does having 2lots of ram slow games down

[wigster]

ive got a Asus A8N-SLI Premium and my ram is GeIL 1GB (2x512MB)
XFX GeForce 6800 GT


im having problems with quake 4 also doom 3 where in certain places im getting hitching (short pauses) doom 3 is the worse, someone told me that 1gb might not be enough for some games and that could be my problem.

another person said also by having two slots of ram (2x512MB) it can slow things down abit when playing memory hungry games, i was told if i wanted to have 1gb i should just have 1 stick of 1gb how true is this would this be the cause of the problem

ive tried everything to stop the hitching (short pauses) im sure the graphics card is not at fault

 

[Durzel]

Don't think so.

4 sticks will definitely cripple your system a bit, as it usually disables PAT - and really hampers overclocking in most cases (and even running RAM at its rated speed).

Can't see there being a massive difference between 1 or 2 sticks though.

 

[wigster]

maybe my GeIL 1GB is not compatable with my mobo i know a lot of people have had no problems with Asus A8N-SLI&GEIL maybe im one of the unlucky ones. ram is the only thing i can think of that would cause hitching. my specs is more than enough to run games

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Don't move to one stick of ram - you'll loose dual channel memory hurting performance

If you have four sticks of ram on an A64 platform you'll have to run at 2T timings which hurts performance slightly

It could be a lack of memory - the pausing could be when windows has to access the swap file. Open Task Manager and check your Peak Commit Charge - if this is above your total memory then you should look at getting more memory

I'd also try defragmenting your hard drive and disabling all non-essential services

 

[Big.Wayne]

It could be a lack of memory - the pausing could be when windows has to access the swap file. Open Task Manager and check your Peak Commit Charge - if this is above your total memory then you should look at getting more memory

Yup thats a good place to start

Here is my task-manager after some gaming, look at the area circled in red, here you can see that on my 1GB (2x512) system the most physical memory I have used in about 934MB.

As already mentioned if this figure exceeds your actual physical memory then your system will have to use the swap file (writing temp information to the HDD) and this will result in small *micro* stutters like you have described!

 

[wigster]

this is what i got playing quake4 doom3

quake 4
commit charge total 7977492
cpu usage 18%
pf usage 786mb


doom 3
commit charge total 821780
cpu usage 100%
pf usage 623mb

to me that means nothing lol

but look at the cpu on doom3

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Excuse me if i'm wrong, but memory will swap out data to Pagefile regardless of the amount of RAM you have, although this can occur more if you don't have enough agreed.

iirc, swapping occurs if data in memory isn't being used. So rather than having to keep refreshing it (being dynamic) it swaps it out to page file for easier access as and when it needs it. It doesn't make sense to keep unused/acessed data in memory for long periods of time.

To test this, try turning off pagefile and see what fun you get.. even with 2gb RAM..

Page file should at least be 1.5 x physical RAM. That said, as said above, if your total peak exceeds your current RAm, then you need to look at getting some addtional sticks.

 

[wigster]

its very strange when im playing doom 3 where it starts off the cpu usage stays around 43% but if im pointing in the direction where it starts to hitch (short pauses)
the cpu usage goes staright up to 100%

when i move around where it doesn't start to hitch it goes back to 43%

please explain???

 

[ajgoodfellow]

this is what i got playing quake4 doom3

quake 4
commit charge total 7977492
cpu usage 18%
pf usage 786mb


doom 3
commit charge total 821780
cpu usage 100%
pf usage 623mb

to me that means nothing lol

but look at the cpu on doom3

What are your peak commit charge usages? That's the crtical value

I'm not surprised if a game uses 100% of your CPU - that's to be expected. I'm surprised that Quake IV doesn't, particuarly as it's based on the same engine

Are these taken whilst the games are running?

 

[ajgoodfellow]

its very strange when im playing doom 3 where it starts off the cpu usage stays around 43% but if im pointing in the direction where it starts to hitch (short pauses)
the cpu usage goes staright up to £100

when i move around where it doesn't start to hitch it goes back to 43%

please explain???

Try monitoring your processes. When a process peaks at 100% CPU like you describe this can cause the pauses that you're seeing

 

[wigster]

please read my above post as you just posted before i hit the reply button, but ive been taken it while the game is on

 

[wigster]

What are your peak commit charge usages? That's the crtical value



my peak commit charge usage is 653668 while running the game but also without game running

 

[ajgoodfellow]

That's less than 1GB so that's fine

What happens if you shut down all non essential processes?

Has it just started doing this recently?

 

[wigster]

im pretty sure its only started to happen on doom3 but quake 4 is new

but when i was playing quake4 the peak commit charge usage was 791508

it still happens when shutting down everything thats not needed

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Is it just games based on the Doom 3 engine?

Can you hear your hard drive being accessed during the pauses?

Do you have a dual core CPU? These can cause the pauses like you describe

Can you pinpoint something specific before the pauses started, like a new piece of hardware, software or drivers?

It's probably worth doing a full anti-spyware and anti-virus scan too

 

[wigster]

done a format got new drivers nforce+forceware no programs=no spyware did a scan just to make sure, just doom 3 quake 4 on my pc, i cant hear the hard drive running when hitching.

i dont have dualcore

i would say its only on doom 3 engine

these games are fine
republic commando
starwars battlefront 2
gta
fantastic four

when im playing doom 3 i can only play at 640x480 i would have thought that would be to low? it is only stable if i turn off shadows then i stop getting hitching but if i have it on the hitching comes back in certain places of the game

my system
imagequest q995 (monitor)
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Western Digital Caviar 250GB
AMD Athlon 64 3700 Skt 939
GeIL 1GB
XFX GeForce 6800 GT

 

[wigster]

when quake is running and i have task manager up


taks manager
quake 4
cpu 14
mem usage 198,200k

system idle process
cpu 84
mem usage 20k


when playing doom 3

doom 3
cpu 86
mem usage 133,532

system idle process
cpu 7
mem usage 20k

there is a lot of difference between the two games

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Hi

Maybe see if there's a patch out for the games?

Can't really think what the problem would be. I asked about a dual core CPU as these can sometimes cause stutters in games

I wondered about your hard drive as if it's having to access virtual memory then it will be reading your hard drive, causing the problems you describe

The large difference between the games is also surprising. I can run Quake IV at 1280x1024, 2xAA, high detail completely smooth on an X800Pro - your card should be a fair amount quicker

 

[wigster]

my pc is fast enough to run quake/doom at high detail patches do nothing i know someone who has the same spec and it runs ok.

lastnight i ran out of ideas so i thought i would try to overclock the card


i only took it up 1 notch then run a test

the test failed please lower the settings, i thought it was a bit strange but i turned it down still got the message turned it down again still got the same message

something is not right

 

[Zephyrus]

Don't move to one stick of ram - you'll loose dual channel memory hurting performance

If you have four sticks of ram on an A64 platform you'll have to run at 2T timings which hurts performance slightly

It could be a lack of memory - the pausing could be when windows has to access the swap file. Open Task Manager and check your Peak Commit Charge - if this is above your total memory then you should look at getting more memory

I'd also try defragmenting your hard drive and disabling all non-essential services

Hmm i run 2 x 1GB Mushkin Ram and that runs at 2T Dual channel according to the post screen. Isn't it supposed to?