@arc
Ah, that was not my intention but it could be misleading.
The programmers I spoke to said both [windows system and game developers don't make it so that the virtual memory is used in a smart way be prioritizing the use of RAM for the heavy lifting then using only virtual memory for the less demanding task]. So in the example you provide dedicating more virtual memory in
Windows advanced system settings (...) -> performance options advanced tab, virtual memory section change button,
will in itself not be a solution to increase the virtual memory manually, but rather keep the option system managed size checked, as the effect of increasing the page file manually will lead to windows operating like it has a larger size of actual RAM without prioritizing correctly as mentioned in the brackets above.
So if you are editing a large video clip it is not a problem to use virtual memory/paging file (above the standard settings) because it is a task you can do without it necessarily needing to go fast , but if you are gaming, you would want the heavy performance tasks to be handled by actual RAM and not by virtual memory because if not the game will perform at a much slower speed. -> In that sense, virtual memory is not suited for gamers in the sense that they are better of leaving the settings on windows default, but in no situation disable it as that would be a catastrophe for your computer.
So from your example with 11GB VRAM GTX1080Ti and 16GB of RAM, my limited understanding on computer hardware from what I have read suggests that it will not be a case where you take 16GB - 11 GB = 5GB . It uses the GPU VRAM as storage itself meaning it will ideally need more than 11GB of VRAM to start using RAM and that how efficiently it does this is dependent on the software.
The rest of this post is a quote from Quora which seems relatable to your example:
(the bold text adrees what I meant)
Quote from https://www.quora.com/How-much-RAM-does-a-GTX-1080ti-Founder-Edition-use:
"How much RAM does a GTX 1080ti Founder Edition use?
1 Answer
Dino Orucevic
Dino Orucevic, A huge PC enthusiast. Both figuratively and literally.
Answered Oct 7, 2017 · Author has 259 answers and 1m answer views
I’m having a hard time understanding this question. Graphics cards don’t consume RAM out of the blue, the software you are going to be using will consume RAM. The Graphics card does, however, include its own dedicated RAM (Referred to as VRAM). The amount of VRAM included is often found in the name, such as “MSI GTX 1060 G6”, which says “6GBs of VRAM”.
How much VRAM/ RAM will software consume?
This is entirely dependent on the software you’re going to use. For example: Spotify might consume 100MBs of RAM while Davinci Resolve will consume up to 8GBs of RAM.
VRAM is only going to be consumed when your graphics card is working on something; Like a game, where the graphics card constantly has to make what you see on-screen, and to make it, it needs to store the information for said game, such as textures.
What if I need more VRAM than my GPU has?
Let’s say you’re playing GTA 6 and you max all the details out, but oh no, your game is trying to utilize 12GBs of VRAM, and your GPU only has 11GB. If that’s the case, the information needs to be stored somewhere. This information will be put in the RAM of your system. Because the RAM is further away from the graphics card, and it’s MUCH slower, you will experience frame drops.
Do I need a specific amount of RAM for this GPU?
If you look at the back of the box for your graphics caard it will have “requirements” there, such as “8GBs of RAM required”, this is just their recommended amount of RAM. A gaming card will often have 8GBs of RAM recommended as most gaming systems should have that amount of RAM, but it’s not outright required to run said card.
Summary
The graphics card does not use any RAM unless a game/ program requires so much VRAM that it exceeds the amount of information your GPU can store in its own VRAM and needs to store some data on the system RAM. Even the drivers won’t use a lot of RAM. It’s the application you’re using which will utilize RAM/ VRAM, not the graphics card itself.
EDIT:
There is different ways graphics chips may use system RAM:
Another quote from http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/377132-33-difference-shared-dedicated
-Graphic chip external to the CPU will have a very small amount(if any) of dedicated memory that only it has access to. It will try to reserve a chunk of system motherboard RAM for its use (BIOS settings will determine the size)
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Graphics chip internal to the CPU, will have access to some of the CPU's very,very high speed memory, then get further memory from the system RAM on the motherboard.
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Graphics memory on a external card, is very high speed memory that only the graphics card gets to use. dedicated memory.
so:
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Shared system memory: basically the operating system shares its slower RAM in the motherboard SIMM slots with the graphics chip.
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Dedicated graphics memory: the graphic hardware has memory only it can use
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System memory: areas of memory that only the Operation system can use.
Last case:
So in some cases (depending on your hardware) you may increase video RAM by dedicating more virtual memory, but I am not sure whether this is a good idea yet performance wise. Input would be appreciated:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/video-ram-windows-10/