Does Weak GPU affect VAS? Weird issue with new rig

[Skywolf 992]

Hi Guys,

 

I am facing a weird issue, and I can't figure it out on why my new system is eating up more VAS vs my old system.

 

Old System - i5-750 OC to 4.1 ghz with 8gb ram, SSDs with AMD 2GB 6970 running on Eyefinity 5760x1200 Resolution

 

P3Dv2.4 with Orbx PNW-CRM-NRM-Cali, Global, Vector, few Orbx Airports, REX4 textures, FSUIPC, Active Sky, OpusFSX (for cameras), FSDT Airports (Vancouver, New York), FlightBeam KIAD, GSX, Airplanes - A2A C172, Piper, Mustang, Cub, Majestic Q400, QualitySims 146 all installed.  AI Traffic - MyTraffic P3D 5.4c (fully patched)

 

Settings - LOD - 4.5, Autogen Complexity (full max), Building - Normal, Vegetation - Normal, AI Traffic 30 on Both

 

I could do runs from KPDX to Bowerman to KSEA to FSDT Vancouver etc without having OOM, and my VAS stayed stable.

 

Now the big issue is on my new system - I get OOMs on KPAE to KPDX on A2A C182 with autogen set to Normal.  On Default Orbx PNW Airports, I am having trouble maintaining VAS.

 

My new system specs - i7-5820K (OC to 4.4) with 16 GB Ram, SSD with AMD 7750 2GB (6 DP Video card).  I know this card is not at all powerful as AMD 6970, but I need this card for work as it runs 6 4K monitors at 60 Hz.  I do dual boot into windows 8.1 which has P3D2.4 only and 3 Monitors are only operational at 1920x1080 resolution.  P3D is Single Screen on this

 

The graphics are super sharp with i7 - but I only have 3 Sceneries Installed - PNW, Global and Vector, and 1 Payware A2A 182.  I am using Activesky with Rex4 Textures (with Softclouds) all set to 1024 or lower textures.

 

Even with default settings - I am getting VAS to be 2.5-3GB when it boots directly into a save file in P3D.

 

Does weak GPU impact VAS to some degree?

 

I can't figure this issue out - any thoughts or suggestions.

 

Thanks,

 

Skywolf

 

PS - I use process explorer to see VAS.

[AimHawk 8]

ive noticed this too. My old AMD R9 280X managed to spit out 3.5-9 gb of vas at klax with default settings. My 980 is now only pulling about 2.9-3.1......

[Skywolf 992]

GTX 980 and AMD 290X care to tell me your VAS situation.  I need to figure this one out - before I go buy 2 980 GTXs (not for SLI, but for 6 displayports).  I have a gut feeling that I need to wait for 8gb models for 4K res gaming

 

And Rob, you got the Titans - do they help with the VAS to some degree? with strong cpu

 

Very preplexing issue

[n4gix 4,947]

VAS and GPU have no relationship whatever. Period.

 

The VAS number is an indication of how much memory address space is being used by a program at the moment.

[Guest]

Just to add to Bill's statement ... I think what Skywolf is really talking about is VRAM and exceeding VRAM limit on your GPU?  If not then ignore below.

 

VRAM is essentially your video buffer, it holds the image that is going to be pushed out via the RAMDAC to your monitor ... the CPU and GPU are responsible for building that image.  VRAM is dual port so it can output and input simultaneously. 

 

If you exceed the maximum VRAM then the GPU will stream texture data from RAM via PCIe ... this could reduce your available memory (of which application VAS is a subset of), but it would also impact FPS pretty significantly.  At least that's my understanding of how modern graphics cards work.  So in other words your graphics card will let you exceed it's VRAM limit which could allow the application (i.e. P3D) to keep feeding it more and more 3D scenes to build.

 

At least that's my understanding, feel free to correct me as I'm not pretending to be an expert here.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[n4gix 4,947]

Which is precisely why I invested in a 4GB card to begin with...

 

...I didn't want to chance any over-loading of my VRAM. :He He:

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

At least that's my understanding, feel free to correct me as I'm not pretending to be an expert here.

 

 

That is how they work, which is why there is a big performance hit when one tries to do something exotic (like 4K resolution) with a 2 GB video card. It's not only the PCIe bus speed, it's also that system RAM is DDR3 (except for the new X99 mobos which use DDR4 sticks) and video RAM is DDR5. The guy in this thread explains that difference better than I ever could:

 

http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/whats-the-difference-between-ddr3-memory-and-gddr5-memory.186408/

[Skywolf 992]

Just to add to Bill's statement ... I think what Skywolf is really talking about is VRAM and exceeding VRAM limit on your GPU?  If not then ignore below.

 

VRAM is essentially your video buffer, it holds the image that is going to be pushed out via the RAMDAC to your monitor ... the CPU and GPU are responsible for building that image.  VRAM is dual port so it can output and input simultaneously. 

 

If you exceed the maximum VRAM then the GPU will stream texture data from RAM via PCIe ... this could reduce your available memory (of which application VAS is a subset of), but it would also impact FPS pretty significantly.  At least that's my understanding of how modern graphics cards work.  So in other words your graphics card will let you exceed it's VRAM limit which could allow the application (i.e. P3D) to keep feeding it more and more 3D scenes to build.

 

At least that's my understanding, feel free to correct me as I'm not pretending to be an expert here.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Yeah, I did notice with a strong CPU (i7-5820K) compared with low power GPU (2GB ram, speed), - VAS definitely increased.  I see my 2GB video card maxed out completely.  Whereas before I had a weaker cpu with moderate powerful gpu p3dv2.4 was able to handle VAS slightly better.  I could do Eyefinity with three 1920x1200 monitor before, and now with current setup Eyefinity alone lags when Monitors are set to 1920x1080 and not in 4K.  4K mode alone in single monitors kills the GPU and 100% saturates the VRAM.  Even with 1 Monitor gaming 1920x1080, VRAM is getting saturated.  I have to change video cards soon - there is no question about it.

 

Which is precisely why I invested in a 4GB card to begin with...

 

...I didn't want to chance any over-loading of my VRAM. :He He:

 

Yep, I am debating to get 980 gtx's or wait a month or two and go for the 6GB-8GB models - NVIDIA or AMD at this point. 

 

That is how they work, which is why there is a big performance hit when one tries to do something exotic (like 4K resolution) with a 2 GB video card. It's not only the PCIe bus speed, it's also that system RAM is DDR3 (except for the new X99 mobos which use DDR4 sticks) and video RAM is DDR5. The guy in this thread explains that difference better than I ever could:

 

http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/whats-the-difference-between-ddr3-memory-and-gddr5-memory.186408/

 

Yep, the new DDR5 ram really makes the system move, but DDR3 should be fine for all the older system.  I must stress, now that I have clear indication for P3Dv2.XX GPU processing power is more than critical in conjuction with VRAM.  I kinda miss my old video cards, but can't use them as they can't output 4K @ 60hz - they do 4K @ 30hz which is a disaster when it comes to doing daily tasks on the desktop.

 

Thanks Guys for all the input.