Overclock VRAM to drop memory usage?

[Smoblikat]

The title isnt worded properly so heres what im asking, in skyrim with my high res texture packs and the AA I run my VRAM is pegged at 100% all the time (I run max AA and AF, plus high res texture packs) but both my cards are completely stock clocked, so im wondering if I overclock my memory will it make for less of a bottleneck. I experience lag in many areas that have a lot of stuff going on and I think its due to VRAM usage. Currently I have AA and AF off and im using 1200 out of 1280mb of memory and im rocking at 60/fps.

 

[Jaydip]

If you are Vram limited overclocking your memory won't help but if you are bandwidth constrained then it will surely help.

 

[Smoblikat]

I figured that was the case, but I wanted to check. Thanks.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

The stuttering and low FPS are caused by VRAM having to swap out texture data back to the hard drive because there isn't enough to room to store all the high resolution textures plus the other VRAM requirements such as Anti-Aliasing.

The bottleneck with moving data in and out of VRAM is the hard drive, it's much slower than the VRAM, so increase in memory clock speeds won't help here.

Your only options are:

1) Decrease VRAM usage, typical culprits here are custom texture packs using a large amount of space, and Anti-Aliasing VRAM usage can be quite high when used on large screen resolutions and with lots of samples.
2) Increase VRAM amount, basically buy a better video card with more VRAM
3) Decrease the time to swap game assets between the drive and the VRAM, that means a faster drive, you already have a SSD so no real improvement to be had here.

If I were you I'd just lower the Anti-Aliasing that will dramatically lower VRAM usage at resolutions like 2560x1440.

Just out of interest i've been trying to find good uses for RAMDisks recently, the Skyrim install would entirely fit into a RAMdisk since you have 16Gb total. I'd be interested to see what sort of performance you get during VRAM/RAM data swap, I'm betting it's way better than using a SSD.

ImDisk is free and easy to use, try installing that, create a 10-12Gb RAMdisk, make a copy of your Skyrim install there and run it from the RAMDisk, report back

 

[Smoblikat]

The stuttering and low FPS are caused by VRAM having to swap out texture data back to the hard drive because there isn't enough to room to store all the high resolution textures plus the other VRAM requirements such as Anti-Aliasing.

The bottleneck with moving data in and out of VRAM is the hard drive, it's much slower than the VRAM, so increase in memory clock speeds won't help here.

Your only options are:

1) Decrease VRAM usage, typical culprits here are custom texture packs using a large amount of space, and Anti-Aliasing VRAM usage can be quite high when used on large screen resolutions and with lots of samples.
2) Increase VRAM amount, basically buy a better video card with more VRAM
3) Decrease the time to swap game assets between the drive and the VRAM, that means a faster drive, you already have a SSD so no real improvement to be had here.

If I were you I'd just lower the Anti-Aliasing that will dramatically lower VRAM usage at resolutions like 2560x1440.

Just out of interest i've been trying to find good uses for RAMDisks recently, the Skyrim install would entirely fit into a RAMdisk since you have 16Gb total. I'd be interested to see what sort of performance you get during VRAM/RAM data swap, I'm betting it's way better than using a SSD.

ImDisk is free and easy to use, try installing that, create a 10-12Gb RAMdisk, make a copy of your Skyrim install there and run it from the RAMDisk, report back

Thanks for the info. The RAMDisk is a great idea, currently all my games are on my cviar black so going from that to RAM would be insane. I know I need some graphics cards with more VRAM but I cant afford them now, this RAMdisk might be a great temp solution.

 

[Smoblikat]

Mission failed. The game did the same thing GTA IV did when I tried to run it in a RAMDisk, lagged like I was using an FX6200 and crashed. I think the only thing I can do is save up for an HD6950/70.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

If you are Vram limited overclocking your memory won't help but if you are bandwidth constrained then it will surely help.

This. Apples vs oranges as jaydip pointed out.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Mission failed. The game did the same thing GTA IV did when I tried to run it in a RAMDisk, lagged like I was using an FX6200 and crashed. I think the only thing I can do is save up for an HD6950/70.

Awww...I wonder why this is, ImDisk can produce some epic fast storage memory. Only games I've tested so far are LoL and BFBC2 and neither see loading speed improvements, but neither slow down for me.