Add more ram, or upgrade?

saltlife97

Reputable
Sep 19, 2017
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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.
 
Solution
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.
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?).
 
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.
 
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
 
"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.
 
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.
 
Solution