Is GPU-Z's vram usage part of the log file reliable?

I'm playing Fallout on my 8510W and was wondering if GPU-Z's log is reliable in reference to vram usage. I could not run the game without nauseating lag on high detail with 1440x900 even with my card OC'd to 650/1300/950 ( 1900mhz effective GDDR3 ) and I checked the GPU-Z log that collected info while I ran the game and my vram was almost always maxed though my GPU load seemed to rarely go above 80%. When I dropped to medium detail my vram usage is now around 230 - 240mb average max whereas before it was almost always 250mb when I would be outdoors.

I tried dropping the res to 1280x800 with high detail and GPU-Z still was almost always at 250mb for vram usage outdoors, I honestly didn't think Fo3 used that much vram for textures but I guess it does.

Is the GPU-Z log relatively accurate about vram usage?

I'm going to try Fo3 on a friends GX630 with a 512mb GDDR3 9600m GT on high @ 1440x900 and check the vram usage under GPU-Z but I'm wondering if it's reliable or if there is another reason I cannot run high detail even at 1280x800 in Fo3 with this system.

 

You're trying to load high detail textures on a card with only 256MB of video RAM. I'd say that'll max you out to 100% easy. Dropping the res doesn't necessarily decrease the size of the textures that it has to load into vRAM. Running FO3 on high on a 8600m GT equivalent GPU with only 256MB of RAM is just asking too much.

 

I'm with seeker_moc, you're asking too much of your video card. The game recommend that I use Medium detail on my 1Gb ATi 5650. I'm assuming the other settings are low, but still it seems to be too much. 256MB of video ram is the minimum to even play it, let alone High Detail.

 

Use MSI afterburner instead... has all the OSD you need for GPu load/temp/clocks

 

On the upside, with the OC and medium texture detail I can now use HDR without any real noticeable impact.

I'll try the MSI afterburner but it looks like GPU-Z may be right in saying my card just doesn't have enough ram for the high detail textures which sucks :-/

Might see if I can swap my laptop and cash for a friends GX630 with it's 9600m GT that has 512mb GDDR3 as I'm really digging Fo3 even though I've restarted it 3 times after being close to half way through each time and the high res textures did look good though the game was a little jerky at times.