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How much video memory do you have?

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:01 am
by Aaron
Hi Everyone,

I'm just about to add to Sapphire a threshold to limit its usage of video memory on large texture maps (automatic level-of-detail, etc). There doesn't appear to be a neat way to reliably detect the amount of video memory available, so I'm going to hard-code a default value, which users will be able to edit using the 'Extensions->Sapphire->Edit settings' menu option if they so desire. Anyway, getting to the point, how much video RAM does your system have? I'm thinking of optimising for 256MB cards by default, but if there are lots of users with 128Mb cards I might consider lowering the default accordingly.

Cheers,
Aaron.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:00 am
by Madcowthomas
This card I have is a Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS with believe 256 memory.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:51 pm
by metalliandy
I have a Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX with 768mb of memory.

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:31 pm
by blackFin
My GPU is an Nvidia 8800GTS with 640MB VRAM

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 10:48 pm
by Tormented
Nvidia 7300 GS with 512MB VRAM.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:10 am
by metalliandy
Hey Aaron,
I have been thinking about this thread and whilst browsing the internets (lol) and found these...Be warned that beyond HTML and CSS,im not a coder so i don't know if they they would be of any help.
Worth a try though eh? lol

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa366586.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb147334.aspx
http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~jmurphy/paper4.doc

They seem to be mostly for system memory, but im not sure if you could modify them to suit your needs.


Couldn't you code a group of optimisations and allow the user to pick the amount of GPU memory that is available to them?
Maybe do a system hardware scan (like the one in PcWizard) upon first install, with an option to change it later (upon buying a new GPU etc.).

Outside of Pro Workstation cards, there seems to be 7 (to my reckoning) different sizes of GPU memory (128mb, 256mb, 320mb, 512mb, 640mb, 768mb and 1gb) with 256 seeming to be the most popular....(Im not even sure if 128mb cards are still being released anymore).


Its quite a predicament you have, it seems....:S
On one hand, by coding for 128mb/256mb High end cards are not being used to there full potential, but on the other, no one wants to choke the lower end cards.

Hope the links helped :)

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:25 pm
by monks
768 mb here.

256 seems reasonable so long as we can edit it.

monks

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:07 am
by Aaron
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll do as Metalliandy suggested and add a simple GUI option to select from presets (128/256/512/768/1024/custom). You'll also be able to directly edit the various memory settings manually should you wish to do your own tuning.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:30 pm
by metalliandy
Great news...no more lag! :)

*edit*
I have set sapphire to 768mb, but i am still only getting 40-45mb of usage...Is this a bug or normal behaviour? :S

It still lags/freezes allot too.
Is that connected to texture usage or computer specs?

Image

Thanks for looking :)

PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:51 pm
by neddiedrow
aaron wrote:Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll do as Metalliandy suggested and add a simple GUI option to select from presets (128/256/512/768/1024/custom). You'll also be able to directly edit the various memory settings manually should you wish to do your own tuning.

Cheerio,
Aaron.


Now that I finally joined up, I was going to ask about this, but I see you've already handled it! Good show!

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 10:56 pm
by Aaron
Hi Metalliandy,

metalliandy wrote:I have set sapphire to 768mb, but i am still only getting 40-45mb of usage...Is this a bug or normal behaviour? :S

It still lags/freezes allot too.
Is that connected to texture usage or computer specs?


Oops, I missed this earlier. I made a mistake in the logic of the texture level-of-detail manager that prevented it from automatically using more memory when available (you can manually override, with [ and ] keys, BTW). I've fixed that in the latest update to Sapphire, which you can download from here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/wiki/doku.php? ... s:sapphire

I'll roll into a release candidate in the next few days.

Warning: By allowing Sapphire to use more graphics memory, you will increase the time taken for the initial load sequence. In this time, Sapphire will appear to 'freeze', as it does not yet have a multithreaded resource manager.

Cheerio,
Aaron.