Add more ram, or upgrade?

[saltlife97]

Hi,

So, I have been thinking about buying another 16GB of ram, because when I run some games (I.e. Rust, DayZ SA) I play I’m using up to 75% memory, and I believe it causes my games to crash randomly, as my friends don’t have this issue (but they have 16GB as well). Now here is my question. I am planning on upgrading to a Ryzen 7 3700X once they are available. I am most likely going to upgrade my motherboard as well so I can take advantage of PCIe 4.0. Should I go with 32GB of ram? I know it’s overkill for gaming. If not, can I upgrade now? As long as the new mobo is also DDR4, can I swap the ram over? Is it worth it to even buy a new mobo? PC specs below:

Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080;
Ryzen 7 1700;
Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370 Gaming K7 Motherboard;
GSkill TridentZ 3000mhz 16GB;
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD;
Some old WD 750GB harddrive.

 

[Barty1884]

75% memory usage (nor 100% for that matter) will cause crashes.

For strictly gaming, 32GB makes absolutely no sense.

What PSU do you have?

How long have these crashes been happening? Anything noteworthy before/after? (Windows Update, driver update... new software installed etc?).

 

[jay32267]

I don't think that using 75% of 16GB is going to cause your games to crash.
I think 16GB is plenty for gaming and I wouldn't go for the 32GB.
I think there's something else going on.
Have you checked your temperature of your CPU and GPU and your PSU voltages?
If not.....this is what I would be doing.

 

[saltlife97]

I’m not sure about the PSU as I had bought the PC from a friend, and upgraded it as I pleased. The only things I haven’t touched are the PSU and Hard drive. The way my case is set up, the cooler master LAN box, the PSU is hidden underneath the motherboard. I think it’s 600w, not sure though. I should check that out, didn’t think of that. Also, the crashes have been happening since I started playing Rust a few months ago. I figure it’s just the game as it’s still early access. DayZ has always crashed like that and there’s a known memory leak with that game. No issues before hand, so it could just be the games?

As for the temps, both gpu and cpu run mid-high 60s (sometimes low 70s if it’s really hot) under load. I know that’s a bit hot but I live in Florida and I don’t think that’s not enough to cause issues

 

[jay32267]

"so it could just be the games?"
yes....being that one is early access and one has a known issue.

I think your temps are fine however....and I think low 70's is still OK. If it were the GPU....I'd say you could go to the low to mid 80's.

Although I still might take a look at the PSU voltages. HWINfo should give you some of them at least. youa re looking for the +12, +5 and + 3.3V numbers to be with 5% of the nominal value.

 

[Barty1884]

It's entirely possible it relates to the game, but I would've expected to see many more complaints of similar if it were a widespread issue with the game/engine itself.

With a 1700 and 1080, the PSU is definitely a consideration though. While "600W" sounds fine, there are plenty poor quality units in existence, including a sizeable volume with longevity concerns.

 

[saltlife97]

Alright thanks guys! I’ll look more into it when I get off work. Have a good day

 

[scout_03]

use occt to stress test psu with the old hdd unplug and if it pass test redo it with old hdd in system also what kind of air flow you have in this case .