High Video Memory Usage

Fluffy54605

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Jul 20, 2014
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So im playing GTA5 at very high settings, should only be using around 2 gigs of video memory right? GPU-Z is telling me that im using around 3400 mb playing it. No idea why, but this is also making the game lag and having the video driver crash. Any idea why its doing this?


Specs for my PC include:
Intel Core I5-4460 @ 3.2 Ghz
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8 GB DDR3 1866 Ram
Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 SOC 4Gb
ASRock B85M-ITX Mini-ITX Motherboard
NZXT Source 210 White
Raidmax Vampire 80+ Gold 700 Watt Semi-Modular Power Supply
 

SkyMembrane

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Dec 23, 2015
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GPU-Z, Afterburner, Precision X, etc. will all show the memory reserved by the game and not the memory currently being used. They can't read exactly what is being used, because the graphics cards only send information about the reserved memory.

Games with better optimization like The Witcher 3 will show a number closer to the real usage, while games like GTA V will reserve as much memory as it can, even if it doesn't need it.
 

Fluffy54605

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Jul 20, 2014
23
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4,520


Makes sense, but why is my gpu usage around 100% and causing me to have driver crashes?
 

SkyMembrane

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Dec 23, 2015
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Then your graphic settings might be a bit high for the 380. Nvidia also has much better drivers usually, so some games might not run as well as they should. Also, if you overclocked your card, you might have went too far, causing it to crash. If I were you, I would reduce certain graphical options, like anti-aliasing and reflection qualities.
 

Fluffy54605

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Jul 20, 2014
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But I havent overclocked and all settings are default... Also it should be able to handle GTA just fine, and just randomly the gpu usage also hits 100% on the desktop before going back to 0