Hot Fix for Graphics Memory Overflow Problem

An out of memory problem on the virtualized graphics memory arise when applications especially games demand for memory that is no longer available physically.

Microsoft has issued an explanation of this problem through this whitepaper. The whitepaper explains the root of this problem, gives both an iterim and long-term solution.

The whitepaper says:

Windows Vista significantly improved the way in which the operating system handles the graphic processing unit (GPU). The Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) enables better sharing of GPU resources among multiple graphics applications. The video memory manager component of WDDM virtualizes the available video memory resources for applications to use. This enables the new Windows Aero experience to run alongside other applications, such as video playback, which also use the GPU.

Because of this, Microsoft released a hot fix for it found here. As per their explanation — To address this problem, Microsoft is changing the way that the video memory manager maintains the content of video memory resources. This change is being made so that a permanent virtual address range does not have to be used for each virtualized allocation. With the new approach, only allocations that are created as “lockable” consume space in the virtual address space of the application. Allocations that are not created as “lockable” do not consume space. This approach significantly reduces the virtual address space that is used. Therefore, the application can run on large video memory configurations without reaching the limits.

Although this approach reduces virtual address consumption, it does not eliminate the 2 GB virtual address space limit that many applications are quickly approaching on their own. Eventually, applications will reach the limit for other reasons.