Windows 8 Is there someone here that knows what's up with vRAM?

[trog69]

Good evening. I'm an avid PC gamer, and I'm presently using an EVGA gtx 780 card to push the pixels on a 1440p monitor. The GPU has 3gb of vram, and so far only Skyrim has gone past the 2gbs usage of vram, and that's with all the sliders at Ultra and the HD patches installed, as well as a lot of large mods.

Just recently I read a very short blurb about the ASUS ROG dual-760 card, capable of out-performing both AMD and nVidia's top of the line GPUs. But they used 2gb versions of the 760, so only 2gbs of vram will be available for use, and the reviewer said that it would be perfect for single-monitor gaming, but may not work so well for triple-monitors, etc. I also know that when I had a GTX 580 1.5gb GPU installed, I was able to play Skyrim with the HD patches and a few mods and there was never a glitch or stutter. WAT?

I think that I, and a great number of other non-experts in this matter may be confused about how vram is used in the PC for displaying those gorgeous pixels. So I wanted to find out if that's the case, and I wondered if anyone here can either give a short explanation on how vram works, or at least a link to where I can go to learn more about it. With the Ultra-HD monitors being produced now, (I've seen a Romanian review for a 3840x2160, 28" monitor selling for @ 600 Euros, for instance) I would think that the VRAM issue will become more prominent. I mean, is it just when multiple monitors enter the equation that VRAM may be a bottleneck issue, or is it the total usage alone, or...?

Thanks for any help with this issue.

 

[kemical]

This guide helps a little:
http://jacksondunstan.com/articles/2068

The reason why you didn't see a drop off is because your system probably compensated by either using the pagefile or system RAM. If it only has to dip into it every now and again you won't get the stuttering seen when system is really struggling. (IMO)

 

[trog69]

Thanks for the link, kemical. I'm afraid it's a bit over my head, though I did understand that Textures was the biggest hit on vram.

So, I take it that, if you're pushing things already, by having to the system allocate memory usage from the pagefile to conpensate, if it also has to display the added real estate in multiple screens(the added scenery seen on the edges of the outside monitors) that's what causes the issues?

 

[kemical]

Well it will be the resolution taken as a whole not just the edges. It's not like the edges are separate the image is just split over the multiple screens.

 

[trog69]

Why? The picture in multiple screens is exactly the same as on my single monitor, except for the added scenery at the edges, isn't it?

 

[kemical]

Basically yes it's just a larger resolution. To be honest I'm no expert on the subject and I tried googling for something that explained it better than I could. This helps some:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answe...ram-sli-multiple-monitors-larger-screens.html

 

[trog69]

Thank you for the link, kemical. I think my confusion has more to do with me than with the explanations given. As for triple-screen gaming, I certainly can't say anything about it since I've never gamed with that set up. But I was under the impression that you can see more of the content with 3 screens. I'll need to find out more on why multiple screens take up more vram than a single monitor if they're showing the same content-the alternate rendering notwithstanding, since the vram available is the same after taking that into consideration. Perhaps it's because so much content on the sides has to be rendered faster so that it all displays smoothly.

I think I'll have to do more research just so I can frame my questions more pertinently.

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to indulge me in this almost silly endeavor. I don't see myself upgrading from this 1440p for quite a while, so I've plenty of time to sort things out, I think.