1060 6gb maxing out at 3gb

[mouse23004]

First things first!
Build:
Mobo: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 with a fan on the VRMs
RAM: 32gb DDR3 (mix and match) at 1600 Mhz
Processor: Amd FX-6300 Vishera 3.6 Ghz (overclocked to 4.5 Ghz Stable on Prime 95 at 20min)
Graphics: MSI Armor GTX1060 6Gb
PSU: CX600 corsair
OS: Windows 10 Pro (current on updates)
Graphics Driver Version: 391.01

I have been using Unigine Superposition to benchmark my card as I play with overclocking. I do not own 4K monitors or any VR equipment so I have been using the 1080p benchmark modes. I never do well at all on 1080p extreme. It always puts my VRAM usage to 3322Mb of 6144Mb. On 1080p high it uses 3320Mb of 6144Mb. On medium it uses 1299Mb of 6144Mb. Is there a reason that I cant utilize more than 3322Mb of my VRAM? My processor isnt maxing out on any cores and even if my RAM is a little fucky, 32Gb should be more than enough. It only tacks out at about 5Gb of RAM usage (Mobo RAM) while running the benchmark. Is this how my 1060 should behave or am I just missing something? I understand that the card may be holding some RAM back for itself, but half of the RAM avalible?
If you need any other info, please ask! I will provide.

 

[DRagor]

Any program or game uses only that much of VRAM as it needs. The card does not hold up any RAM for itself, just the program does not need more. You already noticed that number changes with quality settings, but the highest effect has resolution. If you were to run that benchmark on higher resolution you would instantly see the amount of VRAM used goes up fast. Most games will not able to use all 6Gb on 1080p, and that's a good news for you - because when game runs out of VRAM, is uses normal RAM instead, which slows it down, causing stuttering and FPS drops.

 

[madmatt30]

+1 what Dragor said

Enable dsr 2x, 4x in nvidia settings & up the resolution in the bench & you'll soon see that vram top well past 5gb

 

[gasaraki]

Since you are using 1080 resolution, it probably will never use 6 GB of video memory. Try MSAA or supersampling if you really want to fill your video memory for some reason...