What's a good memory amount for gaming?

J

jbltecnicspro

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Hello,

I just built a new PC and so far, so good. Here are my specs:

Intel Core i3 2100
4GB G.Skill Ripjaws (2 x 2GB)
Radeon HD 7750 1GB
Samsung SSD 64 GB
Western Digital 320GB HD

All said and done, it only cost about $625 (newegg had some promotions going on that I took advantage of). My goal with the build was to create a cheap rig that could do my school work (I'm studying computer science) and play some games at a modest resolution - 1440x900.

I'm only playing one game right now - Skyrim, and so far so good. Framerates with everything set to high (plus 4x AF) hover in the 60 area, with a couple of dips to the 30s here and there (from my estimation, at least - I'm not using a frame counter). The game does stutter every now and then though, but it's not detrmiental to the gameplay. I suspect that it has to do with my SSD's fast access more than anything. My question is: Will 8 GB of RAM eliminate this stuttering? At idle desktop, my machine uses 700-800MB of RAM. I'm not sure how much RAM Skyrim is using...

Thanks for your responses. :)
 
Could be RAM or video card. The 7750 averages 30fps at 1080p resolution, I don't know about yours but that isn't really a powerhouse card. It also wouldn't hurt to get 4 more GB RAM, it's so cheap right now, especially on the FS/FT forum.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Could be RAM or video card. The 7750 averages 30fps at 1080p resolution, I don't know about yours but that isn't really a powerhouse card. It also wouldn't hurt to get 4 more GB RAM, it's so cheap right now, especially on the FS/FT forum.
Click to expand...

The video card isn't a problem for me, as my monitor's native res is only 1440x900. Thanks though.
 
Most game executables are still 32bit and most will not fill 4gb of ram. You might notice a load time boost but I doubt you'll see much of a boost in fps.
 
Skyrim only uses 2GB RAM (unless you manually changed it to use 4GB) so I don't think it's the RAM that's causing the FPS dips.

Most likely the GPU, you might average 60fps but it's a low-mid range card so occasional stuttering is probably expected.
 
i think 4GB is fine for any game out right now and any game in the near future
 
The "stuttering" I'm talking about isn't framerate drops, but mini pauses - as if the computer's trying to load something up. I've checked memory usage, and it's within my system's limits. For what it's worth - Sonic Generations Demo does the same thing, albeit not as frequently. It runs at a solid 60fps - never going below - but still has pausing.
 
Skyrim introduced a update a few months ago that allowed it to use 4GB RAM itself, so you could bump the system ram up to 6 or 8 GB so that Skyrim can have a whole 4GB to itself, however the performance gain is probably very marginal. I still find 4GB total RAM the sweet spot with little if anything to be gained by adding more.
 
I think 8GB of RAM would be nice, but I don't think you would see much of a change in Skyrim.
 
I'm no technonerd expert but...Don't you have to factor in Game Usage, PLUS++ Windows OS Usage? I think so, and therefore WINDOWS OS uses a hibernation file that is like half your system RAM 24/7! So the OS WILL use up 2GB and the game also HAS to use 2GB. Which is going to MAX out a 4GB setup at some point of play. Therefore anything above that would cause a slight stutter.

Solution is to get 8 GB so you would have 4GB free for the game and 4GB free for the OS hibernation file. Typical usage would be 2-3GB in Skyrim, PLUS that 4GB OS hibernation file. So your setup, should never go over 7 GB combined, and you should have no more stutter.

This theory I use also applies to Videocard RAM. NEVER exceed it or the game stutters. So generally different games uses different amounts of VRAM. Trial and error (MSI Afterburner O.S.D.) or if you have a single screen 2-3GB videocard memory should be tolerable.

I say grab another 4GB memory for cheap no matter what anyone says. Unless of course you ONLY use your windows OS and never game ANY current game titles 4GB might do.
 
hibernation file is stored on the OS drive, it will dump what's on ram to that file when you tell your computer to hibernate. so hibernate won't use that much ram.

you are probably "OK" on ram, what speed do you have it at? do you have configured for dual channel?

i had skyrim on my ssd for a while, and then put it on my HDD and i don't see much of a difference at all, and am probably saving my ssd a ton of reads/writes.
 
Bigted, I originally had it configured for single channel memory, as the color-coding on the motherboard is deceitful. That said, once switching to dual channel, I've noticed less stuttering on Skyrim. Ram speed s 1333 mhz DDR-3.

I should also note that it stutters on Sonic Generations Demo too, but not frequently. Again - the same stuff. Runs at a blazing 60fps constant and then *pause,* and right back to 60fps. It's feeling a lot like memory issues. My Radeon HD 7750 has 1 GB of VRAM. Not sure how much that's holding me back...
 
Well, first off, is Skyrim installed to the SSD or the HDD?

If not, then it might be the HDD, and that could be spin down. Check your power settings and see if the HDD is set to spin down after a period of time. When it goes to load, it needs to spin the drive back up.

If it is on the SSD, then try to do a benchmark on the drive. HD Tune or HD Tach both give you a graph of the drive speed. Now access to the drive will mess with the graph, so to minimize other interference, I'd suggest running them in safe mode. Little blips of dropped speed are to be expected, but if the line isn't linear or has big jumps, you might have a dieing SDD. Also make sure the FW on the SSD is up to date.
 
Jorona said:
Well, first off, is Skyrim installed to the SSD or the HDD?

If not, then it might be the HDD, and that could be spin down. Check your power settings and see if the HDD is set to spin down after a period of time. When it goes to load, it needs to spin the drive back up.

If it is on the SSD, then try to do a benchmark on the drive. HD Tune or HD Tach both give you a graph of the drive speed. Now access to the drive will mess with the graph, so to minimize other interference, I'd suggest running them in safe mode. Little blips of dropped speed are to be expected, but if the line isn't linear or has big jumps, you might have a dieing SDD. Also make sure the FW on the SSD is up to date.
Click to expand...

It's on the SSD, as the load times are great. I'll check with Samsung to see if there's a new firmware for the drive. I hope so. I'll go ahead and test it later tonight to see what I get. It's well within the 30 day RMA period, so I'll get on it.

I was really hoping that this build would be trouble-free. For what it's worth, sometimes when coming out of sleep mode, or restarting, It's failed to start Windows and starts over again. /Sigh
 
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