More memory need advice !

jackniksmith · 20 Nov 2011 at 00:51

Hi guys
I currently have 4gb of Kingston 1600mhz hyper x, I need more ram as battlefield seems to require more and running a virtual machine also requires more, so just wondering if anyone has advice in what memory to go for, should I get a 4gb x 2 kit of Kingston hyper x or go for something like crucial?

Thanks

Surveyor · 20 Nov 2011 at 01:18

Do I take it you're trying to get to 8GB?

The cheapest option is just to add another 2x2GB:

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £19.98 until Wednesday morning

Or add another 8GB to get to 12GB:

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £39.98 until Wednesday morning

I assume you have a 64 bit OS?

stulid · 20 Nov 2011 at 01:19

Hey mate, for £20 are these close to what you already have/or the same (i.e timings etc) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-095-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

So you occupy all four dimm slots on your board, your overclock may need tweaking also as adding more ram modules can put more strain on the memory controller.

GTO656 · 20 Nov 2011 at 02:05

Yes BF3 needs 8GB of RAM to play it smoothly.

MagicBoy · 20 Nov 2011 at 02:12

GTO656 said:
Yes BF3 needs 8GB of RAM to play it smoothly.

Sauce?

Given that BF3 is a 32-bit app I'm going to assume you are talking rot.

Surveyor · 20 Nov 2011 at 02:19

MagicBoy said:
Sauce?

Given that BF3 is a 32-bit app I'm going to assume you are talking rot.

How about this and this as sources.

Both upgraded from 4GB to 8GB.

MagicBoy · 20 Nov 2011 at 02:32

Yes, I mis-spelt source on purpose. Get over it!

In the absence of benchmarks I'm still going with the rot option. "I stuck more RAM in and it stopped stuttering occasionally" is just buyers justifying their upgrade. The facts are that BF3 a 32-bit app, therefore it can only use a maximum of 2GB RAM. Period.

Anything over than the 2GB maximum that BF3 can use in addition to the RAM footprint of the Windows installation (lets call it 2GB) is just used for caching.

Surveyor · 20 Nov 2011 at 02:43

MagicBoy said:
Yes, I mis-spelt source on purpose. Get over it!

Of course you did

MagicBoy said:
In the absence of benchmarks I'm still going with the rot option. "I stuck more RAM in and it stopped stuttering occasionally" is just buyers justifying their upgrade. The facts are that BF3 a 32-bit app, therefore it can only use a maximum of 2GB RAM. Period.

Anything more than the 2GB maximum that BF3 can use in addition to the RAM footprint of the Windows installation is just used for caching.

Whatever the extra RAM is being used for it improved the performance in the two real world examples I quoted when they went from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.

If you still think it's 'rot' then go and find benchmarks showing no difference in performance between 4GB and 8GB of RAM.

I've shown you mine now you show me yours

Of course benchmarks, which usually just show average frame rates, won't give an indication of any stuttering.

And if you just don't want to believe it then I couldn't care less.

bhavv · 20 Nov 2011 at 05:41

MagicBoy said:
Yes, I mis-spelt source on purpose. Get over it!

In the absence of benchmarks I'm still going with the rot option. "I stuck more RAM in and it stopped stuttering occasionally" is just buyers justifying their upgrade. The facts are that BF3 a 32-bit app, therefore it can only use a maximum of 2GB RAM. Period.

Anything over than the 2GB maximum that BF3 can use in addition to the RAM footprint of the Windows installation (lets call it 2GB) is just used for caching.

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.

Surveyor · 3 Dec 2011 at 01:21

MagicBoy said:
Yes, I mis-spelt source on purpose. Get over it!

In the absence of benchmarks I'm still going with the rot option. "I stuck more RAM in and it stopped stuttering occasionally" is just buyers justifying their upgrade. The facts are that BF3 a 32-bit app, therefore it can only use a maximum of 2GB RAM. Period.

Anything over than the 2GB maximum that BF3 can use in addition to the RAM footprint of the Windows installation (lets call it 2GB) is just used for caching.

There's another source for you here.

Is it still rot?