[SOLVED] Is Windows 11 using 3GB VRAM normal? (solution: nvidia broadcast is to blame)

[TheFabled]

EDIT: Nvidia Broadcast installed inside Logitech G HUB (LGHUB) when using Yeti Microphone was the culprit in this case. When installed, Nvidia Broadcast could use as much as 2GB VRAM all on it's own. Not Ram, but VRAM. Or Dedicated Video RAM.
Uninstalling Nvidia Broadcast inside of Logitech G HUB immediately had a huge response, and after a reboot, the problem was solved completely.



Original Post:
Recently I've had warnings in games like Forza Horizon 5 that I'm running out of VRAM. So i decided to check what was going on.

And it turns out Windows 11 with barely any apps running, is using 3GB VRAM in 1440p. I just thought this seemed very high, and was wondering if something might be wrong. I have tried to google this for the past hour, but i can't seem to find the proper answer to this.

I'm running Windows 11 Pro, ASUS RTX 3070 OC, Intel I7-12700K, 64GB DDR4 Ram. I have the Samsung G7 1440p monitor and I'm running it at 240hz.

Enabling/Disabling Shadowplay and G-Sync or using 60Hz, 144Hz instead of 240Hz did nothing. No changes.
Killing explorer.exe did nothing, no changes.

I did find out that Discord could use as much as 400-500MB VRAM if i was in settings menu on that program.
Closing web browsers also frees up some VRAM. But still windows 11 with barely any apps running is using up to 3GB VRAM.

Is this normal?
What can i do to free up a lot of it?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is this normal?
What can i do to free up a lot of it?

Show screenshots.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

How are you determining VRAM usage?

 

[TheFabled]

Show screenshots.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

How are you determining VRAM usage?

I Used several programs. GPU-Z, Windows Taskbar and ASUS GPU TWeak II. All show the same thing.
Anyways, i have been fiddling with this now for some time, and tried to understand what background processes and such exactly is using so much VRAM.

In GPU TWEAK II i can press a button that defragments my video memory, one time i did that i went from 2.5GB usage to 1.4GB.
I have on an average now though, managed to keep Windows at about 2GB usage, still seems little high, but at least it's 1GB less than before.
What should i upload screenshots of exactly?

Is there a monitoring program that exists that show how much VRAM is used by individual processes and applications?

 

[Colif]

My usage on GPU Z with only desktop and a few things running is 400mb vram usage. Adding Firefox increases it by 200. Given I have 8gb I am not concerned. the GPU allocates vram to things that need it. Youtube tabs on Firefox tend to eat a lot.

generally the process that uses the most GPU is DWM.exe. Its the windows desktop manager, sits between applications and GPU

Download Process explorer and run it as admin (it comes from Microsoft so its safe)

the default view is tree structure meaning like your task manager screen, it will show what processes are under each service, but unlike task manager, it shows the ram usage of each part so you can see what is eating your ram. Or in your case, vram... although I am not sure if it can see vram. The usage it might be reporting is system ram.

if you right click the title row and click select columns it lets you add more
choose Process GPU
not entirely sure which of 4 would be most useful, adding any will put them at far right of front page

as far as I know there isn't anyway to see what is requesting DWM to use the GPU.

Windows doesn't need it, its the card using the VRAM.

 

[TheFabled]

Thanks for your help so far
I have found one of the culprits, i rebooted my computer over and over removing one app from startup every time.
I was suspecting Stardock Fences, Elgato Stream Deck or Razer Synapse, but those have minimal impact.

As it turns out, Logitech G HUB uses upwards of 1GB VRAM all on it's own. I have Blue Yeti Microphone and G502 Lightspeed mouse so i use that software for button mapping and such.
But why on earth is G HUB using that much VRAM?

 

[Colif]

I decided to investigate and found out using Task Manager that even right after I start up my PC, 2GB of VRAM is already used by LGHUB.exe and audiodg.exe (which is a Windows process for running audio drivers as far as I understand).
At first I couldn’t understand why these processes used so much memory because NVIDIA Broadcast was disabled in G HUB, but since there was nothing else that could be running on the GPU, I tried to uninstall NVIDIA Broadcast from G HUB, and voila! My VRAM usage was back to normal. I think it’s ridiculous that this feature uses VRAM even when it’s disabled, in fact it would be too much even if I was trying to use it.
The whole point of Broadcast is to be able to livestream games with better sound quality, but due to high VRAM usage it’s impossible to run games and OBS (which of course also uses VRAM) at the same time with this feature enabled!

uninstall NVIDIA Broadcast from G HUB, it’s a video memory hog.

link
given the guy in link had same problems with same game, and has same Blue Yeti... its G hub

 

[TheFabled]

link
given the guy in link had same problems with same game, and has same Blue Yeti... its G hub

God damnit. Yes this has to be it. Because this nvidia broadcast stuff is something i recently installed inside G-HUB for the sole purpose of just trying it out.
And voila, i just uninstalled it and i freed up 1.4GB VRAM! wtf...

GG

 

[TheFabled]

Just one last update on this. In case someone comes across this problem in the future. I will also add this to my original post. A moderator might also want to move this post to where it might fit better for the problem at hand, as Windows 11 is not to be blamed it seems.

I said earlier that i found "one of the culprits". Well now after rebooting for the first time after uninstalling nvidia broadcast, it was the ONLY culprit.
Now i use about 600mb of VRAM right after rebooting, with nvidia broadcast installed it was 2GB+, even as high as 3GB some times.

 

[Colif]

i moved it to PC Gaming as its more likely to help someone there.