GTX 970 VRAM allocation bug

Just wanted to add Im in the same boat as everyone else, no way to get past 3550GB of Vram in any game except when I ran Far Cry 4 at DSR 4K with 4xTXAA I was able to hit 4GB.

I also have issues with crashes in Lord of the Fallen and Metro: LL with PhysX set to GPU.

I love this card but man does it come with alot of headaches! I hope they fix some of these issues...

 

well this explains a lot , ive been banging my head of wall for months trying different settings fresh installs etc etc i have stuttering in most games even if i try to lock fps at 60 and use resolution 1080P (shocking) i cant even play far cry 4 on sli as the performance is awfull even though fps are high have been wondering why i only see cards max out @ 3.5gb then came across this thread via nvidea site i am also another user that experiances low gpu usage. I think ill probably end up selling these cards now hopefully i can claw enuff money back to buy new card.

Im no expert but i dont think this is fixable theres a huge thread on nvidea which i think is tied into this ie low gpu usage and thats been ongoing for 3 months with no word.

 

Here's a video that shows how a Titan Black can allocate more than 4GB in Skyrim without stuttering:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Gefor...eos/GTX-Titan-Black-6GB-Video-Review-1111075/

I provoked Crysis 3 to use more than 3.5GB of VRAM, which leads to dramatical fps loss with my 970:
(3135 x 1764 vs. 3620 x 2036):

 

Looks like my card is fully utilizing the 4GB ram when I run the MSI Kombuster stress test. No freezes or lock ups. But the weird thing is that I still get that weird stuttering in games like DA:I, FC4 and AC:U. Where certain times it would be 60FPS smooth and then dips.

 

ugh... is that just a dip or it stays at around 8 fps

 

It turned out that after an app restart, fps are back to normal. But maybe it fails at changing to a higher resolution without app restart due to the same problem many other games struggle to use more than 3.5GB.

 

@Daftshadow
Swap file on or off ?

 

On, using Win 8.1 automatic setting (on SSD).

 

Mine are recently turned off, Win 8.1 Pro x64

I had the same issue with it on, set to 2048mb-4096mb anyways

 

3DMark Vantage:

Pixel Fillrate : 27.56GPixel/s
Texel Fillrate : 126.99GTexel/s

1562mhz GTX970.

 

I ran similar tests with Crysis 3 and had some very interesting results. I ran it at 4k resolution with vsync off, 4X TXAA and most other settings at low. This allowed me to maintain playable framerates of 45-50FPS while utilizing almost 3900MB of vram. There was no stuttering or hitching rather, a smooth gameplay experience (well, as smooth as fluctuating sub-60FPS can be).

Keeping that in mind, I also ran another test with 8X MSAA at an even higher resolution and a little more eye candy enabled. This put my framerates in the 25-30FPS range, still with nearly 3900MB vram utilized. Enter the stutter/hitching and generally unpleasant gameplay experience.

I'm honestly not sure how to draw any conclusions from my tests but I thought they were worth posting.

 

Having same problem as everyone here so added my VRAM usage to Excel online doc. Hope this issue will be fixed via new bios or drivers.

 

I tried one thing on Skyrim (modded).

First I disabled the "DisableDriverMemoryManager" on the ENBLocal.ini
This forces the ENB libraries to manage vram texture caches, instead of being managed by the graphics driver. I got the same result in vram usage as with the option enabled: 3570Mb of vram usage.

I also tried the option AutodetectVideoMemorySize. Got the same vram usage at 3570Mb.

This means that ENB also sees the graphics card as having 3.5Gb, so it will alocate the same amount of vram as the driver would.

I also tried to change the option "ReservedMemorySizeMb". This parameter sets a buffer size for swapping geometry and textures between VRAM and system memory. I tried usining a value of 64 and then a value of 1024 (maximum).
I got the exact same vram usage on both situations.

 

basically a single 970 will manage 3.5gb worth of textures, if you want more leg-room then you need another card like you have.
you managed to push around 3.9gb with your two.
folks with single can push only 3.5

generally speaking.

 

I am having the opposite issue in some games. I can hit 3.8GB in FC4 with a single card, but it won't go over 3.5GB with SLI (or any game for that matter with SLI).

 

ah sry i remember reading your post now.

 

I can only get 3952MB~ vram usage in the MSI Kombustor memory burn test if my Windows pagefile is enabled. If I disable the pagefile it caps at about 3082MB or it crashes with a low memory error. Pagefile size when enabled is only 512MB.

I still have 1.8GB of free ram while running the test (@ 3955MB), don't know why it needs a pagefile to hit 4GB usage. I don't have any of the memory intensive games installed at the moment, so I can't test those. Interestingly, I never got any stutter in DA:I or CS:GO (pagefile disabled). FC4 stuttered since day 1 but that was more of a Ubisoft issue (only played patch 1.4 and 1.5 - then beat it and uninstalled).

 

Well FC4 and AC:U are notorious for stuttering and performance issues on pretty much anything, so might not be greatest objective test of stuttering issues. DA:I I don't get any stuttering at all on my 970 on ultra settings with 4x mfaa (I'm only at 1080p though). I did play it with 2x DSR and no msaa for a bit and while framerate wasn't the greatest I didn't get stuttering.

 

39% difference in the 970 and 980, despite being the same 64ROP spec.

It seems GTX970 would have been better off with a 52ROP spec and 3.5GB vram.