Your computer is low on memory

[Susira]

I get this error every time I start playing any Blizzard game.

"Your computer is low on memory, To restore enough memory for programs to work correctly, save your files and then close or restart all open programs."



And yes I use a lot of tabs in Google Chrome and I'm sure that's part of it.

Do I need to upgrade my RAM if this problem keeps going on?

My Specs:
OS: Windows 8.1
CPU: i7-4770K @3.5ghz
Memory: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
Mobo: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

[haxartus]

Increase the swap file.

[Soisoisoi]

How many Chrome tabs do you have open? Chrome is notorious for using a LOT of RAM.

[Susira]

Increase the swap file.

I'm honestly not sure what that means.

How many Chrome tabs do you have open? Chrome is notorious for using a LOT of RAM.

4-6 usually.

[Xar226]

In my opinion, yes, you should look to increase your memory, unless you are looking to replace/upgrade the entire computer in the near future.

Just looking at your screenshot, you're trying to play a game that wants about 3 gigs of memory. Your operating system typically wants about 3-4 gigs of memory, and you have a system with 8. You just barely fit, assuming you're running nothing else at all. You can do this. There is nothing inherently wrong with being right up against your memory limit, so you don't have to increase it until it starts to cause problems. A warning that you're getting low does not necessarily mean you're at a point of needing to upgrade -- but it does mean you are close.

"Swap" is hard drive space that doubles as memory. Your oS has logic to send stuff in memory that hasn't been used for a while out to disk to make room for something else. However, increasing your swap isn't a great solution. You're very close to actively using all of your available memory when you're playing a game. If you're actively using more memory than you have, your system starts thrashing, which is a term that means it is constantly paging things into and out of memory to try to fit it. Problem is, accessing your hard drive is anywhere between about 3 and 100,000 times slower than accessing memory (yeah, no shit). When you're thrashing, the computer has no time to do anything else. In other words: It doesn't help.

If you want to increase your swap and see if it works for you, it's not hard and there's no nasty side effects. This article should have instructions for your OS. Don't expect too much.

If Heroes is all you play and this is a typical level of memory usage for you, you're okay for now. You likely won't be okay much further into the future though, so if you plan on keeping the PC a while I would upgrade the memory.

[Susira]

In my opinion, yes, you should look to increase your memory, unless you are looking to replace/upgrade the entire computer in the near future.

Just looking at your screenshot, you're trying to play a game that wants about 3 gigs of memory. Your operating system typically wants about 3-4 gigs of memory, and you have a system with 8. You just barely fit, assuming you're running nothing else at all. You can do this. There is nothing inherently wrong with being right up against your memory limit, so you don't have to increase it until it starts to cause problems. A warning that you're getting low does not necessarily mean you're at a point of needing to upgrade -- but it does mean you are close.

"Swap" is hard drive space that doubles as memory. Your oS has logic to send stuff in memory that hasn't been used for a while out to disk to make room for something else. However, increasing your swap isn't a great solution. You're very close to actively using all of your available memory when you're playing a game. If you're actively using more memory than you have, your system starts thrashing, which is a term that means it is constantly paging things into and out of memory to try to fit it. Problem is, accessing your hard drive is anywhere between about 3 and 100,000 times slower than accessing memory (yeah, no shit). When you're thrashing, the computer has no time to do anything else. In other words: It doesn't help.

If you want to increase your swap and see if it works for you, it's not hard and there's no nasty side effects. This article should have instructions for your OS. Don't expect too much.

If Heroes is all you play and this is a typical level of memory usage for you, you're okay for now. You likely won't be okay much further into the future though, so if you plan on keeping the PC a while I would upgrade the memory.

Yes I'll most likely be keeping my current computer for about another year and a half. Should I order the same RAM? I have 2 empty slots that I can use.

[Deleted]

Most commom memory low warnings in Windows I'v yet to see are related to the mentioned Pagefile swap file missing or one that is set to be way too small.

[haxartus]

I'm honestly not sure what that means.

Windows has virtual "memory" that acts as a replacement when the RAM runs out. It's usually a big file called pagefile or swap. These kinds of warnings appear when there is not enough space in the pagefile, or the pagefile is missing.
If you increase the pagefile to like 4-8GB the warning will disappear. However, the pagefile is very, very slow, so if you regularly go above 8GB RAM, I would recommend getting more physical RAM as well, otherwise you will notice a drastic slowdown if you go above the physical RAM limit.

[Artorius]

Honestly I'm not sure how he can go out of RAM just playing something with 8gb...

[Syri79]

8Gb should be plenty for that, I have 16gb and barely ever go above 8gb, only got 16 as it was at a good price when I built the pc. Of course, it depends a lot on what's running as well, I've been working with windows since 95, and know a lot about optimising a PC.
It's worth checking if there's any addons in chrome that you can do without, that might save a bit. Also worth looking at the start-up tab on task manager, see if there's anything running automatically that you really don't need. Also, what anti-virus program are you using? Some of them can be a bit heavy on memory and cpu usage, especially norton and mcaffee, though not as bad as they once were, they still use far more than most competitors.
It's worth checking the page file, as windows can stuff little used and low importance processes in there. To check that, go to control panel > system > advanced system settings, then click the settings button in the performance section. Go to the advanced tab, then click Change for the virtual memory setting, and you can increase the size of the virtual memory from there, as well as choose which drive it puts it on (handy if you have an SSD to make sure it goes on there, providing you have the space)
Also, there's always the chance that something has got in your system that shouldn't be there. It might be worth downloading and running malwarebytes, as that can get rid of a lot of unwanted rubbish in the background, even stuff that doesn't get picked up by antivirus programs because it's not malicious, just rubbish.

[Deleted]

Just looking at your screenshot, you're trying to play a game that wants about 3 gigs of memory. Your operating system typically wants about 3-4 gigs of memory, and you have a system with 8. You just barely fit, assuming you're running nothing else at all.

Except window's need max 2 gigs and not 4! 8gb is plenty to game and have several other stuff open. I play wow, got hearthstone, a few chrome tabs open, music, all kind of crap running at the same time and i barely pass 5gb. So something is wrong. He got a memory leak somewhere.

[Shrouded]

It's most likely the page file, yes. Some SSD optimization tools (including Samsung Magician, I think?) set it extremely low, which isn't that great unless you have a larger page file on another disk. It's best to let Windows manage it automagically.

[Aqua]

Do not have more than 2 chrome tabs open when playing games, that's my golden rule, even if I am on my souped up PC. Chrome is a memory hog and I get annoyed at having more than 2-3 tabs open at a time.

Though 8GB is more than enough to do anything these days (Of course this barring the exceptional who do things like 3D rendering and video editing at home because they are brilliantly insane)

So I really don't know where your issue is stemming from, is your computer actually acknowledging that you have 8GB of memory? Check and see, it might be one of the sticks is loose/damaged. Looking just at what you have open there it feels like you've only got 4GB...

[Twoddle]

Using Windows 7 here with 2Gb RAM and get little to no memory problems. Heroes of the Storm runs fine.

It's all down to bad architecture and lazy programming and they tell us that we have to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade.

[Artorius]

This computer has 8gb of RAM, it's using 2gb right now with Firefox consuming ~800mb... 8gb is enough and just fine for any daily use unless you're doing professional stuff that requires shitloads of RAM.

I don't think Heroes consuming almost 3gb is normal, and even if it was, you shouldn't get out of RAM with it.

[Susira]

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the responses.

I will check the page file when I get home and post results. And the error only comes up when it's on the loading screen (sometimes Windows will close battle.net and the game when it's on the screen, which sucks). And when there is high combat (team fights).

I do I want to get another SSD and more ram, but depending on the prices one will have to wait.

Should I purchase the same exact model of ram?
I do a lot of photography post editing and videography as well and I get the error when I have Photoshop, premiere and light room open.

[Deleted]

Something is screwed up on settings...fix it...you don't need new hardware, thought you understood that already

[DeltrusDisc]

Honestly I'm not sure how he can go out of RAM just playing something with 8gb...

Well... dat Google Chrome though.

You can see my computer setup in my sig and I get towards max RAM if I don't reset my computer after a few weeks. :P Chrome, and oddly enough, Facebook end up filling up your RAM pretty severely. Factor in things like Skype/Steam and you've got yourself a full set of RAM in no time! Granted, this is assuming many open tabs of Chrome...

- - - Updated - - -

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the responses.

I will check the page file when I get home and post results. And the error only comes up when it's on the loading screen (sometimes Windows will close battle.net and the game when it's on the screen, which sucks). And when there is high combat (team fights).

I do I want to get another SSD and more ram, but depending on the prices one will have to wait.

Should I purchase the same exact model of ram?
I do a lot of photography post editing and videography as well and I get the error when I have Photoshop, premiere and light room open.

Same exact model of RAM is your best bet, but if you can't for whatever reason, same voltage, speed, and CAS latency is what you want to look at.

[Syri79]

Well, in order to get my PC to go over 8gb (with no swap file at all) I had to have a large image open in photoshop, lightroom scanning my entire pictures folder, itunes playing music, about 8 chrome tabs, including facebook and youtube, and WoW and civilisation 5 running. then it just went over 8gb... not really normal usage.
If you do want to get more ram though, having them match tends to work best, as it will run all the ram at the lowest spec, but they don't need to be exact, apart from the speed really. latency doesn't make THAT big a difference, but if you've got 1600mhz ram in there, and stick 1333mhz in, it will slow the faster one down, and that will be noticeable. Going from 10ms latency to 11ms won't really be noticeable though.

[DeltrusDisc]

8 tabs? *blinks eyes incredulously*

You're able to function with only 8 tabs open? :O