GTX 680 2gb 4gb benchtest with Skyrim extremly modded

[aleksanderdev]

Hi.
Just thought I'd share my latest benchmarking with my latest modded skyrim.

(Short Version)
GTX 680 4gb crashed duo to insufficent memory!
Meaning 4gb isnt enough for skyrim xD
Look at the graph below and you'll see that skyrim uses 4gb vram for a few min, before it crashes.
Cant wait to get a second GTX 680 4GB to see if that will suffice. If not my next option will be the Vapor X 7970 6gb, in sli.

(Longer Version)

I'v been playing skyrim on a GTX 680 2gb and it crashes to desktop (CTD) occasionally.
I ran msi Afterburner to see how much Vram was being used it and was 1.8-2GB.
Each time the game crashed it had been using 2gb for a minut or so.

Now i just got my 4gb GTX 680, and did the same test now.
From the beginning it ran fine without ctd's until i came out of the cave from Helgen, and walked towards Riverwood.
Looking at the graph below you can clearly see where i walked out from the cave and into the open wastes.
As the gpu uses all its 4gb vram for a few min before crashing.

For skyrim modders.
Skyrim ini has not been tweaked as hell, as this gives little eye candy vs the huge performance cost.
AA 8
AF 16
Shadows 2k
Ugrids 5
Every texture has been replaced with 4 and 2k res.
Bethesda's hige res dlc.
SRO
HD2K
SHD
+ 67 other texture mods.

 

[ASHISH65]

Hmm..shocking even 4gb is not enough for skyrim+mods!

 

[helz IT]

With all the same .ini tweaks, plus shadows on all objects, high detail and shadows on trees, shadows and high detail on grass, all 2k and 4k textures, Bethesda's texture pack, a high res armor pack, and a bunch of other mods, the highest I've seen it go is 2.3gb on my 7970.

I don't know what I have ugrids set to though, maybe that makes a big difference?

 

[revro]

how much fps do you get when 4gb vram usage is experienced? is the 256bit bus enough for you monitor? what monitor do you use and what resolution?

thank you
revro

 

[swifty_morgan]

must be something wrong with your set up if it crashes.

 

[maestro0428]

You will not be able to use more than 4GB gpu memory in SLI, even with 2* 4GB cards. They share memory, meaning both gpus only see 4GB, not 8.

 

[aleksanderdev]

Hi. Just got back home.

I know i wont get 8 gb. But with sli they should share the load right so if skyrim uses 4gb, both will be at 2gb. So if both loads 3gb its a total of 6.

Its not something wrong with my setup, its just that whene gpu reaches its max vram and the game requires even more, it just wont work and game will crash.

I havent tested the bandwhich yet, with the gtx 680 4gb, i get playable but not good frames. 25-35. But i want to set higer quality settings and for that i need sli.

I have a low ugrid setting, so its not it. You got lots of hige res textures, but even if a mod says its 4k (the big mods) It dos contain some lower textures aswell. Iv compared every singel texture from all the texture packs, and taken the best and mixed em togheter.
Aswell as with meshes.

Ii also got 4k on water, which makes quit the huge impact on vram. Ultra vanilla setting for skyrim water is 1024k.
+ AA 8
and forced AF 16 trough nvidia.

I will do some more tests and post some more benchmarks later or tomorrow.

 

[hero1]

If what you are saying is true and you get poor frames then I would wait for a better GPU with wider bus and more vRAM or just got and grab the 6GB Sapphire Vapor X and rest ease.

 

[cookybiscuit]

Seems like something that would only happen if you really were intentionally gunning for it, I've just about hit the 2GB limit on my card with 50 mods.

 

[swifty_morgan]

seems fruitless............... anyway, enable adaptive vsync.

 

[aleksanderdev]

To skyrim modders, dosn't matter if you got 500 mods, that adds a new house or a new landscape somewhere.
Mods that increas vram are mods that adds new stuff within the ugrid load area. (The area the game engine loads around you)
Texture mods, mods that adds bugs, butterflies, birds, lush trees and grass etc.

Note: I have yet to enable many settings and mods that will increas the vram even more. Like lush trees/grass, bugs/butterflies and ugrid.
I will lower the AA and AF which most likely will lower the vram to around 3gb, so that i may install mods tomorrow and see if i can reach the 4gb agian without using aa af.

 

[aleksanderdev]

Seems like something that would only happen if you really were intentionally gunning for it, I've just about hit the 2GB limit on my card with 50 mods.

A second GTX 680 will be enough i hope.

 

[AbdullahG]

Could it be conflicting mods? I'm running a heavily modded Skyrim as well, with at least 2K textures for everything in Skyrim, lighting mods, etc. No ENBs though. I max out the 1.28GB of VRAM on my GTX 470 @ 1080p max settings. I get crashes after about 2 hours. Perhaps the mods are not ordered properly. Also, ugrid modifications could corrupt saves. That could also be a culprit.

Nexusmods is a good place to start if you want a lot more help, as the site is primary dedicated to mods.

 

[DarkSable]

I know i wont get 8 gb. But with sli they should share the load right so if skyrim uses 4gb, both will be at 2gb. So if both loads 3gb its a total of 6.

No, it doesn't work that way - if it did, you'd get 8GB usable VRAM. The reason you only get 4GB usable is because each card has to store all data individually.

There will be NO difference in results by adding another 4GB of VRAM in SLI.

 

[aleksanderdev]

Okey i see😛 Thank you for the info ^^

 

[aleksanderdev]

Could it be conflicting mods? I'm running a heavily modded Skyrim as well, with at least 2K textures for everything in Skyrim, lighting mods, etc. No ENBs though. I max out the 1.28GB of VRAM on my GTX 470 @ 1080p max settings. I get crashes after about 2 hours. Perhaps the mods are not ordered properly. Also, ugrid modifications could corrupt saves. That could also be a culprit.

Nexusmods is a good place to start if you want a lot more help, as the site is primary dedicated to mods.

The reason it crashes it simply becuse the GPU dosnt have enough Vram.
After running at 4gb for a while it will crash. Hopefully a second gtx 680 will help even though it dosnt give any more vram, i hope it might help take of some load and perhaps lower the need for stored vram.

Its a big difference between 2 and 4k texture and the difference in the meshes. Iv collected compared the most detailed and smooth meshes and the higest quality 4k text's.
As well as ENB on top.

Iv heard the New GTX titan will come out soon with 6gb. Perhaps ill wait for it to launch and get that one if its equal to a gtx 680 sli or better.

 

[aleksanderdev]

Oh god dam xD
I forgot to tell you the most importent part of all

Im running 5760x1080 -.-
Huge difference towards 1920x1080 haha 😛
Sorry for not telling, weird no one asked though 😀

 

[aleksanderdev]

Highly doubt that the crashes are directly VRAM related as I've used far crazier Skyrim setups on a 3GB 7970 and crashes have always been driver related and not vram related (read: driver updates fixed the crashes).

Modded skyrim will fill up however much vram you have, but this thread/example doesn't in any way show that you need more than a 2GB card for modded skyrim. There are a lot of reasons it could have been giving you CTDs.

You say you modded skyrim far crazier. As i said above only mods that adds or effects what loads within the ugrids engine load radius impacts vram so otherm mods dosnt count.
And you cant say you modded skyrim more crazier than i have now as this is as hige as you can take skyrim with texture and graphical mods.
Now you may have had much higer ini settings, ugrids 13, which is max but unstable. 16k shadow resolution with much further shadow distance.
But im playing on 5760x1080 so i cant go that hige, my cpu i7 3770k dosnt have the power, as shadows in skyrim are worked mostly by the cpu.

As for vram or mod crashing the game.
Iv ran with 1920x1080 no problem at all, 100% stable no crash ever in 10 houres +.
And vram has in this periode never reached its max.

Once at 5760x1080, games reaches 4gb vram. Works for a few min, than bang and crash.

I have only modded skyrim with texture and graphical moods, no other mods cuses this crash.
Iv also ran papyrus logs.

 

[AbdullahG]

Oh god dam xD
I forgot to tell you the most importent part of all

Im running 5760x1080 -.-
Huge difference towards 1920x1080 haha 😛
Sorry for not telling, weird no one asked though 😀

Many of my textures run at 4K (rocks, armor, sky, etc.). Running 2K is just the bare minimum for me.
At your resolution, I can see why the game crashes quickly lol. I remember seeing some software on Nexus for texture optimization and it supposedly reduces VRAM usage. I doubt it's credibility, but many seem to have positive results. Perhaps you should consider it, but I cannot guarantee it'll really help.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801

 

[aleksanderdev]

I'll change the ini settings to the point where skyrim utilizes 1.7-1.9 Vram at max and play it there.
The gtx 680 4GB, performce better than the 2gb version at 5760x1080.

Think that skyrim would max out the new gtx titanium with 6gb?

If it wasn't for my Nvidia vision2 3D monitor, i would have goten the 6gb vapor-x 7970 in sli.
But i like the 3d of nvidia and its controll panel, would be weird to change to amd.
3D skyrim rocks.
But i think i will need a future GPU with 10gb in order to run skyrim as i'd like to do.

 

[AbdullahG]

Wait, you're running Skyrim in 3D as well at your resolution?

 

[aleksanderdev]

Hehe are you insain xD No chanse of doing that😛
With this settings and modded skyrim.

I play what I like to call Semi 3d 😛
(with a lot lower settings)
A much better solution than surround 3d.
2x2D monitors on left and right side
and 1 3D monitor in the middel running 3d.
Now this takes a shitload of work of the gpu and cpu as its only 1 monitor that needs dobbel rendring. Making it equal to 4 screens not 6 as you would have to with 3 3d Monitors.
Its a hell lot cheaper than buying 3 3d monitors.
And the best part is that you dont even notice that the sides aren't 3d as you never look directly at theme ^^

 

[iceclock]

stop using ultra mods, thats ur problem right there.

 

[aleksanderdev]

You do not know that vram is what caused your crashes. You have a guess and that's it. You would need to have both cards and do more thorough testing to know it's vram.

I have a skyrim install with HUNDREDS of texture and mesh mods, a higher than ultra (2x ultra resolution on most everything) ini file with ugrids = 11. I also have a skyrim install with roughly what you are describing - a slightly tweaked ugrids=5 ini file and a couple dozen of the most important texture/graphics mods etc.

In both cases, my vram use sits completely maxed out at 3072 MB. I'm quite sure both of them would use a lot more vram than I have. However, neither one of them is unstable due to a lack of vram.

It could have been driver problems, a mod conflict, a save game corruption, any number of things. You may be right that it was a vram issue, but your experience is not at all sufficient to prove such a thing, and my experience (and that of others) is that Skyrim will run stably even when it would love to fill up more vram than it actually has.

And you play with 5760x1080 resolution?

Besides i have done tests on both the 2gb and 4gb its the same thing.
If Vram maxes out i got about 1 til 2 min before the game will crash, depending on the area.
It happends everytime, I got vram monitoring on my screen aswell as it being loged.
So its not that hard to reccognize the pattern.

Now Im sure its the vram becuse if i lower my AA (huge toll on the Vram), skyrim dosnt use more than 3,5 gb. And I never crash to desktop

Now what i haven't tested yet, is if the game crashes with maxed vram on 1920x1080.
As you said you skyrim maxes out 3gb and you dont get crashes.
Than its ither that your skyrim dosnt use more than 3 just at the limit, which isnt likley but still possible.
Or 1920x1080 or lower resolution dosnt crash whene vram is maxed out.

 

[aleksanderdev]

stop using ultra mods, thats ur problem right there.

If you call hige texture mods for ultra mods than yes That is my problem.
Without all the texture mods vram would never go above 2gb and I could play 50 houres strait with no crash😛

But thats not the thing i want 😛
I want to find out how much vram uses and to tell others that skyrim uses an insain ammount if crashes duo to vram, (Atleast what my research has led to me belive)