How much VRAM does 2nd monitor use? What impact does 2nd monitor have on game?

[charliemilk 10]

Hi,

I use 2x HD5870 (crossfire, rest of rig in sig) and every time I play ARMA III ALPHA it minimizes the game and comes up with that annoying little window that asks if you want to set the desktop to basic.

I always choose yes. The game only uses one of the cards and uses 800-900 VRAM. Is there any way of finding out how much VRAM my second monitor is using and how much impact it is having on the game.

I only use the second monitor to watch gadgets that show CPU and RAM usage, Internet speed, and Afterburner to monitor graphics card usage.

Do gamers tend to switch off the second monitor?!?! Should the full 1GB of VRAM be used? The GPU is pretty much constant at 100%.

(I use windows 7)

__EDIT__

I just realized I might have posted this in the wrong bit of the forum, ADMIN's please move if you need to. Thank you.

[Leon86 13]

If you dont want the annoying window, go to the arma3.exe, properties, compatibility and check "disable desktop composition". this will disable aero when arma3 rusn, so you can see something on the second monitor and it uses less vram.

how much vram is used is also dependant on what you're running, lots and lots of browser windows + aero eats a lot.

[charliemilk 10]

Excellant. Thank you.

Also a forum user called @ST explained amount of VRAM use:- "it was mentioned earlier, the game seizes as much Vram it can get:

900mb with 1gb cards, 1.8gb with 2gb cards, 2.7 gb with 3gb cards and so on..."

[k3lt 3]

If you dont want the annoying window, go to the arma3.exe, properties, compatibility and check "disable desktop composition". this will disable aero when arma3 rusn, so you can see something on the second monitor and it uses less vram.

how much vram is used is also dependant on what you're running, lots and lots of browser windows + aero eats a lot.

I think you have mistaken VRAM with RAM, what are you mentioning will affect RAM (system memory), OP is talking about VRAM which is GPU memory.. ;)

[charliemilk 10]

Oh.. I'm more confused now.

I will still give what Leon86 said a try cos it will stop the pop up. Another user said that a graphics card with 1GB of VRAM will use 900 for ARMAIII, so I think the desktop might be eating some of this up. For instance I have this window open on my main screen and a 43 minute youtube video (360p) open on the other screen and 372 of my VRAM is being used!!!!

[tet5uo 4]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. But disabling Aero when the game runs should help a bit.

[Leon86 13]

I think you have mistaken VRAM with RAM, what are you mentioning will affect RAM (system memory), OP is talking about VRAM which is GPU memory.. ;)

No, the windows aero interface uses dx9, modern browsers are gpu hardware accelerated, disabling aero will reduce vram use. You can test it with msi afterburner or gpu z or some other tools.

If I open internet explorer, open up a bunch of tabs I see vram use go from 150 to 283 MB. Some sites are more hungry than others. If a forum allows you to display several hundred posts per page that'll eat quite a bit.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Leon86

[charliemilk 10]

yep. 14 tabs open now and afterburner showing 273 VRAM used.

Switching to windows 7 basic desktop only drops it to 195.

Closing all but this tab dropped it to 98. I had no idea that the desktop and browser would have so much VRAM usage. I'm shocked!!!! :butbut:

In an age of dual/triple screen. This is pretty important and is sure to be effecting many peoples game play.

[Radioman 6]

I have four screens, and if I don't turn Aero off, DWM.exe (Desktop Window Manager, aka Aero) uses MORE VRAM than Arma 3 does. (425, vs 415) so it makes a BIG difference here.

[KingScuba 1]

I would discourage playing with 2 monitors for the obvious reason, that your crosshair is right in the center of your 2 monitors...

I play with 3 screens, and arma 3 runs 30 fps whether i'm 1920x1080 or 5760 x 1080.

[PuFu 4600]

I would discourage playing with 2 monitors for the obvious reason, that your crosshair is right in the center of your 2 monitors...

I play with 3 screens, and arma 3 runs 30 fps whether i'm 1920x1080 or 5760 x 1080.

LOL, no one plays with 2 screens. They (just like me) game on 1 screen, and the other is idle (i use 2 for work, 3 is a bit too much for my space constrains)