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970 GTX disable slower memory

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ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
I was wondering if this was possible yet? I get random painting when I play some games, and I feel like it might be related to the GPU load without any scientific proof. It only starts after 2-3 hours of gaming. It also eventually goes away.
 
ViviTheMage said:
I was wondering if this was possible yet? I get random painting when I play some games, and I feel like it might be related to the GPU load without any scientific proof. It only starts after 2-3 hours of gaming. It also eventually goes away.
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It's not unusual for games to become unstable if played too long, because of bugs that leak system memory and Windows resources, as well as C/C++ issues like "heap fragmentation" where the unused memory gets broken up into smaller pieces and eventually asking for a big piece of RAM fails.

Next time this happens, exit the game then restart it immediately. Do you still get the graphics glitches?
 
if you disabled the slower memory, it'd just use system memory insteas, which is even slower
 
lehtv said:
if you disabled the slower memory, it'd just use system memory insteas, which is even slower
Click to expand...

Better yet, is there a way I can check GPU memory usage?

I still get the problem after restarting the game. I also killed off anything using memory. I also have 32GB of memory, so I can't imagine CSGO (problem game at the time) was causing it, haha.
 
lehtv said:
if you disabled the slower memory, it'd just use system memory insteas, which is even slower
Click to expand...
This is not an accurate representation of how a game engine works. Memory usage will only spill into system RAM if the game engine has no choice. Put another way, a 3GB card can be smoother than a 3.5+0.5 card because the engine is scaling to use available video RAM. When the last 0.5 block of vid RAM is horribly slow the game engine doesn't know this, so the game will potentially hitch and pause.

The short version is segmented memory is a bad piece of architecture and should never be used.
 
AnandThenMan said:
This is not an accurate representation of how a game engine works. Memory usage will only spill into system RAM if the game engine has no choice. Put another way, a 3GB card can be smoother than a 3.5+0.5 card because the engine is scaling to use available video RAM. When the last 0.5 block of vid RAM is horribly slow the game engine doesn't know this, so the game will potentially hitch and pause.

The short version is segmented memory is a bad piece of architecture and should never be used.
Click to expand...

I think we know this now, but is there some software I can run that will spit out current GPU memory utilization so I can see if that is indeed the issue?
 
AnandThenMan said:
This is not an accurate representation of how a game engine works. Memory usage will only spill into system RAM if the game engine has no choice. Put another way, a 3GB card can be smoother than a 3.5+0.5 card because the engine is scaling to use available video RAM. When the last 0.5 block of vid RAM is horribly slow the game engine doesn't know this, so the game will potentially hitch and pause.

The short version is segmented memory is a bad piece of architecture and should never be used.
Click to expand...

But that's why the card is usually stuck at 3.5GB. So that it doesn't use that .5 GB unless it absolutely has to.
 
ViviTheMage said:
I was wondering if this was possible yet? I get random painting when I play some games, and I feel like it might be related to the GPU load without any scientific proof. It only starts after 2-3 hours of gaming. It also eventually goes away.
Click to expand...

Can you explain what you mean by "random painting"? if you're getting graphical artifacts/corruption, then something's wrong with your card or drivers.
 
Dankk said:
Can you explain what you mean by "random painting"? if you're getting graphical artifacts/corruption, then something's wrong with your card or drivers.
Click to expand...

basically it slows down, almost as if it's painting each line.... just very quickly. Maybe it's what people call screen tearing?
 
AnandThenMan said:
This is not an accurate representation of how a game engine works. Memory usage will only spill into system RAM if the game engine has no choice. Put another way, a 3GB card can be smoother than a 3.5+0.5 card because the engine is scaling to use available video RAM. When the last 0.5 block of vid RAM is horribly slow the game engine doesn't know this, so the game will potentially hitch and pause.

The short version is segmented memory is a bad piece of architecture and should never be used.
Click to expand...

The 970s segmented memory in my experience works perfectly fine in anything except Shadow of Mordor (a game where the developer recommends 6 GB for ultra textures). While the drivers try to keep it all at 3.5 GB, on some games it happily goes slightly over without causing any issues.

While Nvidia should've been honest about it, in my experience so far it has not been a real issue in any way.

CS:GO, unless it has memory leaks or you play at 4K+ with all the antialiasing you can find, will most likely never hit even 3 GB VRAM. I'd look at the your CPU/GPU temps instead if the problem manifests after extended play.
 
AnandThenMan said:
This is not an accurate representation of how a game engine works. Memory usage will only spill into system RAM if the game engine has no choice. Put another way, a 3GB card can be smoother than a 3.5+0.5 card because the engine is scaling to use available video RAM. When the last 0.5 block of vid RAM is horribly slow the game engine doesn't know this, so the game will potentially hitch and pause.

The short version is segmented memory is a bad piece of architecture and should never be used.
Click to expand...

While all of this is true, there's a little more to the situation. The game actually sees the 970 as a 3.5GB card until it needs more. I saw a video about the situation, and the results strongly imply that this is the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6k55epUBCE

It's still stupid, but it definitely explains why it wasn't noticed right away.
 
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Regardless of how the 970 handles memory requests / memory budgeting, it sounds like the OPs issue is not related to the 970's memory -- graphics corruptions ?? Is your card oc'd or overheating ? Do other games give you corruption? Can you explain more.
 
fixbsod said:
Regardless of how the 970 handles memory requests / memory budgeting, it sounds like the OPs issue is not related to the 970's memory -- graphics corruptions ?? Is your card oc'd or overheating ? Do other games give you corruption? Can you explain more.
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Yeah, this sounds like it's unrelated to the 970 memory thing, and more like there's a deeper problem with OP's computer or something wrong with the software he's using.

ViviTheMage said:
basically it slows down, almost as if it's painting each line.... just very quickly. Maybe it's what people call screen tearing?
Click to expand...

So basically when you play a game, the framerate gets gradually worse and worse after a couple hours?

If it's happening with multiple different games, I would try using DDU to wipe your old graphics drivers and do a clean re-install of the newest ones.

Maybe while playing your games, have Windows Task Manager open, and when the slowdowns begin, check to see if there's any background programs or processes that are pegging your CPU usage or memory usage. A rogue program hogging all of your computing power could be the source of the issue.
 
Haha, I've done the basics, which is why I am wondering if I can watch GPU load, so i'll try GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner and see if that picks it out. If not, i'll troubleshoot something else.

When the issue starts, I close everything I have open that isn't the game, leave TM up, and watched processor/memory usage and it's acceptable. IE 30% cpu usage, 28GB or so of memory free, etc.

It has only recently started, but I have yet to have a lot of 3+ hour game sessions since getting my new computer up a few months ago. Granted, the first few weeks were 2 days LANs and the issue didn't come up. I am going to guess it's CSGO's fault.

If I get some time, i'll try another game, and stare at GPUZ or MSI afterburner.
 
No offense - but it seems to me you have "some" problem which could be because of 1000s of reasons and you're randomly guessing a thing "what it could be"..but in this case the 3.5GB memory issue with the GTX970 is very likely unrelated.

Even IN those scenarios where the 3.5GB memory problem would appear it's more a subtle thing, micro stutters etc. and not necessarily noticed by most people. (It obviously took some time until this came even to light...)

I am just saying this since recently I come across a lot of threads on various forums where people have "some kind of problem" and then a pre-conceived idea what the cause of it allegedly would be...except that there is often nothing backing those claims.

Like those people who write in forums that they have stutters and whatever issues because of throttling etc. ..and worse, people who provide others with some "solution" based on a problem which doesn't even exist.

As for your problem...difficult to say WHAT causes it. Need more info, what games, where and when it happens etc. and your exact system configuration, OS, board etc., PSU...
 
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ViviTheMage said:
Haha, I've done the basics, which is why I am wondering if I can watch GPU load, so i'll try GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner and see if that picks it out. If not, i'll troubleshoot something else.

When the issue starts, I close everything I have open that isn't the game, leave TM up, and watched processor/memory usage and it's acceptable. IE 30% cpu usage, 28GB or so of memory free, etc.

It has only recently started, but I have yet to have a lot of 3+ hour game sessions since getting my new computer up a few months ago. Granted, the first few weeks were 2 days LANs and the issue didn't come up. I am going to guess it's CSGO's fault.

If I get some time, i'll try another game, and stare at GPUZ or MSI afterburner.
Click to expand...

check MSI AB or GPU-Z , make sure your gpu usage is above 55% or so at least .
What can happen on older games is they don't load the GPU enough and some have issues where GPU down clocks to low clocks and can make game feel slow .
So check clocks for steady rate and decent amount with high GPU% .

If you do find usage down and your fps are high , add 2x, 4x AA to get load up .
 
flexy said:
No offense - but it seems to me you have "some" problem which could be because of 1000s of reasons and you're randomly guessing a thing "what it could be"..but in this case the 3.5GB memory issue with the GTX970 is very likely unrelated.
Click to expand...


Of course I am guessing at this point. No errors are being thrown, I just know the symptom, ha. I'll keep working with it when I get a chance.
 
I am pretty sure the nvidia drivers deal with the extra .5G differently, you don't need to manually disable it. I have yet to see a review of games where anything can be proved about it slowing down the card - it's just a lot of fanboy hype fanned by lovers of the red camp so far.
 
Dribble said:
I am pretty sure the nvidia drivers deal with the extra .5G differently, you don't need to manually disable it. I have yet to see a review of games where anything can be proved about it slowing down the card - it's just a lot of fanboy hype fanned by lovers of the red camp so far.
Click to expand...

You're giving the red camp too much credit. It was disruptive enough for me to return my 970 and I blame only the green camp for that.
 
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