[SOLVED] Lags while gaming or computer running slow, RAM issue?
- Thread starter Addie_72
- Start date
Personally, I would put the OS and the games on an SSD if you can afford one.
They usually perform better as SSD’s have higher read & write speeds than traditional HDD’s.
I’m not sure of the system requirements of the game, but the CPU and GPU seem decent enough. Perhaps not brilliant for gaming, but should be able to run a game that I think is a good few years old.
Are you using high/very high/ultra graphics settings?
Try turning it down to medium, see if the spikes persist, if they do, it’s likely that the game just can’t run well enough on your hardware or isn’t optimised properly, which is unlikely on a game that is now years old.
If turning it down a notch makes any difference, it suggests the same.
One other thing to try is either disabling or muting your anitvirus whilst you play If you have one, some anti virus software is notorious for causing lag when playing games.
They usually perform better as SSD’s have higher read & write speeds than traditional HDD’s.
I’m not sure of the system requirements of the game, but the CPU and GPU seem decent enough. Perhaps not brilliant for gaming, but should be able to run a game that I think is a good few years old.
Are you using high/very high/ultra graphics settings?
Try turning it down to medium, see if the spikes persist, if they do, it’s likely that the game just can’t run well enough on your hardware or isn’t optimised properly, which is unlikely on a game that is now years old.
If turning it down a notch makes any difference, it suggests the same.
One other thing to try is either disabling or muting your anitvirus whilst you play If you have one, some anti virus software is notorious for causing lag when playing games.
I cant afford a high enough ssd right now on my old HDD on which os is installed and some games like max payne lag idk why i dont have any antivirus software.
When i look at disk usage at task manager they take up 100% (some tasks) do you really think is it the ram issue because i suspect so when i llok at ram usage 30% is used on idle and on game 90 to 100%
Disk usage?
Best thing to look at, run the game, whilst in the game, Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and launch task manager. Check the CPU and RAM section under "performance" tab, if your CPU is under maximum load, or near enough reaching 100% utilisation, then that is likely to be the issue.
A lot of games are typically either CPU or GPU biased. RAM doesn't often make a lot of difference to game frame rates and performance, unless of course you only have a small amount of RAM to begin with which is barely meeting system requirements for that game.
As I mentioned earlier, some games, including ones that i've played in the past, have suffered stutter, or lag spikes, where very momentarily, the game, or simulation, lags for a second or so, sometimes it's because it's loading scenery, often it's just the way the game is. On a mechanical hard disk drive, stutter and lag will be more noticeable and likely to occur more commonly. On an SSD it's likely to be less noticeable and occur less frequently, at least in the experience i've found, having been building PC's and using them for gaming since early 2013.
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What frequency is it running at?
Is the full 8GB of RAM showing up in System, or in CPU-Z?
93% utilisation with the main app using 4,100, one using 200mb and the rest using 100 or less, 93% usage seems excessive for just those apps on 8GB.
- Apr 24, 2021
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It's not your RAM, it's the fact you are loading huge, modern games from HDD.
RDR2 is 150GB. The game loads in assets like character models, textures, sound effects, music etc as you are playing. If the HDD cannot keep up with all the data it needs to give to the game, the game will pause (lag, stutter, whatever you want to call it) while it waits for the assets to load.
Upgrade to an SSD.
You say you can't afford an SSD but you can afford more RAM? Nonsense.
8GB DDR3 RAM: $40
Kingston A400 480GB SSD: $40
Go buy an SSD.
Also it looks like you have a lot of bloatware running in the background. Nvidia share? Are you streaming? Recording game footage? A full reinstall (which would be needed anyway to transfer your OS to SSD) would solve a lot of those issues. Only install what you need (as in, this game will not run unless I install this thing), don't install anything that you don't. That includes "Nvidia GeForce Experience"... do NOT install that.
RDR2 is 150GB. The game loads in assets like character models, textures, sound effects, music etc as you are playing. If the HDD cannot keep up with all the data it needs to give to the game, the game will pause (lag, stutter, whatever you want to call it) while it waits for the assets to load.
Upgrade to an SSD.
You say you can't afford an SSD but you can afford more RAM? Nonsense.
8GB DDR3 RAM: $40
Kingston A400 480GB SSD: $40
Go buy an SSD.
Also it looks like you have a lot of bloatware running in the background. Nvidia share? Are you streaming? Recording game footage? A full reinstall (which would be needed anyway to transfer your OS to SSD) would solve a lot of those issues. Only install what you need (as in, this game will not run unless I install this thing), don't install anything that you don't. That includes "Nvidia GeForce Experience"... do NOT install that.
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geofelt
Titan
- Oct 9, 2006
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I suspect insufficient ram for your workload.
The problem is compounded by having a HDD as a C drive.
In task manager open up the resource monitor and look at the memory tab.
I think you will find a non trivial number under the hard faults/sec column.
A hard fault happens when an app tries to execute an instruction that is not physically present in ram.
That requires windows to find the code on the page file to swap it in.
That takes time on a HDD, perhaps 8ms.
If there is no free space in which to load that code, there will be an additional 8ms required to make space.
In effect a 1/second hard fault rate will look to your app like a 1.6% processing penalty.
The benefit of a ssd is that the time is about 1/40 of that of a hdd.
Do what you can to reduce other apps or monitors that might be running concurrently.
Chrome is one such offender.
If you want to upgrade ran, consider that
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
If you do buy more disparate sticks, they should be the same speed, voltage and cas numbers.
Even then your chances of working are less than 100%
I might guess 90% success for intel and less for amd.
What is your plan "B" if the new stick/s do not work?
If you want 16gb, my suggestion if you have an intel motherboard is to buy a 2 x 8gb kit that matches your current specs.
Then, try adding in your old 8gb,
If it works, good; you now have extra ram.
If not, sell the old ram or keep it as a spare.
The problem is compounded by having a HDD as a C drive.
In task manager open up the resource monitor and look at the memory tab.
I think you will find a non trivial number under the hard faults/sec column.
A hard fault happens when an app tries to execute an instruction that is not physically present in ram.
That requires windows to find the code on the page file to swap it in.
That takes time on a HDD, perhaps 8ms.
If there is no free space in which to load that code, there will be an additional 8ms required to make space.
In effect a 1/second hard fault rate will look to your app like a 1.6% processing penalty.
The benefit of a ssd is that the time is about 1/40 of that of a hdd.
Do what you can to reduce other apps or monitors that might be running concurrently.
Chrome is one such offender.
If you want to upgrade ran, consider that
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
If you do buy more disparate sticks, they should be the same speed, voltage and cas numbers.
Even then your chances of working are less than 100%
I might guess 90% success for intel and less for amd.
What is your plan "B" if the new stick/s do not work?
If you want 16gb, my suggestion if you have an intel motherboard is to buy a 2 x 8gb kit that matches your current specs.
Then, try adding in your old 8gb,
If it works, good; you now have extra ram.
If not, sell the old ram or keep it as a spare.
To be honest, if you are serious about gaming, an SSD is a must. Playing any graphically intensive (with lots of scenery files, character outfits, weapons, vehicles, etc) whilst running off a HDD, is just asking to ruin your gaming experience. The only games you can really play on a HDD without suffering noticeable lag are more basic games, the likes of minecraft etc, where it's less intensive and there's more of a focus on the CPU, than there is loading gigabytes worth of scenery or game files into the game world.
Games like these are especially bad, because wherever you move across the map, the game has to continually load the world into view.
I currently have a 1TB Intel NVME SSD, and a 500GB Samsung 870 Evo SSD, the latter I bought off Amazon UK for about £55, considering you used to pay that for a 250GB SSD, the prices have come down a lot in the last few years. My system has no mechanical hard drives, they are so outdated and slow by today's standard. Even the best mechanical hard drives can't really compete with an SSD (assuming it's a decent brand), and the other point to note as the SSD is solid flash memory, it has no moving parts, and therefore is less likely to get damaged or stop working in the same way a mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) would.
Just make sure you get a decent brand SSD, and don't cheap out, some SSD's i've used in the past that were cheap were absolute jank, and only slightly better performing than a HDD.
Samsung, Intel, Kingston, WD (Western Digital), SanDisk... all decent brands and should perform absolutely fine.
I plan on getting a Samsung 870 NVME as the next upgrade as well as a full matching RAM kit.
Games like these are especially bad, because wherever you move across the map, the game has to continually load the world into view.
I currently have a 1TB Intel NVME SSD, and a 500GB Samsung 870 Evo SSD, the latter I bought off Amazon UK for about £55, considering you used to pay that for a 250GB SSD, the prices have come down a lot in the last few years. My system has no mechanical hard drives, they are so outdated and slow by today's standard. Even the best mechanical hard drives can't really compete with an SSD (assuming it's a decent brand), and the other point to note as the SSD is solid flash memory, it has no moving parts, and therefore is less likely to get damaged or stop working in the same way a mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) would.
Just make sure you get a decent brand SSD, and don't cheap out, some SSD's i've used in the past that were cheap were absolute jank, and only slightly better performing than a HDD.
Samsung, Intel, Kingston, WD (Western Digital), SanDisk... all decent brands and should perform absolutely fine.
I plan on getting a Samsung 870 NVME as the next upgrade as well as a full matching RAM kit.
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