[SOLVED] VRAM vs total available graphics memory

[ImCreepr]

I have the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super, which comes with 8192 MB dedicated video memory. It also says that I have 24476 MB of total available graphics memory. I want to install Far Cry 6 with the HD texture pack, which takes 11 GB of VRAM, would I be able to actually run it though?

 

[InvalidError]

The extra 16GB is what the drivers allow the GPU to borrow from system memory. Exceeding the amount of VRAM available will cause the GPU to pull stuff from system memory over PCIe which is much slower and may cause severe performance degradation depending on how much extra stuff ends up going over the bus. If only rarely used assets end up in system memory, the slow-down from exceeding 8GB may not be too bad. If lots of frequently used stuff lands in system memory, it can turn into a slideshow since 3.0x16 is 20X slower than on-board memory on top of ~200ns higher roundtrip latency.

You can still try it. Worst case, you wasted your time downloading the hi-res texture pack.

 

[ImCreepr]

The extra 16GB is what the drivers allow the GPU to borrow from system memory. Exceeding the amount of VRAM available will cause the GPU to pull stuff from system memory over PCIe which is much slower and may cause severe performance degradation depending on how much extra stuff ends up going over the bus. If only rarely used assets end up in system memory, the slow-down from exceeding 8GB may not be too bad. If lots of frequently used stuff lands in system memory, it can turn into a slideshow since 3.0x16 is 20X slower than on-board memory on top of ~200ns higher roundtrip latency.

You can still try it. Worst case, you wasted your time downloading the hi-res texture pack.

Okay, thank you.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I'd argue that if there's a struggle loading in higher resolution textures, you'll just have pop-in. A lot of modern game engines employ something called virtual texture maps, which basically allow the game to only get the textures they need from a large texture map so they don't have to store the entire thing in VRAM.

You can read more about it here: https://computergraphics.stackexchange.com/a/1773

 

[Remeca]

I have the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super, which comes with 8192 MB dedicated video memory. It also says that I have 24476 MB of total available graphics memory. I want to install Far Cry 6 with the HD texture pack, which takes 11 GB of VRAM, would I be able to actually run it though?

You're misunderstanding two different things. The HD texture pack doesn't take 11GB of vram to run, that is how much extra storage space it will use on your HDD/SSD. The HD texture packs will not exceed your 8gb of vram when playing with them enabled.

 

[ImCreepr]

You're misunderstanding two different things. The HD texture pack doesn't take 11GB of vram to run, that is how much extra storage space it will use on your HDD/SSD. The HD texture packs will not exceed your 8gb of vram when playing with them enabled.

It definitely says 11 GB of VRAM. The HD texture pack actually takes up 40 GB of space on a HDD/SSD.

 

[Remeca]

It definitely says 11 GB of VRAM. The HD texture pack actually takes up 40 GB of space on a HDD/SSD.

That just seemed like an odd number to me. This is the first time I've seen a game require more than 8GB vram. I found where it says 16GB VRAM required, 37GB or so to download. That seems absurd to me. Guess I'm too far behind the times.

 

[DSzymborski]

A lot of people have been using the HD Texture Pack and are reporting RAM allocation -- not even RAM usage, just allocation -- well under that VRAM and no problems. And if you're using system RAM instead of VRAM, you'll definitely know it. Just try it and see for yourself.

 

[ImCreepr]

That just seemed like an odd number to me. This is the first time I've seen a game require more than 8GB vram. I found where it says 16GB VRAM required, 37GB or so to download. That seems absurd to me. Guess I'm too far behind the times.

The amount of VRAM that's required was very surprising to me too. I've never seen a game that requires more than 8GB OF VRAM either, except like modded skyrim.