Am I running out of video memory?

[frozentundra123456]

I am having a problem with slowdown after playing a game for a period of time, usually someting like 30 minutes. What happens is that when I first start playing, the game runs fine at a given setting. After playing a while, the game slows down to the point of unplayability. I am guessing something like half the framerate as when I started playing. It seems to especially happen when I go from one area to another, or from an indoor area to an outdoor area. If I stop the game, return to desktop, and restart the game immediately, it plays fine again for a while and then slows down. I dont think it is overheating since just exiting to desktop and restarting solves the problem for a while. If I lower the graphics even further, it does solve the problem, but I would like to be able to play at the higher settings which work for a while but then slow down. I first noticed the problem in the Dragon Knight Saga game and thought it was a problem with that game itself, but now am noticing it in more and more games, especially Skyrim.

I have a low end system with Vista 32 bit, 9800GT 512mb, and an E4500 at stock. I cant really overclock the CPU because it is an off the shelf system.

Edit: I guess bottom line, is would I benefit from upgrading to a card with 1GB of video ram? I thought I was CPU limited most of the time, but this seems like a graphics card problem. (I have 3 gb of system memory.)

Any ideas what is causing the slowdown and how I might prevent it?

 

[Termie]

Easy way to tell is to run msi afterburner in the background and have both temp and vram monitoring checked off in the settings, along with frames per second. Then you'll know exactly what your card is doing when it slows down.

 

[happy medium]

If I stop the game, return to desktop, and restart the game immediately, it plays fine again for a while and then slows down. I dont think it is overheating since just exiting to desktop and restarting solves the problem for a while. If I lower the graphics even further, it does solve the problem

All this points to overheating^^^^^

 

[frozentundra123456]

All this points to overheating^^^^^

Really, it could cool down this fast? Does seem like overheating though, I agree.
BTW, forgot to post that I am running at 1440 x 900.

 

[happy medium]

Really, it could cool down this fast?

yes in less than a minute.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Thanks for the replies.

Just a quick update. I did download the MSI afterburner and also checked CPU usage in the task master. The graphics card is not overheating, it never goes over 70 deg.
I did not check CPU temps.
I guess my computer just does not have the chops for running on high. On high graphics card utilization was constantly 95-100 percent, and CPU usage near 100 percent too. Still dont know why it runs ok for a while and then slows down, but I have just started playing on medium, where it runs fine with no slowdowns. Too bad, because there is a big jump in image quality from medium to high.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

It might be your CPU overheating.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Running out of system RAM? How much RAM do you have, and what OS?

 

[Puppies04]

It might be your CPU overheating.

This is the next thing I would be looking at, get cretemp or something similar and check it out. If your CPU is throttling down then it would cause the exact symptoms you are talking about.

It would be pretty easy to fix aswell, remove and reseat CPU with new TIM blow any dust out of your fans/heatsinks or fit new case fans

 

[Denithor]

Running out of system RAM? How much RAM do you have, and what OS?

This was my first thought as well. If you have less than 2GB of system RAM on Vista that's your problem. On 32-bit Vista you should be running at least 3GB if you want to game. 4GB would be better, even though you'd only get 3.2-3.5GB in practice.

Since both your CPU and GPU are both pegged at nearly 100% for most of your gaming time they're well-balanced and neither is significantly bottlenecking the other. So a single upgrade isn't going to help: more CPU won't push your GPU any faster and more GPU isn't going to be an advantage because the CPU can't push any more through it.

And for your resolution, 512MB of VRAM should be adequate for most gaming.

Honestly, if your system RAM is adequate/maxed you're really looking at a full upgrade if you want higher performance.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I am running Vista 32 bit with 3gb of ram. I did think about CPU overheating and running out of system ram. I have 1 x 2gb and 1 x 1gb ram modules, supposedly running in dual channel mode. I have thought about upgrading to 2 x 2gb of better quality ram, but dont know if the improvement would be worth it, since I am running only 32 bit.

The computer came with a HD2400 video card, and I have upgraded the vid card a few times, but nothing else. I have pretty much accepted that the system is not amenable to many more upgrades. My main reason for starting the thread was that I was wondering if upgrading to a 1gb memory video card would help. But I appreciate all the other ideas as well. Skyrim is more demanding than I thought it would be actually. I thought I could run it on high without problems since I only use 1440 x 900.