RAM upgrade or a new SSD!!?

[terminator13Raj]

Hey Guys,
I was planning to upgrade my RAM (mainly because of Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare... I can run it with 4GB but framerates drop below 20 .. and jumps back up again to ~65 and drops again.. @lowest settings,and the loading takes centuries .. ughhh.. was wondering if its because of the RAM or something else) but after reading few threads i became quite unsure, should i upgrade my ram or get an SSD?

I planned on getting 2x4gb Corsair Vengeance replacing my old sticks but im worried.. will it be supported by my old mobo
? will there be any improvement in performance if i get a new pair ? OR should i go for an SSD?


Specs(it's an old system) 😀

Biostar H55HD mobo
i5 650
CM Hyper 212 EVO
Adata 2x2gb ddr3 @1333mhz
Xfx Hd 7750 1gb gddr5
350 watt CM psu
WD Blue 1TB x2

Monitor res. 1366x768
Thanks in Advance.. 😀

 

[APassingMe]

Normally if you see framerate variance like that, it's either a slow GPU or something wrong with your system. So unless the game requires more than 4 gigs of RAM I would check to see if you need to optimize or fix something in your rig. As far as suggestions go...

My normal suggestion is that if you have a 64bit OS then run at least 8 gigs of ram and I recommend anyone with the money to invest in a good quality 256gb ssd to improve basic computing speed. The ssd shouldn't help your framerate issue though unless you're thrashing the storage, same concept for ram unless the game requires it.

 

[mdsiu]

Upgrade the GPU before doing anything else.

 

[Tradesman1]

With an older system, think first I would do is see if I could borrow a better/newer PSU to try

 

[terminator13Raj]

Normally if you see framerate variance like that, it's either a slow GPU or something wrong with your system. So unless the game requires more than 4 gigs of RAM I would check to see if you need to optimize or fix something in your rig. As far as suggestions go...

My normal suggestion is that if you have a 64bit OS then run at least 8 gigs of ram and I recommend anyone with the money to invest in a good quality 256gb ssd to improve basic computing speed. The ssd shouldn't help your framerate issue though unless you're thrashing the storage, same concept for ram unless the game requires it.

I checked the ram usage with task manager and it was around 93% while running the game.. and yes i do have a 64 bit OS Windows 8.1.. So.. will a Corsair Vengeance support my system.. ?

 

[APassingMe]

93% shouldn't be pushing you down that far (3% was probably the task manager), the vengeance ram will probably work in your system but you will have to check the stats, mostly check the voltage that the ram uses vs the the voltage the motherboard can supply in addition to the ram timings/speed.

I remain by my original stance that you probably have something else going on though.

 

[APassingMe]

The ssd should help with your load times, the ram won't... anyway...

Run a malwarebytes scan on your pc first before you do anything else.

 

[madmatt30]

Definitely ram first mate IMO - taking about 6gb up my system - with 4gb its probably thrashing your hard drive page file which would explain big intermittent frame drops - & advanced warfare does take a long time to load (even on a ssd)

Disable shader caching in graphics options to reduce load times.
Disable cache sun & spot shadow maps to get a biggish fps boost on low end cards.

 

[APassingMe]

I agree that the RAM is a good upgrade, I am just not confident enough to say that it will fix his problem since it really seems like he might have something else going on... Still recommending the RAM but keep an eye for other problems and it may not fix the problem you're looking at.

 

[terminator13Raj]

The ssd should help with your load times, the ram won't... anyway...

Run a malwarebytes scan on your pc first before you do anything else.

scanning now..

 

[terminator13Raj]

Definitely ram first mate IMO - taking about 6gb up my system - with 4gb its probably thrashing your hard drive page file which would explain big intermittent frame drops - & advanced warfare does take a long time to load (even on a ssd)

Disable shader caching in graphics options to reduce load times.
Disable cache sun & spot shadow maps to get a biggish fps boost on low end cards.

okay.. they were disabled 😀 Any chances increasing RAM would stop the sudden frame drops? 😀

 

[APassingMe]

Yes there is a chance, if the frame drops are caused by disk thrashing... it's worth a try to upgrade, I just don't want you to do it without knowing that there's a decent chance you may still have the same problems after upgrade.

 

[madmatt30]

There are a lot of reports of fps drops on systems with 4gb ram if you Google it mate - as I said as soon as ram usage gets above 75% it starts to eat at the page file - if you only have 1 hard drive with os & games installed page file access can cause exactly that scenario.

 

[mdsiu]

I think a lot of posters here are missing the fact that the GPU in your system is only 1 gb of RAM. Most new GPUs are 3 or 4 gigs. Put simply, the size of the frame buffer matters a lot when trying to resolve issues related to frame rates. If you don't have enough RAM on the GPU, the system will need to make frequent calls to the HDD.

 

[madmatt30]

^ I'd agree but at that res (1366x768) with that card I have no doubt he's running between low & medium settings with low res textures.
4gn ram is simply not enough with new titles - its the obvious upgrade to me & will be money well spent (can always be carried over to a new rig if he makes a sensible purchase choice)

 

[mdsiu]

^ I'd agree but at that res (1366x768) with that card I have no doubt he's running between low & medium settings with low res textures.
4gn ram is simply not enough with new titles - its the obvious upgrade to me & will be money well spent (can always be carried over to a new rig if he makes a sensible purchase choice)

+1 Upgrade RAM to 8 GB. Note that Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare minimum spec is 6 GB of RAM, and 4 GB video card is recommended.

 

[terminator13Raj]

Hey guys .. I shifted the virtual memory to the second Hard disk(COD AW and Windows on the other HDD) and it loaded a lot quicker than before.. so surprised 😀 .. and happy.. although frame rates drop but not as often as it used to.. its quite playable now.. 😀

 

[APassingMe]

That would be seem to indicate that it was your hard-drive being thrashed, I would go ahead with the memory upgrade.