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2 Days ago i builded my own pc. My specs are a AMD FX-8120 the ASUS GTX 560 and i currently have 4gb's of ram because the other 4gb bar is broken and im currently sending it back for a replacement. so then i will have a total of 8gb, but currently i only have 4gb also i have a Corsair GS600, wich is a 600w powersupply. Now the problem i have is in currently the following games, Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, Starcraft II the problem starts in for example battlefield 3 when i run further into the map towards where the battle takes places, it will freeze for a second and then continue playing. I also for example looked behind me and it froze for a second, i stood still and just turned around and there were no problems anymore, then i zoomed into my gun and it again froze for a second. But then it didnt freeze anymore when zooming in until i turned around and that froze again. so my cousin said that its almost certain its because i dont have enough ram right now because i run on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. When playing the ram % usage is almost 90. And when i play Diablo 3 when i explore more of the map it kinda stutters for half a sec. When i use an attack it freezes a few times and then runs normal, but every new attack i use will make it freeze again for the next 2-3 attacks and then its normal again. In starcraft 2 when i get into battle it will stutter REALY bad, when there are more than 30 units fighting it just freezes up for 3-4 seconds sometimes.

I also think its my ram because its just everytime i needs to load something and my cousin said 85-90% of RAM usage is just to high since they all run in 32 bit wich makes them use double the ram they normal would since i run 64bit windows.

The reason im asking is to be sure that its the ram problem, i can easily run every game maxed out with 50+ fps, even battlefield 3 so thats not the problem. It cant be my powersupply neither because it said i needed a minimum of 500w for my graphics card etc, and i have 600w wich they said was ideal.

If anybody can tell me if its realy the ram problem then that will atleast take my frustration away because i get a ram replacement in a few days.

Thankyou.

asked Jul 07 '12 at 06:59

Klaas%20Kool's gravatar image

Klaas Kool
568811


Iam the creator of this topic, why is my account suspended? I only created this topic and suddenly my account got suspended?

answered Jul 07 '12 at 07:34

MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

MastaGlazyy
1224

Firstly, running 64 bit does not make them use double the RAM. Turn the settings down, does that help?

answered Jul 07 '12 at 09:26

Tim%20Fontana's gravatar image

Tim Fontana
15.2k135198367

No turning down settings doesnt help at all. I have 50-60 fps on ultra on battlefield 3, i have ofcourse more fps when i turn things down but its still the exact same stuttering. Same with Diablo 3 and starcraft 2

(Jul 07 '12 at 10:24) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

I suggest your update your drives, see if that makes a difference?

(Jul 07 '12 at 10:59) Tim Fontana Tim%20Fontana's gravatar image

my graphics card is already fully up to date, are you sure its not a ram problem? im running 64bit windows 7 ultimate with only 4gb of ram

(Jul 07 '12 at 11:03) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

I am wondering if its because you only have one block of ram installed right now? And thereby the Dual channel technology is not able to work properly... Could be the motherboard doesn't like using only 1 block of ram?

answered Jul 07 '12 at 11:43

Lee%20Wood's gravatar image

Lee Wood
2.4k283969

i have a ASUS M5A97 PRO motherboard.

(Jul 07 '12 at 13:15) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

the problem is your hard drive in this case, the game doesn't buffer everything into memory until you actually use it, eg the scoped view will require the loading of additional assets, and the larger maps will require sections of the map to be loaded as you get close to them.

I recommend also checking your device manager of if you have more than 1 monitor then keep an eye on the memory usage while gaming, the only time when you will really have a lot of memory based lag is when you are using around 95% of your RAM and windows begins using the virtual memory, if that is not happening then more RAM wont really help. (then again, if the system starts using virtual memory, then your lag spikes wont be 1 second, it will be more like a 20 second lag spike as windows moves some background processes to the virtual memory. every time the game request more RAM, (PS the game cant use more than 3GB of RAM (it is the way they program the 32 bit games)

if you have a ton of startup items or weird behavior like 80+ running processes at startup (even on windows 7) then that may be part of your problem since a a properly optimized windows 7 install (where you disable the services and startup items you do not need) should use around 300MB of RAM for the OS and an arbitrary amount of RAM extra for time shifting purposes but the total will come out to be under 1GB allowing a system with 4GB of RAM to allow a 32 bit game to allocate it's maximum amount of RAM

answered Jul 07 '12 at 12:23

Razor512's gravatar image

Razor512
15.5k3480242

edited Jul 07 '12 at 12:30

Im only using 1 monitor and im checking the ram usage with diablo 3/starcraft 2/battlefield 3 etc, i currently fixed battlefield 3 by closing the browser when connected and ingame, i have around 90% ram usage at battlefield 3 but i dont have lag there anymore. Diablo 3 only uses 50% of my ram it says, and Starcraft 2 around 70-80%. So you're saying my Harddrive might be a bit broken? Do i need to replace it? or is it just to slow? i have a Western Digital WD5000AAKX Blue SATA 3.

(Jul 07 '12 at 12:58) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

the hard drive is not broken but with many games (especially diablo 3), they load parts of the map as you play and because of that the game relies on the data being loaded from the hard drive before you get to the location that needs the data and it will lag.

you can tell if it is hard drive based lag by checking if the hard drive light blinks during the lag spike.

this is common for all HDD's and only begins to go away when you have an SSD

(if you have hard drive lag and you just need to get rid of the lag for a few games but don't want to invest like $90 for a 120GB SSD, then you can get a cheap 64GB SSD and just install the few games on it)

(Jul 07 '12 at 13:46) Razor512 Razor512's gravatar image

Alright thanks, there is just 1 thing, i used to play Diablo 3 on my laptop wich was a pretty slow one and i could play on the lowest settings just fine, i had no stuttering with that. And why do i have this with starcraft 2? it seriously freezes when i get into battle.

(Jul 07 '12 at 13:59) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

Oh and also my cousin also plays Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 and he has no problems whatsoever. How come i do have problems with slow hdd loading and he doesn't? The loading is REALY annoying, it keeps getting me killed in diablo 3.

(Jul 07 '12 at 14:00) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

you need to figure out if there is a lot of hard drive activity during the lag spikes, also in the cases of those games, the lag spikes should happen in the same exact location and not randomly, if they are random then it is something else that you need to examine

(Jul 07 '12 at 14:51) Razor512 Razor512's gravatar image

What about ram? could it be because i only have 4gb of ram? i think its kinda strange because Diablo 3 only uses 50% of my RAM usage. I kinda fixed it in Battlefield 3 for the most part, only had a freeze for 3 seconds somewhere after 10-15 minutes of gameplay, while before it would freeze every like 5-10 seconds giving a small stutter

(Jul 07 '12 at 15:33) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

it all depends on how the system is managing the memory, to find a memory limitation, you simply look at the hard drive activity light to see if the hard drive is doing a lot of work during the lag spike, if it does then the issue is either too little memory (and getting more RAM will fix it, if the lag happens at the same point every time (eg you are playing a game and every time you walk past a certain building or tree you get a lag spike that goes away after a second or 2 then the issue is the game loading content as you play and the hard drive cant supply the data fast enough to make the loading unnoticeable)

If things are being moved to virtual memory while gaming then you need more RAM.

(Jul 07 '12 at 16:06) Razor512 Razor512's gravatar image

With diablo 3 its always the same "spots" like when i just get into the game and i use my first skill then it freezes for half a sec after that it wont anymore, then when i use a different skill it does it again, or when i encounter enemy's or when i discover new parts of the map. I realy hope my HDD isnt to slow, it has a 16mb cache and a reading speed of 126mb/s, the speed is 7200rpm

(Jul 07 '12 at 16:22) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

I just filmed what im talking about, its only 30 seconds because i have the trial of fraps, but the game is just playing in a constant 60+ fps but its just that it stutters when loading stuff, i checked the diablo 3 forums and alot of people seem to be having that problem, i think the system diablo 3 uses of assets loading on the go was a bad mistake by blizzard.

(Jul 07 '12 at 16:56) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

I just reinstalled the game and it seems to be fixed now, very strange issue, its still installing as you can play the game as it installs, but i dont seem to have a problem anymore, gonna wait to see if it still works after the full download. Thankyou for the help btw :)

(Jul 07 '12 at 17:31) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image

It just finished downloading and the stuttering is back. i realy dont get it and im done with diablo 3.

(Jul 07 '12 at 17:46) MastaGlazyy MastaGlazyy's gravatar image
showing 5 of 11 show all

With your high RAM usage I think you're on to something. The technical term for lag is buffer under run. The game engine stores information in your RAM, VRAM and your page file on your hard disk. I won't swear to it but running in one channel seems to be the major malfunction. Some games tend to act up on 64bit machines but I don't suspect that. Your processor is good enough, you have a nice GPU and a good PSU for it. Your HDD is unlikely the case. I have yet to see a video game that has any thing but hard disk space in its system requirements.

answered Jul 08 '12 at 11:54

ClosetFuturist's gravatar image

ClosetFuturist
1.7k61427

Original poster here, I checked the Diablo 3 forums and there is a whole load of people that have this problem. Its something about assets loading. But today im going to send back my defect RAM bar and get it replaced. Also im giving my parents my HDD and im buying 1 of 1TB with a 320mb Cache and 600+ reading speed. The one i currently have has 500gb with a 16mb Cache and 126mb/s Reading speed.

(Jul 10 '12 at 07:24) Klaas Kool Klaas%20Kool's gravatar image

That issue with D3 is probably a bug that will be patched soon. A good HDD is always a good idea but I could never tell that an old one is causing lag. Anyway your new build is a nice rig.

(Jul 10 '12 at 08:05) ClosetFuturist ClosetFuturist's gravatar image

Thanks m8, realy appreciate it, its my first build and im pretty proud of it. and i decided to keep my HDD since i found out its indeed a Diablo 3 bug. I hope they will patch it soon.

(Jul 11 '12 at 14:52) Klaas Kool Klaas%20Kool's gravatar image
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Asked: Jul 07 '12 at 06:59

Seen: 1,545 times

Last updated: Jul 11 '12 at 14:52