Hi All,Can those of you with 512mb vid card's download the small attachment (memstat2.5) and post your peak video memory usage in FSX (with global textures no less than high). Start memstat, load FSX to the tarmac and them memstat will record your peak memory usages. (alttab or exit game whatever.)Reason,Had 7800GT Copper 256mb card. With memstat, showed all 256mb used up. No blurries. Wanted a 512mb card so ...Bought 7900GTX 512, memstat only shows 149mb being used. Took card back, figured card was nfg - and huge blurries with 1-1/2 to 2fps gain.Got 7950GTKO 512, 256mb reporting with no gain over 7800GT Copper in frames. Huge blurries again.I would like to know if any of you are seeing vid mem peaks over the 256mb range, as I highly doubt I got two bummed cards from different series of lineup.Info post: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=19465&page=Thanks,GarettAMDX24800(@2.75), A8N-Sli Deluxe, 2G Muskin Black XP4000 (3-4-3-8 @ 500mhx) 2X WD120JD SATA 7200 Raid 0, with getting to be worn out PCI-E slots ....

Garett,Just ran the tool you attached. My setup and results were as follows:HW Config - see sig for desktop configFSX Config - beta 3, all settings ultra high global, AA and AF enabled in game, 1680x1050 normal or 3360x1050 spanned (where noted)Results:Default flight - 261MB peakKSEA on rwy 34L - 343MB peakKSEA on rwy 34L spanned - 468MB peakDisabling AA/AF gave a drop of around 60MB off peak readingsBased on these results, I am glad I purchased a 512M video card.Gary

Rarely have I been this stumped in my years of tweaking and tuning. Here I thought I may be on to something other than my own demise. This has got me just baffled. I ended up returning the cards and going back to my 7800GT copper. I simply find it darn near impossible to have two cards from diffent series and builds give me memory probs. If its actually true, I better buy a loto ticket.I mean what setting in a bios/registry/cfg/dat/inf etc would make a 512card only use 149mb. Really. I give up - for now .... (Besides I can use the saved money for the RS 2042 base scanner I bought off Ebay - I live within a few miles of CYEG (53.30-113.3) I can listen to the real birds as I'm simmin'...) Only thing I though maybe would be power supply, but that would greatly affect stability. And stability was not an issue, and whats the 7950/7900 pull, maybe 1/2 amp more than the 7800 if lucky. Antec 500 Smartpwr should be plenty for my rig.(until the dx10 cards come out...)Thanks for your input..Regards'Garett

Wait a minute. I don't understand how your tests (with two different 512 meg cards) revealed 149mb mem usage...and when Gary tested, he got 261 mb, 343 mb, etc.What flight did you test on to get 149 mb?If I had a 512 card I would test it myself, I am way curious...one of these days I myself will ditch the trusty old 7800GT, but not yet...RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Maybe Garett is running a much lower game res than I am, hence the lesser need for VRAM?GaryPS, I am getting 199MB max usage with FS9 maxed out and running with spanned displays (3360x1050) at the moment.

HelloI tried the little program and it says i'm using no video ram in windowed mode and ...... 34mb in full screen.ATI x1900xtI dont reckon fsx uses my card properly at all due to high gc useage but no framerate improvement in full screen mode at all (as opposed to windowed)regards

It seems that this utility might be giving dud readings then.Gary

When I was swaping cards and perfroming setup, I inadvertantly clicked diasble harware accelleration down a notch, to which after I but it back to full. After this vram usage never again reached 100% usage on the 256 card, or the 512 cards. I did have with the below settings overflow my 256 card (which started all this wanting me to get a 512 card)After perfroming forensics on the registy, perfroming a restore, removing hardware, drivers etc & reinstalling - I still can't max out my vram. No issues are reported at ASUS about my bios version (most stable) and 512 cards.The real problem is I can not find a testing/benchmark utility that will (like old 3dmark2001) test texture loading and fillrates of the vram starting at 128, 256, 512 etc. Most tests only use minimal memory of vram, testing the speed relationship between vram/vcore subsequent output.Gary I want to believe its memstat, (trust me I really I do), but I am having trouble accepting that it would be memstat, only because it did report 100% usage on the first test with my original card. There is no registy settings for this app.BTW - with the following config, I was running 25 FPS (locked) jumps to 32 if unlimited) at KSEA, but with beleivable blurries. Fiber set from .33 to .45 just to test, and about at 3000ft 1-2km from the AC it looked just brutal. You can draw an immediate circle under the ac where the textures (say about .5km) they are max. Another circle out only about .75 they drop about 1/2. After about 1km they are horrible.I'm going to get another 7900GTX OC512, as the first card did have artifacting. We'll do a clean install after (I did at one time think it was becasce I changes the card after install possibly) that maybe the inf file was incorrect in identifiyng the card? Doubt it, but at this point I need to step back and review. Its either that or I'm starting the first stages of dimentia.Again, I truly appreciate the help. Best Regards'Garett1024x768x32[GRAPHICS]SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024 (Ultra High)NUM_LIGHTS=8AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1LANDING_LIGHTS=1AC_SELF_SHADOW=0EFFECTS_QUALITY=1GROUND_SHADOWS=0TEXTURE_QUALITY=3IMAGE_QUALITY=0See_Self=1Text_Scroll=1[sCENERY]LENSFLARE=1DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=4[TrafficManager]AirlineDensity=18GADensity=12FreewayDensity=4ShipsAndFerriesDensity=20LeisureBoatsDensity=10IFROnly=0AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=3[TERRAIN]LOD_RADIUS=4.500000MESH_COMPLEXITY=80MESH_RESOLUTION=21TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=25AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3DETAIL_TEXTURE=1WATER_EFFECTS=5TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1500TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=800

>Hi All,>>Can those of you with 512mb vid card's download the small>attachment (memstat2.5) and post your peak video memory usage>in FSX (with global textures no less than high). Start>memstat, load FSX to the tarmac and them memstat will record>your peak memory usages. (alttab or exit game whatever.)>>Reason,>>Had 7800GT Copper 256mb card. With memstat, showed all 256mb>used up. No blurries. Wanted a 512mb card so ...>>Bought 7900GTX 512, memstat only shows 149mb being used. Took>card back, figured card was nfg - and huge blurries with 1-1/2>to 2fps gain.>>Got 7950GTKO 512, 256mb reporting with no gain over 7800GT>Copper in frames. Huge blurries again.>>I would like to know if any of you are seeing vid mem peaks>over the 256mb range, as I highly doubt I got two bummed cards>from different series of lineup.>>Info post:>http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=19465&page=>>Thanks,>>Garett>>AMDX24800(@2.75), A8N-Sli Deluxe, 2G Muskin Black XP4000>(3-4-3-8 @ 500mhx) 2X WD120JD SATA 7200 Raid 0, with getting>to be worn out PCI-E slots ....I use a Pentium 4 3GHz processor with 2048 MB RAM and a Radeon x1600 (512MB). Updated drivers, fully defragged drive. Microsoft, judging by the settings the game deigned were appropriate for me, thinks I should get great frame rates with mostly high settings. Of course, that was not the case - averaged less then 10 FPS. After some tinkering with settings I can luck into 15 at times, but with a lot of blur and other loss of quality, and still jerkiness.Anyway, I ran your utility and my peak system memory usage was 64% and peak video memory usage was 46%.As you can probably surmise from my amateurish attempt to describe my "rig," I'm not a computer expert. So, if anyone could confirm whether or not the fact that peak usage of my video card was less than half its resources is a problem, and if so, how it might be fixed, I'd be very grateful.Thanks.

Fixed.Picked up a new card (79000GTXOC512), did a complete driver removal with drive cleaner pro, and removed any remenant keys in the registry prior to harware install. Updated drivers to 91.47.All is good. Bumped the speeds up to 682 & 850 (1700mhz). Benched and tested with Videocard Stability Test for 2hrs. No artifacting or texture tearing.Note for guys with 256 cards. If you keep your global textures on high (vs ultra) the max memory load (ground textures set no more than 30cm) was 240mb. This was zoomed out full and panning in spot, and panning in vc.I run at 1024x768, global ultra, ground textures @ 30cm - averages about 270-290mb memory load (scenery very dense, autogen dense - with config tweaks) Tested it up to 1600-1200, loading was 324mb at 5cm ground textures. Frames rates (18-26fps) really do not change on the new card, wether you run at 1024*768 or 1600*1200. I run at 1024 only as I like to keep my refresh rates high @ 120hz. My monitor drops to 80hz at 1600.PS: The blurries I have described previous, are not like FS9 blurries. The textures are completely loaded, but its is like a "unsharp mask" that covers the textures that lifts off in two stages. One seems to be "lifted" at about 1km, the other is at about .5 km. If you slew at about 1000ft (following a road makes it very noticable) -you will see what I mean. I only hope that this can be "tweaked" in the config to expand these radius's. Way top close for a transition in my opinion. Attached a pic to explain.Regards'Garett

Hi guys, interesting thread. Specially because of the wide variety of numbers an experiences. I can only confirm Gary's readings; ca 360-380MB GPU mem used with a default FSX install @ 1280x with almost everything scenery (minus water & AI) maxxed. Performance with a 256MB card under such circumstances: Molto catastrofico. :-) Reducing the 'Global texture quality' by one notch brings back ca 60MB. Putting in replacement AI-traffic (MyTrafficX) at 'medium' settings (70%/30%) lessens the load by roughly the same amount. Bringing the resolution down to 1024x is another 40-50MB, etc. The conclusion (for my setup): If I don't exceed 190-195MB of the 256MBs onboard, FSX remains very smooth (locked @ 18). Something which leaves me stumped - perhaps somebody has an idea? - is why a 256MB PCI-e card reserves 512MBs of 2GBs system RAM? GPU total in this case = ~ 750MB! That is, according to MemStatus. On an AGP system this total GPU-mem number seems easily adjustable by 'opening' the AGP-aperture. Concretely, a 128MB 9800pro and a 128MB AGP-aperture leads to 250MB for the GPU. Has anyone tried the 'buffer pool tweak' yet? @ the poster with 36MB: Something looks wrong. Are the mainboard & GPU drivers installed? Cheers and kind regards Jaap Edit: Good news, Garett!

Orwell,You are fine, its when your video or system ram would have shown 100%, meaning that the "additional" info would have to be read from the hard drive. This is way slower than ram memory, and would result in big fps hits, studders and other chop and watch visuals. If its over, time to start pulling graphic sliders within the game to the left.Smarti05,Make sure you are reading the PEAK memory usage, not the current. If you alt-tab'd or exited the game - you will see zero current video ram usage - but the peak will tell you what it was when you were playing. If you did read the peak - as Jaap said, make sure your drivers are installed, or download und update them to the current version from ATI.Jaap,BIll Leaming did a good post on that last week, but it got deleted as it was in the general FSX forum. Saw it on his upload pics, mine however just says 502mb, no reserve.. Got to tell you I am finally playing and enjoying the sim. Aside from the obvious (which I know we will get fixed on our own well before MS even thins about the FSX10.1 patch) - I think its pretty good. I would have paid good money for a helo like the new bell! Wow - sound, flight dynamics are just awsome. Ground effect, hovering - and thank god those FS2k/FS9 helo days are gone - How many perfect desents I have tried in the bell, only to end up inverted in complete autorotation right at about 30' before touchdown. Poor joystick leaned over and twisting in half (along with the probable facial expressions) trying to save it only to rewarded with "Nicks crop dust" and burning flames. As good as SAR4 or fly2 IMHO. Very welcomed..Happy Flying,Garett

>>BIll Leaming did a good post on that last week, but it got deleted as it was in the general FSX forum. Saw it on his upload pics, mine however just says 502mb, no reserve..<< Thanks for that, Garett. Interesting to hear your card takes nothing in reserve whilst mine takes double the amount of the GPU. I wonder what triggers this? Maybe a bios setting in the PEG section? Here goes Clouseau..! :-) Kind regards Jaap

>Orwell,>You are fine, its when your video or system ram would have>shown 100%, meaning that the "additional" info would have to>be read from the hard drive. This is way slower than ram>memory, and would result in big fps hits, studders and other>chop and watch visuals. If its over, time to start pulling>graphic sliders within the game to the left.>>Smarti05,>Make sure you are reading the PEAK memory usage, not the>current. If you alt-tab'd or exited the game - you will see>zero current video ram usage - but the peak will tell you>what it was when you were playing. If you did read the peak ->as Jaap said, make sure your drivers are installed, or>download und update them to the current version from ATI.>>Jaap,>BIll Leaming did a good post on that last week, but it got>deleted as it was in the general FSX forum. Saw it on his>upload pics, mine however just says 502mb, no reserve.. >>Got to tell you I am finally playing and enjoying the sim.>Aside from the obvious (which I know we will get fixed on our>own well before MS even thins about the FSX10.1 patch) - I>think its pretty good. I would have paid good money for a helo>like the new bell! Wow - sound, flight dynamics are just>awsome. Ground effect, hovering - and thank god those FS2k/FS9>helo days are gone - How many perfect desents I have tried in>the bell, only to end up inverted in complete autorotation>right at about 30' before touchdown. Poor joystick leaned over>and twisting in half (along with the probable facial>expressions) trying to save it only to rewarded with "Nicks>crop dust" and burning flames. As good as SAR4 or fly2 IMHO.>Very welcomed..>>Happy Flying,>>GarettThanks for the response.For what it's worth, I've seen improvement by dialing down autogen density. Visual effects are indeed a huge improvement over 2004, but frame rates are still disappointing. Hopefully things will get better with updates.

Any chance you're running FSX on monitor Nr2? I can reproduce 24-36MB if FSX's main window is on monitor 2 and the panels etc are on monitor 1. MemStatus doesn't seem to read loads on both GPU outputs. FYI-2, once the main FS window was moved back to display 1, GPU mem shot up to 'normal FSX levels'. :-) So, it could be a false reading as well? Hope this adds to thoughts if this still is an issue, kind regards Jaap