How do I run v5 on a 4GB GPU?

[Jackaroo05 13]

I know, ambitious request, but its frankly needed for me. I have friends that have the exact same specs I do and they run P3Dv5 with 0 problems. I match their settings, and I run out of vram immediately with the default scenario. I just reinstalled v5 after a clean windows install, and would like it to work.

My Specs:
(ASUS GL753VE LAPTOP)
i7-7700HQ
16GB DDR4-2400MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

I don't know why others can run it fine with the same specs I have but I can't. Even unmodified P3Dv5 runs out of VRAM with the default scenario. Some help would be appreciated.
Bonus points if you manage to get TrueSky/EA to work on a 4GB GPU!

Thanks.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Jackaroo05

[jimcarrel 688]

I can only think of two differences between your laptop and your friends laptops that you say run it fine and they have the same laptop, they may have updated to window 2400, or you are running different no. of threads (I'm assuming yours is a duo core and can run 8 cores [hyper-threading on or off] and your friends [are running hyper-threading or not] that could make a difference). Windows 2400 allows your GPU to have another portion of you video cards VRAM back so that you can use it. Are you positive your motherboard lets that card (a 1050 ti ) run fullspeed?

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Do you have the texture streaming feature turned on in v5? That is supposed to give you some protection against VRAM related crashes.

 

[Emile 28]

Hello, 

Where do I find this option?

Thanks

[GEKtheReaper 364]

@Jackaroo05 look at my signature :). It's doable when you play with the sliders.

Before we check out settings, do your own test: start from default sliders and look at the VRAM usage pressing 2 times Shift-Z. The start to move 1 slider to the min and check VRAM, the to the max and check VRAM, then back to default and go to the next slider.

You will find out which have more impact on VRAM so you can find your sweet spot. At the end you should go to an addon scenery and load an demanding ACFT and look that VRAM is about 2.5...2.6.

Happy flying. 

[Jackaroo05 13]

Thanks. I think I can get it running now.

[G-RFRY 1,709]

6 hours ago, Emile said:

Hello, 

Where do I find this option?

Thanks

Go to DISPLAY screen in options bottom left, image and texture Quality,

[gregory.goodwin1 54]

I have a 4GB graphics card (NVIDIA GTX 1650) and I can run V5 with comparable settings to what I use in V4.5  - about 80% of the time (i.e., depending on the aircraft and scenery). 

If you are running out of VRAM, make sure EA (enhanced atmospherics) is turned off, try setting the texture quality to 1024 (medium), use a simple aircraft like the Carenado  Commander or MilViz P38, and start at a small, default GA airport.  If that works, then you can experiment with turning some of the settings up - keeping an eye on VRAM usage.  For example, I have 3.3 GB usable and as long as I don't go over about 3.0GB used, things are good.  If VRAM usage creeps above 3.0GB, I am likely to get either a device hung error or an out of VRAM message.  

I think you will find that depending on the complexity of the scenery, the aircraft, and the settings you may run over the VRAM limit, so plan to spend some time experimenting with different combinations of those to see what works.  

In general, I can fly over ORBX scenery like SOCAL in a Carenado payware aircraft with most of my scenery settings in the medium to high range and use no more than about 2.5GB VRAM.  Performance is noticeably better in most areas in V5 over V4.5 even on my "low-end" system.

V5 tries to scale the use of VRAM based on your hardware but I think 4GB is definitely the minimum you need and there will be combinations of aircraft, scenery, and settings that will run you over the VRAM limit.  From what I can see in forum posts from others, 8GB of VRAM is really what you want to get the most out of V5.    

I am hoping (and expecting) that in future updates to V5 it will just degrade performance and leverage RAM memory rather than running off the rails as it does now when it runs over the VRAM limit.  Either way, I can guarantee you that V5 is going to get better.

That said, the whole reason V5 came out was to leverage the capabilities of higher end hardware so really the solution for you and I is to (eventually) upgrade our systems so that we can truly enjoy the next generation of FS software! 😉 

[RobF2 150]

I'm able to get very reliable V5 performance on a 6GB GTX 1660 Ti with A2A aircraft.  PMDG NGXu is more challenging expecially in a payware larger airport (e.g. Fly Tampa YSSY).  Had to create cutdown graphics profile for low res textures, texture streaming, less AA etc but still very workable.  

Getting smooth 30 fps for A2A Bonanza and Orbx scenery on my older i7-4770k rig is just wonderful.

4GB will be more challenging and you'll have to watch your VRAM indicator closely.  If your settings are "not in the ballpark" P3D will crash before you even get to see any graphics.