter in places , so I turned down setting to get to 2600-2800mb and I had no more stutters in the same areas on patch 1.1.
still running the same settings with 1.4 no issues but have not played that much.

 

Is there any way to disable Godrays in this game? Most of the time the lighting is beautiful but if you look in the direction of the sun it's almost blindingly bright and washes out your entire view.

 

The sig is correct

And yeah, the stuttering is much less with latest patches, BUT vram is still maxed out, but gpu usage isnt.

http://i.imgur.com/Y9aXdGi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IqM5nFM.jpg

 

First why do you argue about gpu usage is no more than 80% while you are using Vsync(or at least fps limit @60) ? leave it OFF and you will see that it may reach 99% while moving around.
Second I know that you know when Vram is on limit you will start to see stuttering,just find some setting that they won't use all Vram(as GPU already said).

 

Lol, why do you argue that i HAVE to run my game with vsync off? sure i can make it hit 99% usage by turning off vsync - but the point was, that while playing with my actual game setting (which includes vsync at 59.9 fps, as thats the hz my monitor is running at), i hit vram limit way before gpu power limit.

The only way to use less vram in this game, is by using low quality texture setting, which makes the game look terribad... then id rather have slight stutter.

 

Sorry man, I replied due to that you "mix" gpu power usage with Vram usage.Why do you think that using 3.5 GB of Vram has something to do with how much gpu power game's need..?
Using all ultra I've seen more than 3.67gb at 1840x1150 (dsr,16:10,native 1680x1050) with sometimes less than 65% of gpu's usage(v-sync ofc).

 

Look at what i replied to in the first place - a smart person who claimed, that you will ALWAYS run out of gpu power, before vram.

But yeah, my experience is the same as yours.

 

Nuh,this is a common mistaken rumor..always the same thing,never understood(and I won't) why some people complain/argue about it. ITS NOT TRUE that before you fill max Vram you will run out of power...YES sometimes this will happen but not always.

 

So guys what's the general consensus about the 970 performance [1080p] with Unity? GameGPU have a bench with 45 FPS - 60 FPS for a 970, PCGH ~45FPS, anandtech 38FPS. Why the hell is there so much difference from one site to another?

I5 750 stock
GTX 970
16GB Ram

Maxed Out with PCSS/HBAO+ [All the nvidia stuff] and FXAA [1080p], vSync enabled
Free roam in Paris:
38 FPS [Large crowded area] - 45 FPS while walking
50 FPS - 60 FPS on the rooftop
60 FPS Indoors
With TXAA I have stable 30 FPS while walking.

The 750 is holding me back or these number are fine with Unity? [95% GPU load in large crowded areas, 99% GPU load in general]
To be clear i'm fine with this performance, after all it looks stunning. But i want to compare the 750 with the newest Ivi Bridge

 

95% gpu usage indicates that something is bottlenecking your gpu, which is most likely your cpu