DirectX9 Win 10/8.1/8 VRAM 4gb cap error

[AntonioE1778]

Hey guys,

I have been reading for a while now about a problem in Windows 10/8/8.1 concerning DirectX9 games like Skyrim and the fact that Microsoft unintentionally limited VRAM usage to 4gb. Last I heard MS acknowledged that it was an error and was working on a solution to this issue, but I haven't heard anything since then. I was thinking about re-installing and heavily modding Skyrim with new 4k textures and scripty mods but if I'm going to run into a 4gb cap the effort could all be for naught. Does anybody know anything about this issue? Is there a workaround? Has MS fixed it yet? Does the newest ENB improve the situation?


Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Dunlop0078]

Well I haven't modded skyrim in quite a while. But I think thats an issue with skyrim not windows. Skyrim is a 32bit game, it cant address more than 4gb, skyrim special edition can but not the original skyrim. In fact skyrim used to only be able to address 2gb of ram but they made a patch for that a while back. Where did you read that?

 

[aerocool]

Yes, the original Skyrim is limited to 3.8GB of ram+vram, ENB can pass that limit (my Skyrim uses about +6GB ram+vram).

But Windows 10 is too limited to 4GB (ram+vram) for DX9 apps. In exemple: Fallout 4 and Skyrim. It don´t works propertly for me in W10, I installed in other SSD a W7 only for Skyrim and F4 .

Boris, creator of ENB has an app to see the limits of the Windows to operate Vram (ram+vram). It is "VRamSizeTest" for DX9 and DX11. Two independent .exe files.

I don´t know anything about Microsoft patching that issue, I doubt they will do that... But I hope it.

 

[AntonioE1778]

Well I haven't modded skyrim in quite a while. But I think thats an issue with skyrim not windows. Skyrim is a 32bit game, it cant address more than 4gb, skyrim special edition can but not the original skyrim. In fact skyrim used to only be able to address 2gb of ram but they made a patch for that a while back. Where did you read that?

I think you may be confusing RAM and VRAM. As a 32-bit game yes it can only use 3.1gb of regular RAM, but VRAM should not be limited (it isn't in Windows 7). Unfortunately MS made that 4gb limit error when they released Win8 and hasn't fixed it when people started noticing it with Win10. They have said that they would issue a fix but none came. I was wondering if anybody had found a workaround. Doesn't look like it unfortunately...

 

[Dunlop0078]

Well I haven't modded skyrim in quite a while. But I think thats an issue with skyrim not windows. Skyrim is a 32bit game, it cant address more than 4gb, skyrim special edition can but not the original skyrim. In fact skyrim used to only be able to address 2gb of ram but they made a patch for that a while back. Where did you read that?

I think you may be confusing RAM and VRAM. As a 32-bit game yes it can only use 3.1gb of regular RAM, but VRAM should not be limited (it isn't in Windows 7). Unfortunately MS made that 4gb limit error when they released Win8 and hasn't fixed it when people started noticing it with Win10. They have said that they would issue a fix but none came. I was wondering if anybody had found a workaround. Doesn't look like it unfortunately...

Without mods to remove the limit I believe it would be the same on 7 or 10, A 32bit game can address 4gb total including system ram and VRAM, skyrim doesn't use very much system ram even when heavily modded usually less than a gig. The problem with win 10 from my understanding is that even if you are using ENB mods that would allow for more memory usage on older OS's, you are still limited to 4gb with or without the ENB on win 10.

 

[AntonioE1778]

Well I haven't modded skyrim in quite a while. But I think thats an issue with skyrim not windows. Skyrim is a 32bit game, it cant address more than 4gb, skyrim special edition can but not the original skyrim. In fact skyrim used to only be able to address 2gb of ram but they made a patch for that a while back. Where did you read that?

I think you may be confusing RAM and VRAM. As a 32-bit game yes it can only use 3.1gb of regular RAM, but VRAM should not be limited (it isn't in Windows 7). Unfortunately MS made that 4gb limit error when they released Win8 and hasn't fixed it when people started noticing it with Win10. They have said that they would issue a fix but none came. I was wondering if anybody had found a workaround. Doesn't look like it unfortunately...

Without mods to remove the limit I believe it would be the same on 7 or 10, A 32bit game can address 4gb total including system ram and VRAM, skyrim doesn't use very much system ram even when heavily modded usually less than a gig. The problem with win 10 from my understanding is that even if you are using ENB mods that would allow for more memory usage on older OS's, you are still limited to 4gb with or without the ENB on win 10.

You're right! Sorry I misunderstood you! Yes, that's why ENBoost was made, to help Skyrim go beyond its 32-bit limitations. However, MS unintentionally blocked all DX9 apps from using more that 4gb of VRAM. Sucks that they said they were going to work on it but have seemingly abandoned the fix.