I am also experiencing this issue, running Vivid on an amd64, using the nvidia 340.76 drivers which are not as recent as the 346 drivers but are the recommended drivers for my card:
~$ sudo ubuntu-drivers devices == /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/0000:03:00.0 == modalias : pci:v000010DEd00000400sv00001682sd00002280bc03sc00i00 manual_install: True vendor : NVIDIA Corporation model : G84 [GeForce 8600 GTS] driver : nvidia-340 - distro non-free recommended driver : nvidia-304 - distro non-free driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin driver : nvidia-304-updates - distro non-free driver : nvidia-340-updates - distro non-free -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1409110 Title: nvidia binary driver leaks vram like crazy Status in nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 package in Ubuntu: Invalid Status in nvidia-graphics-drivers-346 package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Using the nvidia-smi tool, you can see how much VRAM the binary driver is using for the card. However, with the current latest driver in Ubuntu 14.10, the results aren't good. Just using desktop apps (no OpenGL apart from what Unity and Chrome naturally use), and the driver has consumed over a GB of VRAM: graeme@galvatron:~⟫ sudo nvidia-smi [sudo] password for graeme: Fri Jan 9 11:58:06 2015 +------------------------------------------------------+ | NVIDIA-SMI 331.38 Driver Version: 331.38 | |-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC | | Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. | |===============================+======================+======================| | 0 GeForce GTX 570 Off | 0000:01:00.0 N/A | N/A | | 40% 43C N/A N/A / N/A | 1047MiB / 1279MiB | N/A Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Compute processes: GPU Memory | | GPU PID Process name Usage | |=============================================================================| | 0 Not Supported | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ However, you can tell that this is caused by some sort of driver leak, since if you jump to the fb console with ctl-alt-f1, and then alt-tab back to X, the VRAM usage drops dramatically: graeme@galvatron:~⟫ sudo nvidia-smi Fri Jan 9 11:58:27 2015 +------------------------------------------------------+ | NVIDIA-SMI 331.38 Driver Version: 331.38 | |-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC | | Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. | |===============================+======================+======================| | 0 GeForce GTX 570 Off | 0000:01:00.0 N/A | N/A | | 40% 45C N/A N/A / N/A | 483MiB / 1279MiB | N/A Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Compute processes: GPU Memory | | GPU PID Process name Usage | |=============================================================================| | 0 Not Supported | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The upshot of this is that, right now, I have to dump to the fb console and back before using any OpenGL apps, or they often fail with OpenGL memory allocation errors. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10 Package: nvidia-331 331.38-0ubuntu7 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-25.33-generic 3.16.7 Uname: Linux 3.16.0-25-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Fri Jan 9 12:01:56 2015 SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) modified.conffile..etc.modprobe.d.nvidia.331.hybrid.conf: [deleted] To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-331/+bug/1409110/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
