High VRAM consumption is common in gaming.
High VRAM consumption is common in gaming.
I own an RX 6750 with 12GB VRAM, a Ryzen 5 5600 and an ASUS B550-M Wi-Fi motherboard. Smart Access Memory is turned on. The games demand a lot of VRAM, which makes me feel odd. Dying Light 2 at 1440p uses 11MB VRAM, Ghost Recon Breakpoint 4K needs 11KB, Red Dead Redemption 2 4K requires 12KB, and AC Valhalla 4K is around 11KB. AC Valhalla and Breakpoint experience stutters, while the others run smoothly. I noticed a similar issue with a DRAM problem in RDR2: in RDR2, VRAM usage keeps rising as textures load more, but DRAM limits it to about 6GB. When usage exceeds 8GB, the game freezes (a serious stutter) and reverts to 6GB, then jumps back up to 12GB without any visible issue. This seems strange, especially since usage keeps going up over time. Is this due to SAM or is my GPU having trouble? I checked BIOS updates, chipset fixes, and re-downloaded drivers. The Valhalla stutters and RDR2 DRAM behavior are the main concerns. Is this a problem or just normal?
Typical behavior expected. It's completely normal for Ubisoft titles to have performance hiccups and not run smoothly—this is often a known trait of their development process. Many of their games frequently experience stuttering, usually requiring adjustments in the settings to identify the specific issues.
The software you're using shows the VRAM a game is utilizing actually reflects the amount assigned. Usually, games try to use as much VRAM as they can, reserving it only when needed. This matters during testing when creators like Steve from Nexus analyze how demanding certain titles are for memory, because the best way to determine this is by running graphics cards with limited RAM and observing the impact on performance.
There are alternative methods. With MSI Afterburner and RTSS you can adjust "GPU dedicated memory usage / process" in the OSD to see how much a game is consuming. The main issue is it doesn't apply to all titles. Only the basic "memory usage" that displays allocated VRAM works consistently across games. For Ubisoft titles I've played recently—like AC Odyssey, FarCry 5, and The Division 2—I haven't experienced stuttering, though.
I'm using AMD Software to track RAM consumption. Also, turning off SAM reduced RAM usage. However, RAM consumption keeps rising in the RDR.