4gb vs 8gb
- Thread starter nitram100
- Start date
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Soldato
Either of them will be ok, just get which one you prefer.
I use XMS3 & Hyper Grey both at 1.5v,superb memory.
I use XMS3 & Hyper Grey both at 1.5v,superb memory.
Associate
Just played BF3 multiplayer and physical memory usage went up to 95% 3.81GB. I had open... fraps, trixx, Xonar audio center, battle log, Origin and avast (WTM too)
I didnt expect that....
Soldato
As memory is so cheap, I have upgraded to 16gb of memory in three of my pc's.
Just played BF3 multiplayer and physical memory usage went up to 95% 3.81GB. I had open... fraps, trixx, Xonar audio center, battle log, Origin and avast (WTM too)
I didnt expect that....
Diff get 8GB then!
I was hitting 95% max as well (with my usual programs running) and had to close them in order for it to go below 90% and during BF 3, I would get really bad stuttering where it looked like it froze for a few seconds or something, ever since I upgraded I have all my usual stuff in the background no my more stuttering like that
I just went with the corsair 8GB XMS3 (looks much better when you see it for yourself and feels of very high quality, which most of the stock images used appear to make it look very cheap, when it really has a nice dark metallic look to it) and I haven't bothered OC it to 1600MHz, just stock and it runs great!
Think I'll probably get the hyper X then, simply because Kingston have a uk rma address.
i dont see how people are seeing a difference going from 4 > 8gb in bf3 tbh...
im using 4gb and dont see the point in upgrading as no games use anywhere near that, its all in peoplesw heads that they see these improvements.
however if i was building a new pc now ofcourse getting 8gb just because its so cheap makes sense.
upgrading from 4 > 8gb just for the hell ot it however seems silly to me
im using 4gb and dont see the point in upgrading as no games use anywhere near that, its all in peoplesw heads that they see these improvements.
however if i was building a new pc now ofcourse getting 8gb just because its so cheap makes sense.
upgrading from 4 > 8gb just for the hell ot it however seems silly to me
So the people here, here and here are just imagining it?
They all upgraded from 4GB to 8GB.
I'll let someone else explain:
BF3 performs better with 8 Gb ram as it uses up a lot of shared ram to cache graphics data. With only 4 Gb ram, it gets overburdened with both game data and graphics data which leads to not enough being available for both.
Having 8 Gb ram gives you plenty for both system ram and shared graphics ram. 4 Gb is far too limited now, my idle memory usage is currently sat at 3.7 Gb, I couldnt imagine playing games on Windows 7 with only 4 Gb ram.
I see too many people whining about lag and stutter in BF3, and they think its because they dont have enough Vram, but in all these cases I've seen the user only had 4 Gb ram. People on this forum have reported flawless performance in BF3 using 1 Gb video cards and 8 Gb system ram without any lag spikes or stuttering.
Also, you have to remember that when it comes to system ram, or Vram data caching in the shared ram, this wont actually show up in your 'physical memory usage':
I simply opened 1 image, and my idle ram usage went over 4 Gb, and all of my excess ram is being used for caching which is what would be reducing lag in games for people with 8 Gb+ ram.
that prooves nothing... its cached ram cached fro the sake of it and released when needed...
its how windows 7 works, its not in use because it has to be.
i could record me playing bf3 perfectly with no stutter...., infact ive got videos on youtube ive recorded with fraps and its fine.....
its how windows 7 works, its not in use because it has to be.
i could record me playing bf3 perfectly with no stutter...., infact ive got videos on youtube ive recorded with fraps and its fine.....
I'm happy for you.
But there are several users who have stated that they have a better playing experience in BF3 after they upgraded from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.
Either they're all imagining it or having 8GB of RAM has provided a real benefit for them when playing BF3.
probably people who have photoshop , numerous webpages, itunes etc running in the background
my memory usage after a round of caspian border on a 64player server
theres no shared video ram with system ram until your gpu runs out of memory either... and once your gpu starts usingf system ram your going to get massive lag spikes even if you have 1 terabyte of ram because system ram just isnt fast enough for gpus
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I couldn't disagree with you any more!
Yes the game itself doesn't use any more than about 1.2GB or whatever it is, but when you have that running plus origin, your browser and your other typical programs in the background running, that can all add up to using a lot of RAM and if the physical usage is hitting anywhere near 90 or over you are going to be enduring very bad stuttering like I did and this was solved by me having to close things down like my sidebar, origin window, using chrome instead of FF, closing other things like display fusion, fraps etc. which I shouldn't have to do, therefore 8GB was necessary and has made everything much better.
I guess if you don't have many things running, then 4GB is plenty, but for me and others it just isn't.
And see these threads, where I also posted RAM usage with 4GB:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18336231&highlight=username_Nexus18
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18333705&highlight=username_Nexus18
And I am also not the sort of person who upgrades just for the sake of it, just look at my spec in sig, surely if I did, I would have a far better PC then especially the GPU? And I would be overclocking everything, but I am not, all is still at stock clocks.
My rig is perfectly fine for playing games at medium-high settings (except a new GPU is badly needed).
EDIT:
And I don't have things like photoshop etc. running in the background either, just my daily programs that start up with the PC and FF and origin running when playing BF3.
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you dont need all these programs open for the sake of it and you can close your browser down once the game is loaded which with firefox would save you around 300mb of ram
ive got avast, fraps, firefox, msi afterburner, utorrent, TVersity, perfectdisk 11, origin etc in the background btw
anyway with 4gb of ram i had almost a full gb of ram free and could probably have closed enough programs to free up around 500mb if i wanted to
bf3 itself doesnt even use 2gb of memory
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Why should I have to close background programs because of a game and then restart them again once it is finished, rinse and repeat?
Plus I am not going to close the browser because with BF 3, the game crashed or fails to load, which then means I have to relaunch browser, login again, rinse and repeat and I also want to have access to the chat and party options as well.
My programs that run in the background all the time and when BF 3 running are:
- sidebar, 8 gadgets, which I need/want as they are useful for monitoring the usage of CPU etc. uses around 80MB of RAM for the sidebar
- FF, with 3 tabs open, using about 400MB of RAM
- origin, using about 170MB of RAM
- eset antivirus
- comodo firewall
- peerblock
- display fusion (for dual monitors setup)
- AMD CCC
- FRAPS
- Logitech mouse and keyboard control panel
- coretemp (need it for temps for my CPU for the sidebar gadget)
- dropbox
- unified remote
I only have 3 foreground windows opened when in game.
And as said to be quite frank, I cba closing those down every time I want to play BF 3 and I have no problems with 4GB of RAM and other games running.
If you hit 90% or higher physical usage when playing BF 3, maybe you will see what I mean by the bad stuttering and the other main point that I wanted to be improved, which was this:
Anyway, as said, it is not just me who has had a good outcome from upgrading to 8GB, plenty of people here seem to experience the same as me.
And I have also read that having more RAM can help people that have low amount of VRAM, so maybe that is why I have noticed a substantial increase in smoothness for BF 3.
And besides, the whole windows experience feels much smoother now, documents etc. load instantly as opposed to taking a few seconds to launch with 4GB of RAM and it only cost me about £20 to get another 4GB (complete new 8GB kit of RAM for me though as my bro took my old 4GB set and paired it with his 4GB).
Plus I am not going to close the browser because with BF 3, the game crashed or fails to load, which then means I have to relaunch browser, login again, rinse and repeat and I also want to have access to the chat and party options as well.
My programs that run in the background all the time and when BF 3 running are:
- sidebar, 8 gadgets, which I need/want as they are useful for monitoring the usage of CPU etc. uses around 80MB of RAM for the sidebar
- FF, with 3 tabs open, using about 400MB of RAM
- origin, using about 170MB of RAM
- eset antivirus
- comodo firewall
- peerblock
- display fusion (for dual monitors setup)
- AMD CCC
- FRAPS
- Logitech mouse and keyboard control panel
- coretemp (need it for temps for my CPU for the sidebar gadget)
- dropbox
- unified remote
I only have 3 foreground windows opened when in game.
And as said to be quite frank, I cba closing those down every time I want to play BF 3 and I have no problems with 4GB of RAM and other games running.
If you hit 90% or higher physical usage when playing BF 3, maybe you will see what I mean by the bad stuttering and the other main point that I wanted to be improved, which was this:
Anyway, as said, it is not just me who has had a good outcome from upgrading to 8GB, plenty of people here seem to experience the same as me.
And I have also read that having more RAM can help people that have low amount of VRAM, so maybe that is why I have noticed a substantial increase in smoothness for BF 3.
And besides, the whole windows experience feels much smoother now, documents etc. load instantly as opposed to taking a few seconds to launch with 4GB of RAM and it only cost me about £20 to get another 4GB (complete new 8GB kit of RAM for me though as my bro took my old 4GB set and paired it with his 4GB).
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+1
(where's the hat sign when you want it?)
4GB is just not enough, some gamers say it is but I say pfft to them, they are not true gamers, they don't have other apps open helping them game as a true gamer would! Yeah, I've opend it up, c'mon!!!!!!
I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I'd like to see more clarity on the subject (sitting behind 16GB, mwahahahaha)
(where's the hat sign when you want it?)
4GB is just not enough, some gamers say it is but I say pfft to them, they are not true gamers, they don't have other apps open helping them game as a true gamer would! Yeah, I've opend it up, c'mon!!!!!!
I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I'd like to see more clarity on the subject (sitting behind 16GB, mwahahahaha)
Hmm i'll give you i have IE and Chrome open but surely they cant be eating up all my RAM
moved to 12gb and now it's smooth my RAM usage during BF3 has actually gone up now to around 4.5gb.
Associate
Ive just ordered some of this...
Kingston 8G(2x4G) KHX1600C9D3T1K2/8 GDDR3 1600MHz CL9 HyperX
$59 Thank You
Kingston 8G(2x4G) KHX1600C9D3T1K2/8 GDDR3 1600MHz CL9 HyperX
$59 Thank You