[SOLVED] How much does ram affect performance?

[nhardinger2003]

So I recently noticed that my computer was getting slower when it came to playing games. I played several titles some are high demand and others are not, each of them have the same issues. It seems that the frames drop and lag is a constant thing every so often. The computer itself every so often glitches and the cursor will move super slow. Im thinking its my memory thats making all of this happen. I have a 2x4 kit of ddr4 3200 speed from corsair (although it runs at 2666 because xmp doesnt work for some reason). I doubt its my graphics card because thats a 1060 6 gb from asus. I dont know what is going on and why my games keep having frame drops and then they go back up. I have moved graphics settings down and it still happens. If anyone has any idea to what could be causing the frame drops please let me know.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

List your full system specs. There are a number of factors that might cause that issue. What res are you playing at too? Depending on the application, 8gbs of ram could be the problem, CPU could be the problem, Also what games are you playing?

 

[nhardinger2003]

List your full system specs. There are a number of factors that might cause that issue. What res are you playing at too? Depending on the application, 8gbs of ram could be the problem, CPU could be the problem, Also what games are you playing?

Guess i should have put all that in the original post. My full specs are as follows: Mb- asrock ab350m pro 4 Processor- Amd Ryzen 5 2400g not overclocked- Gpu- asus gtx 1060 6gb memory- corsair vengence 8gb ddr4 3200 speed( running at 2666 due to non working xmp) Storage- pny 120gb ssd, 1tb wd blue hdd, 600b psu

I play at 1080p with a 75 hz monitor. Majority of the games im playing right now are battlefield 5, world of tanks blitz, assassins creed orgins, Space engineers, and apex legends. All of these are either at high or ultra, but i have since moved them down. No difference has been made moving settings down.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Aha, okay, so everything makes sense Just to confirm one other thing though, is it a 1 x 8gb DIMM, or 2 x 4gb DIMMS?

So your CPU is actually decent enough. 4c/8t so it is pretty good straight out of the box. It will drive your GTX1060 just fine, and with no bottleneck.

Specially for BF V, and maybe ACO, 8gb system ram is just a bit short. 8gbs used to be the sweet-spot, but now it's 16gb for gaming. Both BF V and ACO use upward of 9gbs at 1080p/60hz. When your ram maxes out your system has to use the swap file/page file for memory, and this is really slow compared to your system ram. This is where the stuttering comes in. If you are running 1 x DIMM, this means you are in single channel memory mode. 2 x DIMMS means it will be in dual channel mode. The difference between single channel and dual channel, specially for Ryzen is about 10-20% performance increase with Dual. (task dependent). This really applies for gaming though. You do have fast ram, which is good, but having dual channel would be a big boost.

Additionally, but not a major concern, although your CPU is very decent, BF V particularly can max out a 4c/8t CPU, this can in certain multiplayer modes cause a similar stuttering effect.

 

[nhardinger2003]

Aha, okay, so everything makes sense Just to confirm one other thing though, is it a 1 x 8gb DIMM, or 2 x 4gb DIMMS?

So your CPU is actually decent enough. 4c/8t so it is pretty good straight out of the box. It will drive your GTX1060 just fine, and with no bottleneck.

Specially for BF V, and maybe ACO, 8gb system ram is just a bit short. 8gbs used to be the sweet-spot, but now it's 16gb for gaming. Both BF V and ACO use upward of 9gbs at 1080p/60hz. When your ram maxes out your system has to use the swap file/page file for memory, and this is really slow compared to your system ram. This is where the stuttering comes in. If you are running 1 x DIMM, this means you are in single channel memory mode. 2 x DIMMS means it will be in dual channel mode. The difference between single channel and dual channel, specially for Ryzen is about 10-20% performance increase with Dual. (task dependent). This really applies for gaming though. You do have fast ram, which is good, but having dual channel would be a big boost.

Additionally, but not a major concern, although your CPU is very decent, BF V particularly can max out a 4c/8t CPU, this can in certain multiplayer modes cause a similar stuttering effect.

I have a 2x4 kit of memory. One issue however is xmp will not work to get it to work at its 3200 speed. 2666 is the highest i can get it before it crashes the whole system. I have thought about selling this kit, and buying a 4x4 (16gb) 2666 kit of ballistix for 100 on newegg. I do know that bf5 for example is very demanding, however the weird part is not even two weeks ago the game worked perfectly. This issue only started appearing about a week and half ago. Let me know what you think about selling the ram and getting a new kit.
I dont plan on it but could a processor upgrade help at all? Being i have a b350 i dont want to get a zen 2 chip because the vrm isnt very good. So i was looking at the 1600x processor. 6 core 12 thread and stock is 3.6-4ghz. I dont really want to upgrade the processor, mainly just the ram to get the 16 gigs and to run at the speed i buy it for. I also know ryzen is ram hungry, even if i have a gpu, do i need faster ram still or would 2666 be good?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Sorry for late reply, busy day.

Ah, at least it's 2 x 4gbs. You have dual channel running which is good. Pity about the 2666mhz though. Sadly that's sometimes the limitations of a lot of B350 mobo's. Depending on which one they seem to max out at 2933mhz. Not always though. It just takes a bit of tinkering around to get them to work. You can try setting the voltage and timings manually at 2933. Just go into the bios, and set only the voltage to 1.35 ( i think that's what those DIMMS are rated for) and set 4-5 timings manually. The timings will be on a sticker on the ram, or in the manual or box they came in. Try that before selling the others.

Getting a 4 x DIMM kit is not a great idea for Ryzen, sepcially on the B350's. With two dimms populated, you may get 2933 (3000) or even 3200mhz speeds. With 4 DIMMS populated, you will only get a max of 2666mhz. It's an issue with the memory controller. So in your case, i'd strongly suggest getting 2 x 8gb matched kit of 3000/3200mhz from the QVL for your mobo. Here is the QVL: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350 Pro4/index.asp#MemoryRR

Check on that list the ram you want to buy. If it's on the list, it has been tested to work on your mobo with your CPU at it's rated speeds. By doing it that way you can ensure pretty much that when you pop the new ones in they will work as expected.

i hope that helps a little

 

[nhardinger2003]

Sorry for late reply, busy day.

Ah, at least it's 2 x 4gbs. You have dual channel running which is good. Pity about the 2666mhz though. Sadly that's sometimes the limitations of a lot of B350 mobo's. Depending on which one they seem to max out at 2933mhz. Not always though. It just takes a bit of tinkering around to get them to work. You can try setting the voltage and timings manually at 2933. Just go into the bios, and set only the voltage to 1.35 ( i think that's what those DIMMS are rated for) and set 4-5 timings manually. The timings will be on a sticker on the ram, or in the manual or box they came in. Try that before selling the others.

Getting a 4 x DIMM kit is not a great idea for Ryzen, sepcially on the B350's. With two dimms populated, you may get 2933 (3000) or even 3200mhz speeds. With 4 DIMMS populated, you will only get a max of 2666mhz. It's an issue with the memory controller. So in your case, i'd strongly suggest getting 2 x 8gb matched kit of 3000/3200mhz from the QVL for your mobo. Here is the QVL: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350 Pro4/index.asp#MemoryRR

Check on that list the ram you want to buy. If it's on the list, it has been tested to work on your mobo with your CPU at it's rated speeds. By doing it that way you can ensure pretty much that when you pop the new ones in they will work as expected.

i hope that helps a little

Hey, thanks for the help, however i tried to manually set the speeds, voltage, and timings, and it puts me into automatic repair as soon as start up. I am not experienced with overclocking at all so dont want to mess with the voltage or timings too much. I tried settings everything to auto, it defaults to 2134 mhz. My memory is supported with the motherboard(apparently) to work at its 3200 speed, however im wondering if something could be defective. Im not sure but its out of warrenty anyways. With getting only 2666 on quad channel memory, if i cant get higher than 2666 to begin with, i might as well go for 16 or 32 gigs of ram right away and just deal with 2666. I plan to upgrade the processor in the future to a ryzen 5 1600x. Im honestly not sure why i cant run at 3200 speed. Thanks for the help though.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

The best bet for more ram to ensure you hit rated speeds will always be 2 x matched kit. Whether that is 2 x 8gb or 2 x 16gb. Having only two slots populated gives the best chance of getting rated speeds.

It's possible the DIMMS are defective, but I suspect if you just play around with them a little more they will work. By setting timings manually, you are not really OC the DIMMS (although you are), but it's not too hard to do. Just read some more about your mobo and it's bios. There are tutorials online. You can search your mobo and ram combo and there will be someone who has figured out how to get them to run at rated speeds.

Good luck

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

If you an select an answer that may have helped you, then you can close off the thread. Feel free to PM is you need any other help