97% RAM usage in Battlefield 3, is 8GB the sweet spot for gaming now?

[AzeofSpadez]

These are my computer specs:
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE 3.3GHz (3.7GHz turbo)
XFX Core Edition 650W 80+ Bronze
MSI GTX 560 Ti Hawk
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
2x2GB G.Skill RAM (1333MHz)
A 1TB Samsung HDD
MSI 770-C45 AM3 motherboard

I played Battlefield 3 for about 2 hours when i suddenly noticed weird FPS-drops but i kept on playing but after 5 minutes i got REALLY bad FPS-drops so I scrolled to the RAM and CPU-usage on my keyboard and saw that I was currently using 97% of my RAM!
I'm pretty sure this must have been the source of the FPS-drops, what do you guys think?
I only ran Battlelog, Skype and my Anti-virus in the background...
So, will games recommend 6GB of RAM this year or will that come in 2013?
RAM is so cheap so I'm probably buying 8GB anyway but discuss what you think!

I also asked my friend on Skype how much usage he had and he had 60% usage of his 8GB RAM :S

[Deleted]

There's currently a memoryleak when using nVIDIA gpu's in BF3.

[AzeofSpadez]

There's currently a memoryleak when using nVIDIA gpu's in BF3.

Ok, but isn't 97% RAM usage an issue?

[fangless]

Ok, but isn't 97% RAM usage an issue?

A memory leak is an issue, yes.

[AzeofSpadez]

A memory leak is an issue, yes.

I don't really get what you mean but i suppose that Caumen meant a GPU-memory leak not a RAM-memory leak?

[Voytrekk]

Caumen said that there is a memory leak when using nVidia GPUs, not a GPU memory leak. The game will perform fine on lower settings with lower amounts of ram(i had to play on medium when I was still using a 32bit OS). I would recommend making that upgrade, as the prices of ram make getting more not much of an issue now.

[Deleted]

I don't really get what you mean but i suppose that Caumen meant a GPU-memory leak not a RAM-memory leak?

It sure does give a RAM memory leak, it have been the same with crossfired ATI cards before. A downgrade in your nVIDIA drivers should get you around it 'til a new driver update will be available.

Well, that should pretty much fix it, if that fails you just got to do as Trekk says and set your settings down a bit and wait for an update.

[Rixis]

ahh, i play it every now and again, and i noticed this when i started to play on none metro maps, thought it was strange

but when i only play strings upon strings of metro, it's never really an issue, oh well, i love/prefer metro to any other map anyway :P

[Kuntantee]

%97 ram usage will cause problem IFF the cpu is trying to move more data from anysource(be it cpu, hard disk etc.) to ram, otherwise it won't be a problem.

[Deleted]

I can't tell if the memoryleak is 100% true, but a few days ago, I saw a good few threads on the BF3 forum acknowledging about this problem.

4gb should be able to handle BF3 with ease, just don't have other RAM eating programs running in the background, such as drawing programs and Photoshop.

[Deleted]

%97 ram usage will cause problem IFF the cpu is trying to move more data from anysource(be it cpu, hard disk etc.) to ram, otherwise it won't be a problem.

Typically that happens lots of times every second from the point you're in an OS.

[sizzlinsauce]

Caumen said that there is a memory leak when using nVidia GPUs, not a GPU memory leak. The game will perform fine on lower settings with lower amounts of ram(i had to play on medium when I was still using a 32bit OS). I would recommend making that upgrade, as the prices of ram make getting more not much of an issue now.

He's correct. you can get 8GB of ram for $32. sure its cheap ram but 8gb for under $50

[Zyzzyx]

If the game is working as it is supposed to, it will use less than 2 GB. Since you know...that's what 32 bit applications do. Mine doesn't get above 1.3GB, if I can get around the friggen realtek audio crashes.

[Mad_Murdock]

If the game is working as it is supposed to, it will use less than 2 GB. Since you know...that's what 32 bit applications do. Mine doesn't get above 1.3GB, if I can get around the friggen realtek audio crashes.

Same here, I have a GTX580 and haven't encountered the memory leak if there is one. I've watch the game and don't think I've every seen it get above 1.2GB in use and total memory is maybe around 4gb.

I'd be concern about constant 97% usuage, if it was 8GB, not so much for 4GB. I wouldn't buy super cheap ram myself, I'd go for a the $100 8GB

[Nab]

Yeah, I've been noticing this as well. I have a GTX590 with the latest drivers and my RAM usage is around 90%.

[AzeofSpadez]

Yeah, I've been noticing this as well. I have a GTX590 with the latest drivers and my RAM usage is around 90%.

Do you find yourself getting FPS-drops when it reaches 90% or do you not notice it at all?

[Deleted]

Uhhh....
After going from 4GB to 8GB my RAM usage during BF is sometimes 5-6GB on 64 CQ maps..
This is with Skype, browser with 2 tabs (battlelog being one and this forum the other), and BF3 open.
Currently with only Mozilla (6 tabs), Origin and some light stuff open im using 26% of my RAM.
And yes i USE to get these 1 second lasting screen freezes on Operation Firestorm 64 CQ with 4GB RAM.
upgrading to 8GB solved the problem.

My settings: 1680x1050, ALL HIGH, 2x AA, HBAO

[AzeofSpadez]

Uhhh....
After going from 4GB to 8GB my RAM usage during BF is sometimes 5-6GB on 64 CQ maps..
This is with Skype, browser with 2 tabs (battlelog being one and this forum the other), and BF3 open.
Currently with only Mozilla (6 tabs), Origin and some light stuff open im using 26% of my RAM.
And yes i USE to get these 1 second lasting screen freezes on Operation Firestorm 64 CQ with 4GB RAM.
upgrading to 8GB solved the problem.

My settings: 1680x1050, ALL HIGH, 2x AA, HBAO

Ok, I'm getting 8GB, fortunately, it's so cheap right now

[Nab]

Do you find yourself getting FPS-drops when it reaches 90% or do you not notice it at all?

Yep, when I just load the game it works pretty smooth, but after some time playing it stutters on graphic intensive fights.

[BicycleMafioso]

A solution until you receive the new RAM, is going to older nVidia drivers.