Nvidia Gforce not using dedicated memory

Question

I have a Nvidia GeFroce GT 740M GPU, I installed GPU-Z to monitor my GPU usage. It shows that dedicated memory is not being used at all (0MB usage). But the GPU load is around 50% (in Dota 2). In heavy games like Rust it still does not use the memory of GPU. Please help me fix this. I am running Windows 8.1 x64.

Solution

This looks like a GPU-Z Bug, to verifiy this, run Process Explorer or Process Hacker and open the system information window and both tools display here the Memory usage of GPUs:

Comments

[Admin]

Are you sure it has dedicated memory? Most laptop GPUs use shared memory from the RAM.

[Admin]

yes i'm sure , it has 2gb dedicated memory

[Admin]

@WaleedHamra Only integrated GPUs (Intel HD Graphics or AMD Radeon in APUs) use system memory. All discrete GPUs have dedicated memory.

[Admin]

@iBug this is not a discrete graphics card, 740m is a laptop gpu integrated. It's up to the manufacturer to decide how memory is handled, and most use shared ram. My 850m uses shared ram.

[Admin]

@WaleedHamra By 'discrete' I mean that the GPU is not packaged on the same board with CPU. Discrete GPUs are always connected to CPU via PCI-e bus. They always have separate memory called Video Memory (VRAM). Those are often GDDR3 (low-end) or GDDR5 (high-end) while system memory is DDR3 or DDR4, plugged in DIMM slots (SO-DIMM slots for laptops and some ITX MBs).

[Admin]

@WaleedHamra So far I have never heard discrete GPUs use system memory which is intended for CPUs. Discrete GPUs are not always removable (MXM slots in laptops, PCI-e's in desktops) but they are still discrete.

[Admin]

@WaleedHamre Your GTX 850M must have 2GB dedicated VRAM of GDDR5, or 4GB d. VRAM of GDDR3. It's unbelievable that a dGPU use system memory.

[Admin]

Hey, OP. What's your GPU-Z version and NVIDIA Graphics Driver version?

[Admin]

which laptop do you use? post a link to the spec page

[Admin]

thanks for all the comments , I have Lenovo ideapad z500-j , nvidia driver vresion is 378 and gpuz is the latest version . I posted a screen shot of the gpuz , after I downgraded the Nvidia driver version to 375 the gpu load and memory controller load started working ! but the dedicated memory is still 0 .I uploaded the gpuz sensors tab (running dota 2) and graphic card tab (Nvidia details) . thanks for all the help

[Admin]

Dynamic memory usage shows 0 MB too, which would mean that your GPU uses no memory at all, which is obviously impossible - so it's a measurement error or a GPU-Z bug. Nothing to fix here. If you want to monitor memory usage, try other programs.

[Admin]

@gronostaj I used GPU shark , it shows 14.5% of the memory is being used , its still low , I get 30 fps in high video settings in Dota 2 and 80 fps in low settings , it is still using 978MB of the RAM , how can I get it to use all of the gpu memory?

[Admin]

this looks like a bug. Run ProcessHacker, ProcessExplorer open the system information window and look here how much GPU RAM is used

[Admin]

ProcessHacker shows 240MB of gpu memory being used , 30% of the ram , I think this is normal for dota 2, i'm not sure tho , thanks for the help

[Admin]

That GPU is probably using the maximum amount of memory that it can use. The GPU processor is to weak to use all the memory in that game. The GPU processor (core) is more important than the memory. Usually the manufacturers add more memory for marketing purposes even though it will never be used because of the low end video processor.

[twitch.tv Alginnon]

You can also check your memory use of your graphics card by using the nvidia control panel. Right click your desktop, choose nvidia control panel. When it comes up, choose view system topology from workstation in the left hand menu.

[Arash Mohammadi]

thanks , I have checked bios , it has 2 options for "graphic device" , 1: UMA 2: switchable , I had to choose the 2nd option . I posted some screenshots of the gpuz . My nvidia control panel is so simple , it only has "3D Settings" in the right side , because i am using a laptop and the Intel gpu is taking care of the display and simple stuff.

[Arash Mohammadi]

it was a gpu-z bug and process explorer shows the memory usage of the gpu . thanks :)