HQ graphics and VRAM

[Jap2.0]

I haven't yet updated to 0.16 (for various reasons, but I'm hoping to soon), but first I had a few questions about the added graphics. First, if I have two graphics cards will Factorio use VRAM from both of them, or just one of them? Secondly, if I don't have enough VRAM to play with the higher resoluation graphics, is it possible to use them anyway (I believe I heard that it might use your RAM as well)? If so, what should I do to make these work optimally?

[cbhj1]

1. will depend on whether you are using SLI/Crossfire, one card if not using that tech
2. not sure on the ram part there, but I'm using HR sprites successfully on a 2GB card at 1080p, but did have to adjust the video settings to get it smooth. open to discuss further if you'd like

[Jap2.0]

Okay, thanks! I'm not entirely sure how they're set up, I'll look into that. What do you recommend for video settings?

[cbhj1]

not sure what to recommend as I don't know what card you are running, but will share the settings I'm using

20180102114029_1.jpg (96.5 KiB) Viewed 4073 times

low res screenshot for ease of conveyance

[Jap2.0]

Okay, thanks! I'll play around with it and see what works best for me.

[posila]

Jap2.0, what is your HW configuration?

[Jap2.0]

Intel Core i7 950
12 gigabytes of RAM
2x AMD Radeon 5800 series graphics cards, 1 gigabyte of VRAM each (they appear to be using Crossfire)
1280x1024 screen
Windows 7

I'm playing the Steam version. If it'll help I can get you a log. Thanks!

[cbhj1]

looks to me that the main thing that might cause trouble for using the HiRes sprites would be whether the cards share resources effectively in Crossfire, otherwise your system should be adequate. I would make note of your current settings then experiment.

[Koub]

IIRC, two Video adapters in Crossfire/SLI are seen by the system like a dual GPU card, with each GPU able to access its own VRAM. It's like having a "faster" GPU with as much VRAM as one of the cards. With JAp2.0's example, it would be like a 5800x2 with 1 GM VRAM.

[Jap2.0]

Okay, did some research and it looks like VRAM is not combined with multiple graphics cards (although it's apparently possible under some circumstances in DirectX 12 if the game is designed to do so).

[posila]

1 GB is quite low for high res, but you still may be able to make it work.

With Medium Video memory usage the game will try to allocate ~970 MB of sprite atlases and ~1600 MB of other sprites; Low video memory usage will reduce atlases to ~640 MB and ~1930 MB of other sprites. (If tree mipmaps and linear filtering on icons is enabled)

If you enable "Low VRAM mode", the game won't allocate other sprites as video textures immediately but only when given sprite is needed, "Low quality sprite rotations" will use only every second frame of train rotation sprite sheets - so it will reduce size of allocated other sprites by ~350 MB.

You need to experiment with "Atlas texture size"; "Optimized sprite atlas packing" doesn't do anything on Video memory usage other than All, so don't bother with that.

Note: driver may allow to allocate more textures than fit to VRAM, and than either shuffle them around as they are being used, but performance varies on different configuration (for example I can play on the highest settings on 2GB GTX 750Ti, but FPS drops to half on 2GB Radeon R7 360)

[Jap2.0]

Okay, thanks!