Is 4GB of RAM Enough

[Brooke]

4 GB of RAM was enough for the system I recently built.

It was a $250 system + $115 GPU + $95 Windows 10 and runs AH3 at 60 fps with slider at none, shadows off.

[Vraciu]

4 GB of RAM was enough for the system I recently built.

It was a $250 system + $115 GPU + $95 Windows 10 and runs AH3 at 60 fps with slider at none, shadows off.

I get 60FPS but.....

The terrain is not scrolling smoothly.   It’s smooth for about one to one and a half seconds....then pauses for a a few milliseconds.....then catches back up.....repeat. 

It’s the damnedest thing. 

When rolling at a high rate it’s as if the roll is a series of quick freeze frames instead of a continuous movement of the horizon around the longitudinal axis when looking forward for example. 

[Brooke]

I get 60FPS but.....

The terrain is not scrolling smoothly.   It’s smooth for about one to one and a half seconds....then pauses for a a few milliseconds.....then catches back up.....repeat. 

It’s the damnedest thing. 

When rolling at a high rate it’s as if the roll is a series of quick freeze frames instead of a continuous movement of the horizon around the longitudinal axis when looking forward for example.

I don't get that on the inexpensive system, so it can't be 4 GB of RAM, or I'd get it, too.

I got that once in the distant past with HP printer software that was so bad it was polling my CPU and/or hard disk every second or so, causing stuff like that.  Maybe some poorly written software doing that on you?

[Wiley]

I get 60FPS but.....

The terrain is not scrolling smoothly.   It’s smooth for about one to one and a half seconds....then pauses for a a few milliseconds.....then catches back up.....repeat. 

It’s the damnedest thing. 

When rolling at a high rate it’s as if the roll is a series of quick freeze frames instead of a continuous movement of the horizon around the longitudinal axis when looking forward for example.

Are you running the dx11 version or dx9?  If it's 11, use 9.

Wiley.

[Vraciu]

I don't get that on the inexpensive system, so it can't be 4 GB of RAM, or I'd get it, too.

I got that once in the distant past with HP printer software that was so bad it was polling my CPU and/or hard disk every second or so, causing stuff like that.  Maybe some poorly written software doing that on you?

 Could be.   I think I have everything turned off pretty much. 

Can the Nvidea GForce Experience hog stufft in the background?

[Vraciu]

Are you running the dx11 version or dx9?  If it's 11, use 9.

Wiley.

I’m using 9. Tried 11 as well and it was the same.

[Brooke]

Could be.   I think I have everything turned off pretty much. 

Can the Nvidea GForce Experience hog stufft in the background?

It probably wouldn't do that.  I remember having it installed once (but generally I don't install it), and didn't notice such.

Printer/fax/scanner software can sometimes do crap like that.  Other things I've noticed pinging the cpu or hard disk periodically are:  background backup software, background virus scan, background disk indexing.

Can you see if your hard disk LED light winks on in sync with the frame-rate disruption you see?

[Vraciu]

I can look, but I don’t even remember if I connected the HDD light wire.   

[Brooke]

I can look, but I don’t even remember if I connected the HDD light wire.   

You can get a software one.  I use this one:

https://www.sepago.com/blog/2014/01/22/freeware-diskled-tool

[Bizman]

Brooke has a good point there. Your current system is on par with mine, although I don't know if your AMD CPU can use both cores. If not, that may be the culprit. A single core may suffer especially if all single core tasks have been allocated to that one.

However, knowing the number of your background processes might help.

[Vraciu]

Brooke has a good point there. Your current system is on par with mine, although I don't know if your AMD CPU can use both cores. If not, that may be the culprit. A single core may suffer especially if all single core tasks have been allocated to that one.

However, knowing the number of your background processes might help.

Why would the second core not work?  Lack of RAM?

[Vraciu]

You can get a software one.  I use this one:

https://www.sepago.com/blog/2014/01/22/freeware-diskled-tool

Exxxxxxcelllent, Smithers. 

[TequilaChaser]

Vraciu, it is not worth it to upgrade your CPU, even though you would be going from a 3.0 GHz dual-core CPU to a 3.4 GHz quad-core CPU, you will not gain hardly any boost at all.....you will still be using the same limitation of 4 GB system ram....

Vraciu, I don't know why I didn't think of it or post it sooner.....but there is a strong chance that AH is only using a single core of your dual-core CPU since it is an old Athlon II x2 CPU.... Very few of them would work using  both cores in AH back when your CPU came out....most of the AMD dual-core CPUs only used 1 core...

So, if you wanted to spend $54 for that AMD phenom ll Q965 quad-core CPU, there is a 50/50 chance that You can get AH to use more than 1.... One of my AMD builds has an AMD phenom ll Q975 quad-core 3.61 GHz CPU and it uses more than 1 core....

Sorry I missed thinking about or posting this sooner....

Have you cleaned up and tweaked Windows 7 OS yet?

TC

[Vraciu]

Vraciu, I don't know why I didn't think of it or post it sooner.....but there is a strong chance that AH is only using a single core of your dual-core CPU since it is an old Athlon II x2 CPU.... Very few of them would work using  both cores in AH back when your CPU came out....most of the AMD dual-core CPUs only used 1 core...

So, if you wanted to spend $54 for that AMD phenom ll Q965 quad-core CPU, there is a 50/50 chance that You can get AH to use more than 1.... One of my AMD builds has an AMD phenom ll Q975 quad-core 3.61 GHz CPU and it uses more than 1 core....

Sorry I missed thinking about or posting this sooner....

Have you cleaned up and tweaked Windows 7 OS yet?

TC

How will I know if it works?   Is there a reason the second core is inop?

I up/downgraded to Windows 10. 

[Vraciu]

Will that quad core run on my machine?   It’s a drop-in replacement?   Any BIOS trickery required?