GTX 1070 not using VRam properly

[omoMomo]

Hello everyone!

I just bought a GTX 1070 (Gigabyte G1 Gaming). But it is only using up to 2.7GB of the 8GB VRam while playing The Witcher 3. I am not playing on max settings since it would be laggy. Now im wondering why not use the other 5.3GB left to achieve playable fps at max settings?
high/70fps/2.7 VRam to ultra/144fps/8 VRam

Thanks in advance for tipps or solutions

 

[Barty1884]

What are the rest of your specs?

If your CPU, RAM or Temps are holding you back, the 1070 won't come close to utilizing it's available VRAM.

What resolution are you playing at?

At 1080p, you won't max the 8GB, but should be using more than 2.7GB.

 

[Supernova1138]

VRAM usage varies depending on the game, few titles are going to use all 8GB on a 1070 at 1080p resolution. Even at 4K resolution a lot of games aren't going to need the full 8GB. Turning the settings down can also reduce VRAM consumption. Not using all the VRAM does not mean the GPU isn't working at its full potential, for that you would want to monitor GPU usage.

In any case, you should be able to run Witcher 3 at ultra with a GTX 1070 and get good performance at 1080p or 1440p. If you're running the game at 4K, then you'd want to turn some settings down if you wanted 60FPS.

 

[mlga91]

If you're not running out of VRAM you shouldn't have issues, 2.7GB if VRAM on the witcher 3 seems normal, what CPU do you have?

 

[omoMomo]

Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 4-core @ 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3-1600
MSI Z97-Gaming 5

I am playing on 1440p and I am in no way complaining about 70fps at high. It just bugs me that the card wont use more VRam for better stats. Why do I have to lower my settings or not get to the 144fps my monitor would be able to display instead of the GPU using its full potential.

EDIT: GPU temp wont go over 60; CPU around 65 when ingame

 

[Supernova1138]

Your GPU is running at its full potential. VRAM is simply the amount of storage a GPU has to store textures and other data, not all games are going to use all of it. If you want to run Witcher 3 at 144FPS at 1440p, you really need two 1070s in SLI or maybe a Titan X Pascal in order to do it, Witcher 3 is quite demanding and 1440p 144Hz is a very hard target to achieve on a single GPU right now outside of graphically undemanding titles like Counter Strike: Global Offensive or League of Legends.

 

[omoMomo]

Hm okay. So VRam tells me how much data it can store but the "power" of a GPU lays in other specs?

EDIT: Why even sell GPU's with 8GB of VRam when even Witcher 3 is not using half of it. Are there programms which actually would use all 8 GBs?

 

[Supernova1138]

Yes, try running MSI Afterburner and monitor your GPU usage % while playing. If it's sitting at 99-100% constantly, your GPU is working to its full potential and there isn't anything holding it back, the framerates you get are the best your GPU is capable of in a given game at the currently used settings.

 

[bystander]

Hm okay. So VRam tells me how much data it can store but the "power" of a GPU lays in other specs?

EDIT: Why even sell GPU's with 8GB of VRam when even Witcher 3 is not using half of it. Are there programms which actually would use all 8 GBs?

Every game is different, but few will every get near 8Gb, but you don't want games to desire any more, otherwise performance would tank. There are games that use more than 4Gb of VRAM at 1080p. In 4K, more VRAM is used. They put in 8Gb of VRAM for of a few reasons, 1) in some situations, it can be used, 2) if new hardware has more VRAM, it allows dev's to eventually use more VRAM in future games, and 3) it helps sell GPU's.

VRAM has very little to do with performance. The only time having more VRAM helps, is if the game needs more VRAM to store data, otherwise it has to use system RAM and swap data back and forth, which can hurt performance.

 

[CelicaGT]

Hm okay. So VRam tells me how much data it can store but the "power" of a GPU lays in other specs?

EDIT: Why even sell GPU's with 8GB of VRam when even Witcher 3 is not using half of it. Are there programms which actually would use all 8 GBs?

The "power" of a GPU lays with the chip itself, lots of Cuda cores/Stream processors and what clockspeed they all run at. This of course is also very basic as ROP counts and memory bandwidth factor in. Vram quantity is one factor....but as long as you have lots it doesn't factor in much, hence why they sell 8 gig cards.

 

[mlga91]

Those 8GB come in handy when doing 4k, at 1080p is simply an overkill.