Question Memory leak with 5700 XT ?

[Evan1000]

I have a 5700XT that been having a memory leak I noticed in the last few days.
I have no idea what to do, I've tried everything to find what's causing the leak. I've reduced my res to 800x600, I've reinstalled Radeon, I've picked through every process on task manager I could deleted programs I've installed in the last few days.
My GPU is at 4gb of usage all I'm doing is watching youtube, when boot up the usage sits around 1.5

 

[Evan1000]

is it causing any actual errors? Have you had a out of video memory error at all?

I can see 4 to 6gb is enough for a 1080p game, but its difficult to find figures just for youtube. in most cases that would be tied to the browser you are using.

those are the recommended drivers for the card.

where are you seeing the vram usage? We not getting it mixed up with ram?

I was using watching youtube as a example of average use and not as the problem.
Right now my GPU VRam usage is almost 4 Gigs and all Im doing is tying on this forum

 

[Evan1000]

I might be missed here but use DDU properly I say,

Get DDU from guru3d, unzip contents, safe mode without net, use DDU right panel to choose your GPU so it can uninstall correct GPU drivers, check Settings on GUI of the DDU before doing the process. Enable checkboxes related to NVIDIA/AMD (except setup folders at C drive so you don't redownload driver again) Check the box Vulkan Runtimes as well DON'T TOUCH anything else.

On top Clean Install And Restart, this will also purge corrupted/leftover registry entries related to GPU drivers perhaps that is the problem of yours. Screen will be tiny since no drivers. Use Web Browser to download Autodetect at AMD Drivers site, as for NVIDIA, choose proper lists to download your proper names,categories from NVIDIA website.

REBOOT once any driver installed completely, this is vital!

One thing about AMD Drivers using that method, AMD Adrenalin drivers, during the download and install of the display drivers, AMD installer may prompt you additional drivers pop up on your screen AFTER the GPU driver installed, these are usually already selected for you so install them as well. This may take a while. Reboot again.

One thing about NVIDIA drivers, do not select Geforce Experience/nvidia app during the NVIDIA driver installer unless you have hobby as recording gameplay clips for your games.

Good luck

Thank you for the help, I haven't restarted a PC in safe mode in 20 plus years.

Update: it doesn't seem to have worked.
Maybe a clean install of windows if a new GPU in a few months isn't the answer

 

[Colif]

curious where you are seeing the vram usage?
In adrenaline?

the amount seems too consistent. 4gb in youtube... how many tabs on browser? which browser?

curious how my memory clock speed on gpu is 900 if I run GPU-Z but if I am not, its 80mhz.

 

[Evan1000]

curious where you are seeing the vram usage?
In adrenaline?

the amount seems too consistent. 4gb in youtube... how many tabs on browser? which browser?

curious how my memory clock speed on gpu is 900 if I run GPU-Z but if I am not, its 80mhz.

In task and adrenalin and no chrome doesn't affect the usage
It's between 1.5 to 2.3

 

[Evan1000]

So I'm stuck with a 3gb blob on my my GPU I guess

 

[Colif]

hmm, watching a Youtube video in Firefox only increased my VRAM usage by 100mb, not anywhere near as much as 4gb. Firefox has a slow burning memory leak but that is in ram, not vram.

shame the chrome task manager can't see the GPU

though I assume its GPU process interfaces with it, and the memory mentioned here is the working set (Ram + page file)

I realize problem isn't Chrome, need to start somewhere. I assume you have tried other browsers and its the same in them as well.

There is no way to break down what is interfacing with Desktop Window Manager. You could use process monitor to track the process but it would possibly slow down system given how many instructions I assume it gets daily.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

I doubt it would be a straightforward thing, as I expect the commands passed to dwm.exe might not identify the source, they would be instructions for what display should show. It might work.

 

[Evan1000]

hmm, watching a Youtube video in Firefox only increased my VRAM usage by 100mb, not anywhere near as much as 4gb. Firefox has a slow burning memory leak but that is in ram, not vram.

shame the chrome task manager can't see the GPU

though I assume its GPU process interfaces with it, and the memory mentioned here is the working set (Ram + page file)

I realize problem isn't Chrome, need to start somewhere. I assume you have tried other browsers and its the same in them as well.

There is no way to break down what is interfacing with Desktop Window Manager. You could use process monitor to track the process but it would possibly slow down system given how many instructions I assume it gets daily.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

I doubt it would be a straightforward thing, as I expect the commands passed to dwm.exe might not identify the source, they would be instructions for what display should show. It might work.

The amount of Vram use is now 4.8GB and my web browser is no likely to be the reason as anything else.
The Problem is that we have no clue.
Also it seems to involve the adrenaline somehow, when ever I reinstall the program the goes away until I complete a restart of my PC.

 

[Colif]

Does it actually cause any problems?

I can't find anyone else with the same problem.
I wonder if a clean boot would change anything

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I only suggest it as you say a restart causes it to start again... it made me wonder.
Might not help, was just a thought.

 

[Evan1000]

Does it actually cause any problems?

I can't find anyone else with the same problem.
I wonder if a clean boot would change anything

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I only suggest it as you say a restart causes it to start again... it made me wonder.
Might not help, was just a thought.

It sometime causes problems sometime, mainly in games that need 7GB or more though sometimes whatever is cause this seems to stop using Vram when game need it. In a few month when I get the new gen of GPU I'll report on if the problem persist.

 

[alceryes]

What leads you to believe this is a leak?

If a browser is using 4GBs of VRAM and you launch a game that needs some of that 4GBs back, Windows will automatically adjust the usage of your browser, freeing up memory for your game. If you are having an issue when you hit a bit over 7GBs of VRAM usage you are most likely bumping up against a back pressure mechanism in the GPU drivers - this is 100% by design.
Games handle VRAM usage intelligently. They don't just march up to the card limit and stop. There are dynamic adjustments happening, on the fly, the closer you get to the card's VRAM limit. These include compression of textures, removal (or moving to system RAM) of cached textures you're not currently looking at, etc.

 

[Colif]

mainly in games that need 7GB or more though sometimes whatever is cause this seems to stop using Vram when game need it. In a few month when I get the new gen of GPU I'll report on if the problem persist.

the vram amount is supplemented by system ram, to the amount of half what you have. So it not filling up could mean it was moving things to system ram. Or clearing old cache or other operations to reduce it - as above stated

I can't remember what Win 10 shows for the GPU usage - I did look on my VM but it doesn't have a GPU showing at all in Task manager, so its no use to me. Mums PC only has an IGPU so it only shows shared memory

if its like win 11, the shared GPU memory header shows how much ram it shares, if it needs it

GPUs in the task manager - DirectX Developer Blog

The below posting is from Steve Pronovost, our lead engineer responsible for the GPU scheduler and memory manager. GPUs in the Task Manager We’re excited to introduce support for GPU performance data in the Task Manager. This is one of the features you have often requested, and we listened. The...

devblogs.microsoft.com

If you aren't actually getting Out of Video Memory errors I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd do two things before you go any further.

1. Make sure you have the absolute latest stable (Not Beta) BIOS version for your motherboard installed.

2. Do a clean install of Windows, then install the latest motherboard drivers from the motherboard product page for chipset, audio and any network or Bluetooth onboard adapters and then the latest driver from the AMD website for your graphics card model.

Don't install ANY other programs yet after doing this, and then check to see if the problem is still there. Also, do NOT install any of the motherboard bundled utilities like MSI dragon. It's not necessary. You can, and should, download any and all drivers for your motherboard from the MSI website product page for your board, and installing these motherboard optional utilities like MSI dragon, ASUS Armory crate, etc. usually just cause problems where no problem should exist. VERY often they do.

If the problem is still there after updating the motherboard BIOS, reinstalling Windows, installing the latest motherboard drivers from the motherboard product page and installing the latest AMD product specific drivers from their website, then I'd say there is a problem with the card itself.

Since you're going to move to a new system anyhow though, you might want to just wait until you do that unless doing so would put you outside the warranty period, IF your graphics card IS still under warranty.

 

[Evan1000]

I'd do two things before you go any further.

1. Make sure you have the absolute latest stable (Not Beta) BIOS version for your motherboard installed.

2. Do a clean install of Windows, then install the latest motherboard drivers from the motherboard product page for chipset, audio and any network or Bluetooth onboard adapters and then the latest driver from the AMD website for your graphics card model.

Don't install ANY other programs yet after doing this, and then check to see if the problem is still there. Also, do NOT install any of the motherboard bundled utilities like MSI dragon. It's not necessary. You can, and should, download any and all drivers for your motherboard from the MSI website product page for your board, and installing these motherboard optional utilities like MSI dragon, ASUS Armory crate, etc. usually just cause problems where no problem should exist. VERY often they do.

If the problem is still there after updating the motherboard BIOS, reinstalling Windows, installing the latest motherboard drivers from the motherboard product page and installing the latest AMD product specific drivers from their website, then I'd say there is a problem with the card itself.

Since you're going to move to a new system anyhow though, you might want to just wait until you do that unless doing so would put you outside the warranty period, IF your graphics card IS still under warranty.

Done and done
Still nothing

 

[COLGeek]

And we are back to normal driver behavior.

 

[Colif]

I didn't find any indication that it was normal but it could be I guess. I did look for results...

You could test GPU in another PC and see if it shows same usage. That would remove your PC entirely from picture and reduce the possible causes down to the GPU itself or drivers.

If it is under warranty you might want to do that before you get new PC.

you could run OCCT and test the vram - https://www.ocbase.com/

 

[Darkbreeze]

And we are back to normal driver behavior.

IDK man, maybe, but it's something I've never seen on any normally working system. That's a ton of vram usage for what's actually happening at the time, which isn't much. You may be right, but if it was you'd think we'd have heard about it from other users or in reviews of that card, and I've not seen that. Looked around a bit too, and don't see any indication that it's something that would be normal. For what it's worth, if you've done a clean install of Windows, installed all the motherboard drivers from the board's product page and installed the latest drivers from the AMD website for the card model, and it's still doing it, I'd personally be looking very closely at the possibility of it being a problem with the card.

I've seen this kind of thing happen before and in both cases where I saw it, which I think was on an Nvidia 900 series and an AMD RX 580, it was a problem with the card. If it were me, I think I'd RMA the card and make sure they understand exactly what the problem is during the process. But there's also the possibility of it being something else in the system. Could even be something highly unsuspected like a bent pin on the CPU or a motherboard issue, although if it wasn't doing it previously and only started recently, that's rather doubtful and in fact makes it even more likely that it's the graphics card itself.

If it were drivers, you'd REALLY think we'd be hearing people shouting about it from the rooftops.

 

[COLGeek]

IDK man, maybe, but it's something I've never seen on any normally working system. That's a ton of vram usage for what's actually happening at the time, which isn't much. You may be right, but if it was you'd think we'd have heard about it from other users or in reviews of that card, and I've not seen that. Looked around a bit too, and don't see any indication that it's something that would be normal. For what it's worth, if you've done a clean install of Windows, installed all the motherboard drivers from the board's product page and installed the latest drivers from the AMD website for the card model, and it's still doing it, I'd personally be looking very closely at the possibility of it being a problem with the card.

I've seen this kind of thing happen before and in both cases where I saw it, which I think was on an Nvidia 900 series and an AMD RX 580, it was a problem with the card. If it were me, I think I'd RMA the card and make sure they understand exactly what the problem is during the process. But there's also the possibility of it being something else in the system. Could even be something highly unsuspected like a bent pin on the CPU or a motherboard issue, although if it wasn't doing it previously and only started recently, that's rather doubtful and in fact makes it even more likely that it's the graphics card itself.

If it were drivers, you'd REALLY think we'd be hearing people shouting about it from the rooftops.

That is a possibility (defective GPU), but it seems to be something AMD drivers do. Memory use is certainly dynamic and will get reallocated all the time. I think, in this case, there may be some placebo effect of a problem with performance, because impact doesn't appear to be definitive.

On the couple AMD systems I have now, they start allocating memory very similarly to the OP's use.

Rather than the OP lowering resolution, I would like to see what performance looks like at the display's native resolution. In addition, no overclocking of any sort. Everything stock.