Video Card Usage % Question

K so i was wondering if anyone could tell me why this program i downloaded (Istat menus 3) for mac displays my GPU Usage as nearly full when the only thing im doing is watching and loading videos atm on websites and using itunes?

I know that this GPU has 256 mb on the card and i have 4gb ram in the laptop; the v card uses memory sharing , just wondering if anyone knows why the bar would be filled up when im hardly doing anything .. No problems with it, just wondering why its like that, doesnt logically make sense to me

Probably because the card uses system memory. It's using memory to load/access the videos you're opening and then it uses more memory to play the videos through what ever media player you're using. Plus who knows how accurate this program is. Does it show you how much GPU processing power is being used? You sure you have 4gigs of memory? That program is displaying 2754 total and 1341 free.

Probably because the card uses system memory. It's using memory to load/access the videos you're opening and then it uses more memory to play the videos through what ever media player you're using. Plus who knows how accurate this program is. Does it show you how much GPU processing power is being used? You sure you have 4gigs of memory? That program is displaying 2754 total and 1341 free.

im not computer illiterate, i know what my computer has lool.., 2754 + 1341 = ~4gb

2754 used, 1341 free

Edited by NowIsB, 14 June 2012 - 08:08 PM.

I'm positive that your tool isn't taking the split memory into account. An important thing to remember is that you haven't got 1 physical block of ram containing all of your computers ram, you have 2 or possibly 3+ blocks which combined provide you with all your memory. To you this is no issue, but when it comes to programming you do write programs specifically tell them to use ram block X.

I'm not a Mac, but go find a better and more professional tool to measure these things.

Also 2750mb RAM used on almost nothing seems extreme to me, might want to look into that. Graphical desktop applications in general are a huge burden performance wise, so might want to cut back on those