GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT MEMORY USAGE REDUCTION

A memory usage reduction system optimizes GPU memory usage by reducing the memory footprint of graphical resources, and therefore, the amount of memory necessary to store those graphical resources in GPU memory. In one embodiment, the system comprises a CPU with a system memory in communication with a GPU with a video memory. Graphical resources are stored on the system memory. A data collection process intercepts or modifies function calls to the GPU from the CPU to build a data record as the graphical resources are read from the system memory and loaded into the video memory. The data record identifies which graphical resources are to be loaded into the video memory in the compressed or uncompressed state. The GPU may encode the graphical resources. Encoding may be done during a pre-boot operation. The GPU may decode the graphical resources on the fly when needed for rendering during normal operation.