V5.3 VRAM Problem.... Again

[chapstick 2,762]

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Should this not be the other way around?

Nope! I just confirmed in a scenario at EHAM V2. 6.5 with 4xSSAA vs. 6.8 with MSAA.There's an explanation somewhere on the forum about why SSAA uses less VRAM but I can't remember. 

[Michael Moe 496]

13 hours ago, mwilk said:

I have the exact same addons in P3Dv 5.3 that I had in 5.2. In 5.2 I had no VRAM issues at all. What did they add in 5.3 that would put such a strain on VRAM?

Strange,  i think i see a little less VRAM use in 5.3.

471.41/GTX1080TI 11GB

Michael Moe

[Fiorentoni 4,384]

I see a little less VRAM usage in 5.3, at least compared to 5.1 (more or less skipped 5.2). It is however extremely dependent on the aircraft and more the airport. LatinVFR is the main offender, and somehow for aircraft it's Feelthere's Ejets. However putting textures down to 1024x1024 when flying in those places I have never seen it go above 6.x GB. Of course if you have a 6GB VRAM card, you can only turn off EA and hope for the best. I have 11GB and except for LatinVFRs KMIA, KFLL and LEMD I never have to think about switching away from 4048x4048 textures. One year ago I did have only a 6GB card, though, and I was basically constraint to turning EA off or I would run out of VRAM

[exeodus 78]

22 hours ago, mwilk said:

I have the exact same addons in P3Dv 5.3 that I had in 5.2. In 5.2 I had no VRAM issues at all. What did they add in 5.3 that would put such a strain on VRAM?

From what I have read in other threads, I believe it is the PBR updates to the scenery and autogen probably has something to do with it.

[Joseph29 225]

For me I noticed a bit higher VRAM usage. While I haven't had any crashes, I have noticed my VRAM usage go right to the limit at a few airports. For instance, at FlyTampa's Las Vegas I was in the mid to upper 4's in VRAM usage. Now with P3D v5.3 FlyTampa's Las Vegas scenery is in the low to mid 6's.

(I have a total of 8 for VRAM)

Here is a list of all the airports where my VRAM goes right to the limit now

FSimStudios - Vancouver

LatinVFR - Miami (this one goes over VRAM use now), New Orleans, and Hartford

FlyTampa - Las Vegas, Sydney, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam

[JRMurray 214]

I'm on 5.3 with EA on a 6gb video card. I keep my visuals modest but pretty good-looking (e.g., 4xSSAA, Volumetric Clouds off, LOD radius medium, no road vehicles, 70% airline traffic and GA traffic density, etc.). Even with FSLabs aircraft at FSimStudios CYVR, the highest VRAM consumption I'm seeing is 3.3gb.

Otherwise, my framerates, set at unlimited, are great (not below 30) no matter where I fly, I have no stutters, and I've experienced no VRAM crashes. I'm a pretty happy camper, actually.

 

[Beardyman 609]

Is updated road traffic Vram expensive ?

[Christopher Low 5,393]

14 hours ago, JRMurray said:

I'm on 5.3 with EA on a 6gb video card. I keep my visuals modest but pretty good-looking (e.g., 4xSSAA, Volumetric Clouds off, LOD radius medium, no road vehicles, 70% airline traffic and GA traffic density, etc.). Even with FSLabs aircraft at FSimStudios CYVR, the highest VRAM consumption I'm seeing is 3.3gb.

Otherwise, my framerates, set at unlimited, are great (not below 30) no matter where I fly, I have no stutters, and I've experienced no VRAM crashes. I'm a pretty happy camper, actually.

 

Are you running @ 1080p resolution? I assume that there is a big difference in VRAM usage between 1080p and 4K in P3Dv5?

[IanHarrison 526]

5 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Are you running @ 1080p resolution? I assume that there is a big difference in VRAM usage between 1080p and 4K in P3Dv5?

Well, I am running 1080p as I can't afford anything more and I couldn't be happier. I have managed to up all my settings from 5.2 without maxing everything and am getting excellent results in stability and looks. Only thing not right is road traffic that causes long pauses when loading intense scenery.

[Christopher Low 5,393]

I only asked because I run P3Dv4.5 @ 1080p resolution with a 6GB GTX 980Ti graphics card, so your VRAM information is extremely useful if I decide to upgrade to P3Dv5 at any point

Edited December 21, 2021 by Christopher Low

[bbain1187 118]

No VRAM problems for me on a 3 year-old 2080ti, even running 4k at LVFR KMIA in the NGXu.

5.2 with the hotfix was a step back in performance for me, as I've got an older CPU (i7 6700k) and they seemed to shift resources from the GPU back to the CPU, which induced sub-30fps performance for me and stutters. 

Since 5.3, I'm back to great performance even with my old CPU. I think you guys need to follow Rob's advice and also look into your settings. LOD is a big one, I'm running it on high, and autogen/scenery draw distance at medium.

We certainly don't need LM to be changing code because of user-induced problems. 11-gb cards have been available for several years now, if ya'll are gonna max your setting out then you need one, and if that's not an option, lower your settings accordingly. I've lowered my CPU-intensive settings and my sim looks and performs great.

[chapstick 2,762]

3 hours ago, bbain1187 said:

We certainly don't need LM to be changing code because of user-induced problems. 

So, obviously users need to use reasonable settings.

However, VRAM management from V5's release was atrocious for many months. I'd say it took a year for LM to get it to an acceptable spot even when using reasonable settings. 

[kevinfirth 1,419]

1 minute ago, Chapstick said:

So, obviously users need to use reasonable settings.

However, VRAM management from V5's release was atrocious for many months. I'd say it took a year for LM to get it to an acceptable spot even when using reasonable settings. 

There’s a reason they recommend an 11gb card.  I think they’ve worked wonders lowering the usage to accommodate those with lower spec systems, I see that as a positive not a negative.

I have the opposite problem, trying to get it to use more than 16Gb 😛

[virtualstuff 770]

4 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

There’s a reason they recommend an 11gb card.  I think they’ve worked wonders lowering the usage to accommodate those with lower spec systems, I see that as a positive not a negative.

I have the opposite problem, trying to get it to use more than 16Gb 😛

🤣 Imagine with that 3090 😋

[chapstick 2,762]

26 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

There’s a reason they recommend an 11gb card.  I think they’ve worked wonders lowering the usage to accommodate those with lower spec systems, I see that as a positive not a negative.

I have the opposite problem, trying to get it to use more than 16Gb 😛

"8GB+" is their exact recommendation. In any case, there's no denying that it took a long time for them to get anywhere close to resolving VRAM issues and for a platform that really needs 11GB VRAM to fully utilize its features, it simply does not look up to the standards that one would expect for a sim requiring such high-end hardware.