[SadTransGirl]

Players report shared GPU memory that only grows over a session. A retired pool's import is given back only when its mirror state is MIRROR_NONE, so a pool whose mirror was refused (over 1 GB, or no room in VRAM when it was asked for, mirror_make) kept its import, pinned system memory the driver counts as the GPU's shared memory, for the rest of the session: the more of them, the fuller VRAM was.

Change. gpu/vk/vk_memory.cpp, retired_imports_give_back: a MIRROR_REFUSED pool's import goes as a MIRROR_NONE pool's does, after the same waits. imports_give_back already treats the two alike ((p.mstate == Pool::MIRROR_NONE || p.mstate == Pool::MIRROR_REFUSED) a few functions below). A refused pool has no mirror and is never inherit_pending, so nothing else reaches its import once the GPU is past retired_value and last_value, as for a MIRROR_NONE one.

Tested in the game. RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB (617.42), Windows 11, DLAA 2560x1440, unattended. This card never has a mirror refused (no pool over 1 GB, no allocation over budget), so both builds carried a test-only patch that makes every budget refusal MIRROR_REFUSED, run with RX_VK_MIRROR_MB=256 so that most pools were refused. The last "vk: imports:" line of each run:

	Main	This change
Castle Town to Hyrule Field	20 retired still imported (1,488 MB), 2 given back	0 still imported, 21 given back (1,472 MB)
Hyrule Field walk, 5 min	13 retired still imported (992 MB), 2 given back	0 still imported, 15 given back (1,040 MB)
Kokiri Forest	(not run)	0 still imported, 11 given back (512 MB)

No device lost and no error in any run. Row added to docs/tested-configurations.md.

Tests. tests/test_retired_give_back.py checks the condition; it fails on main and passes here.

With #2618 (open). #2618 turns a mirror that found no VRAM into MIRROR_NONE and asks again, so after it lands MIRROR_REFUSED is left for pools over 1 GB (and RX_VK_MIRROR_NO_RETRY=1): this still gives their imports back. The two touch different functions; they conflict only in docs/ rows, if at all.

Not tested. AMD and Intel on Windows, where retired_mode waits before giving retired imports back and where refused mirrors happen without a patch; a real card with VRAM full.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Joey-Magnus]

I merged this into current main and ran test_retired_give_back, test_import_buffer_binding and test_import_write_watch. All pass, and CI is green. The change at vk_memory.cpp:3187 matches what imports_give_back already does for live pools: it treats MIRROR_NONE and MIRROR_REFUSED alike. A refused pool never has a mirror, so it can never be inherit_pending, and the existing retired_value and last_value checks against mem_completed still guard the GPU side. I don't see a path that touches a refused retired pool's import after those values pass.

One clarification for the description: on current main, a budget refusal in mirror_make sets MIRROR_NONE. Only a pool over 1 GB, or a failed create_device_buffer, becomes MIRROR_REFUSED. So in normal play this frees fewer pools than the patched A/B suggests, and that's why you needed the test patch. The fix is still right, and it's cheap. With #2618 it only conflicts in docs/development.md, and with #2794 only in docs/tested-configurations.md.