Description:
The NVidia driver contains a regression whereby VRAM is not deallocated and eventually leads to Xorg hang when the driver cannot allocate more VRAM. Issue observed on MacBook Pro 4,1 (Early 2008) with NVidia 8600M GT (256MB variant).

NVidia-settings reports 98-99% (253-255MB) VRAM used when running 2D productivity applications such as Chrome, xterm, and nvidia-settings. Trying to play video in VLC is a good way to provoke the crash. Reverting back to nvidia-340.32-1 and linux-3.16.2-1 restores the previous behaviour (~40% VRAM used when running productivity applications).

Tested with Enlightenment and awesome, nvidia-settings reports identical VRAM use and Xorg crashes when trying to watch video (SD or HD) with VLC.

Additional info:
awesome 3.5.5-1
enlightenment 0.19.0-1
linux 3.17.1-1
linux-firmware 20141009.0e5f637-1
linux-headers 3.17.1-1
nvidia-340xx 340.46-4
nvidia-340xx-libgl 340.46-3
nvidia-340xx-utils 340.46-3
slim 1.3.6-5
vlc 2.1.5-4
xorg-server 1.16.1-1
xorg-server-common 1.16.1-1


Steps to reproduce:
1. Start X (using slim or startx)
2. Play video with VLC
3. Wait

Expected behaviour:
1. Start X
2. Play video with VLC
3. System is stable