GPU Memory Limits

joemiceli_af4eae92e1

Only been doing this for two months, so please bear with me if this is addressed elsewhere. I gather that, if the scene is too complex (too many detailed characters, low lighting, too big, etc...) Then the GPU of a graphics card might not be able to handle it and the render defaults to the CPU. This has happened to me before. My question: Is there a way to tell how much MiB or MB your scene contains BEFORE you start rendering, and is the listed amount (4G, 8G, 16G) the actual amount of info each Graphic Card can handle or is there wiggle room? Knowing before hand would save a LOT of time! 

Thanks. 

I7-6700k, 16GRam, RTX 2070, with an old 980ti running the monitor. 

Richard Haseltine

Unfortunately, no.

kenshaw011267

There is no way to tell but you'll get a feel for it with some practice.

BTW lighting has next to no impact on the amount of VRAM used. It can make the scene take longer to render though.

When a graphics card says 4Gb, or 8 or 11 etc., that is the actual amount. There are RAM chips soldered onto the graphics card itself with that much.