Video Memory Reported does not match Card Memory

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

Hi ( @Jeff I guess),

See attached image, The AMD card’s software reports it to have 4 GB memory, where Rhino seems to only see 1GB.
Is this an issue or should I ignore it?

Thanks
-Willem

2

I see the same thing here with an Nvidia GTX card which has 6gb of VRAM. I recall asking @jeff about it a while back and I think (correct me if I’m wrong Jeff) this is due to Windows not reporting the entire VRAM amount to Rhino but that Rhino will use the total VRAM available.

I agree it’s confusing.

3

I would not rely on Rhino as a hardware diagnostic tool. Most of everything you see on Rhino’s OpenGL page is to be used for tracking down problems, and not for reporting or informing you of your system configuration. Please use the proper tools available to you on your system for obtaining the respective information.

That being said, Rhino will use all available memory…it does not choke itself off based on the number reported in the OpenGL page (there’s actually no way to even do that)…again, you really should not be using that page for determining how your hardware is functioning.

I will most likely be removing all of the information in the OpenGL page in V6 since it seems confusing.

4

@jeff, since this (video card settings etc etc) comes up fairly regularly, it would be nice for both users and support if there were a one-touch tell ‘all me about my video’ from within Rhino.

-Pascal

5

That will most likely cause more problems than it would solve, for the very reason this post exists. I wish there was a system wide, standardized way to collect all of the video information…but there isn’t. Which means Rhino needs to dig through whatever it can find, and then assume what it found is actually correct. In this particular case of “video memory amount”, Rhino is getting it wrong on some configs…which means we can probably assume it will get other stuff wrong as well.

I understand what you want, but Rhino is not a hardware system diagnostic tool…and IMHO it shouldn’t be. Why stop at video, why not add “tell me all about my printer” or “tell me all about my monitor”…“hard drive”, “mouse”… I’m guessing that the reason the video settings “comes up fairly regularly” is because we post video information in the OpenGL page…if it wasn’t there to begin with, I wonder how many users would be bringing it up… Again, this information was added by me, for tracking down issues, and not as a place for users to go to get information about their hardware.

Having said that, what we can look into is some kind of standalone tool that can be run that either directs the user on where or how to find specific information on their system, and/or provides information that is standardized across all systems. Wrapping that capability up inside of Rhino seems like it’s out of scope for what Rhino is and does…but I’ll probably be overruled on that.

-Jeff

6

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your elaborate answer. I was surprised by the difference in reported memory. Your answer confirmed my suspicion this is not something to be concerned about.

Thanks
-Willem