More VRAM helps a lot with DCS VR performance

[Lurker]

53 minutes ago, S-GERAT said:

Because the CPU need to calculate two different viewpoints for 3D

 

 

Yes that makes sense, needs to make drawcalls for two different viepoints. Thank you. 

[Mars Exulte]

I don't get why you guys are surprised RAM does not constantly get wiped... Whether RAM or VRAM the whole point is storing accessed data for future quick access.

 

''Switching between planes causes a stutter'' And that's surprising because....? RAM is for accessing data ALREADY stored. Spawning into the same plane should be nearly instantaneous amd stutter free, though, because all that data is already loaded... because it's in RAM.

 

It doesn't need to and SHOULDN'T flush the RAM everytime something changes because then said data won't be available for recall. If you're switching between planes constantly, that will logically result in RAM filling up sooner rather than later, but because you're not ''reusing'' anything. As it fills up THEN it will start flushing, but generally RAM, regardless of type, should spend most it's time full... if you're not ''using'' it all, by definition you're wasting a resource.

 

-edit

I was in mid type when it wigged out on me and posted, which has completely disrupted my train of thought. I'm leaving off here

Edited December 11, 2020 by zhukov032186

[RealDCSpilot]

VRAM is memory on the GPU, it's always the limiting factor for everything that get's processed and rendered to monitors by a 3D game engine. It holds the screenbuffers - all the pixels you see frame by frame and all the asset data like geometry (3D objects made of polygons) and texture data (2d bitmaps) plus certain effect processing buffers (like heat blur, screen space reflections etc.) that are needed for these frames. RAM is used for fast access for the CPU to the assets and for holding processing information (whats going on in the game). The CPU has to manage all of this, besides processing everything that is going on in the game it has also to manage loading of assets from disk to RAM to VRAM. Because on PC we still have VRAM and RAM separated (not like consoles with unified VRAM/RAM or like the Playstation 5 with GPU direct storage) a developer usually has to keep an eye on how the game uses VRAM and RAM to avoid reaching memory limits. This is part of memory management in the game's code. A dev has a certain scenario for his game in mind and he also knows what hardware combinations are out there to render the game (our machines). It looks like that ED didn't target the game engine for massive online scenarios with all available modules back in the days. It's still good for "normal" missions, you hop into one aircraft, do your mission and finish (back to main menu - VRAM gets purged). In this scenario you will barely exceed any memory limit and there is usually no need for purging unused assets during mission runtime. But online mission makers started to develop more and more open world scenarios over time, because they can, the mission editor and script engine allows it. And well, we all know that ED has to do a lot of changes and improvements on the core engine to make it fit for how we use it these days and to what actual hardware is capable of. First of all using more of our CPU cores in a more efficient way, so that excessive memory transfers do not influence CPU frametime that heavy anymore.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Alec Delorean

[Yskonyn]

So, did we get to do any extensive comparison test yet between 3080ti/3090?

 

 

[Thinder]

On 12/11/2020 at 2:26 PM, Lurker said:

 

Yes that makes sense, needs to make drawcalls for two different viepoints. Thank you. 

I don't know about DCS in 2 D anymore since I only play it in VR since I have an headset and now Multithreading.

What I noticed since the last MT update is a real progress in terms of performances, I have a new motherboard and didn't update the BIOS at first, so my CPU frequency was limited to 3600MHz, and its usage was well below that of the GPU which was 99% but I was already scoring the highest with 3DMark Pro at 4K and DCS was real smooth.

One could think that the GPU is the bottleneck but no, the previous BIOS simply set the CPU frequency as average, 3600GHz instead of the Base Clock 3.4GHz, and it stayed there, didn't boost regardless of which game or App was on, be it with 3DMark Pro, Furmark at 4K or Cinebench.

Once updated the BIOS Base Clock went down to 3.4GHz and it boosts, I tested it with Cinebench and HWMonitor and even undervolted with PBO2 Tuner by -30 without any problem.

So from where I'm standing, considering the performances I can squeeze out of this rig when set properly, everything is interdependent:

BIOS settings. RAM latency, number of stick, number of ranks per stick. Overall RAM-to-CPU bound. Microsoft Updates (it replaces AMD drivers without your knowledge). SSD speed and SSD socket (bandwidth). OS settings including background Apps etc, and I'm sure they all make a difference because I tested them.

It's only when one have taken care of every single one of those issues that the CPU or GPU can run at their true potentials; you run a RAM kit with too many ranks (64GB 4 X 1 stick 3600 GHz) you lose 31% at 4K, you run a RAM kit with a latency higher than optimum and it's a bottleneck and 30% bandwidth at 4K, and if your SSD sits on the wrong socket, that's 50% or more w/r speed gone up to 5% speed at 4K, you have mediocre case or/and CPU cooling, that's your thermal limit down the drain and yet a few more % final performance gone.

Since at the end of the day it's the CPU controller which have to manage all channels taking these parameters into account, before saying my CPU is slow, I look at what limits its capacities to run optimum, it takes time efforts and more than a few apps for testing/boosting its performances (7 5800X3D doesn't O.C but can be under-volted).

That's what I've been after for month and I'm not finished yet, the joy of computing...

Edited May 29, 2023 by Thinder