Question Should I upgrade my RAM?

madja

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Feb 5, 2018
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10,510
Hey everyone. The recent Diablo 4 beta made me consider getting upgrades as I was stuttering a lot. When looking in Task Manager I could see that my memory usage was pretty much capped out.
I currently have 16 GB and people seem to think that is more than enough, so I don't know if getting more will actually help or if it's something else I should be looking at instead.

Here's my current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060
SSD: WD Black SN750
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB
MOBO: MSI Z390-A PRO

I use three monitors. Game is on one and usually Discord and firefox on the others.
 
Task manager ram stats are hard to interpret.
Windows keeps unused code in ram in anticipation of instant reuse.

To see if ram is actually holding you back, run your games and activate task manager. Access resource manager /memory tab/hard fault column. If it shows zero, then you have sufficient ram.
A hard fault happens when an app needs code that is not in ram.
It must exchange something to the page file and replace with the needed code.
This is an expensive proposition.
 

madja

Honorable
Feb 5, 2018
12
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10,510
PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

History of heavy use for gaming - correct?

My power supply is Corsair TX550M 550W 80 Plus Gold Semi Modular. It was new when I got it back in 2019.

And yes, I game every day. Usually there's no trouble. Can run most things at near 144 FPS. Diablo 4 was also running at above 100 but with tons of stuttering (freezing, dropping to 0 FPS, especially when lots of things happened on screen at once or when my character dashed which prompted the game to load new areas faster) at high settings and it was near impossible to use anything on my other monitors while playing (browsing or listening to music). Switching to low helped but still experienced stutters.

Another game from recent memory that I had trouble running is Hogwarts Legacy. Here my PC just meets the minimum RAM requirements (16) and when I looked in task manager it also seemed to be having memory issues. I kind of brushed it off as the game being unoptimized and stopped playing. Until Diablo 4 beta came around and I started having a similar issue, which is why I'm thinking about upgrading RAM specifically but I'm really not sure if that's the problem or if any of the other parts are dragging me down here (as in maybe my RAM isn't being properly utilized, I really don't know).

To see if ram is actually holding you back, run your games and activate task manager. Access resource manager /memory tab/hard fault column. If it shows zero, then you have sufficient ram.

I'm afraid that is no longer possible as Diablo 4 beta ended and I can't check again :/ other games run fine though but I don't really play lots of games with amazing textures that require a lot of RAM. Last games I played that could potentially use a lot were RDR and Atomic Heart but I never experienced any issues with those. The problem is running Diablo 4 at high but again I can't really check again unfortunately..
 

artk2219

Distinguished
Hey everyone. The recent Diablo 4 beta made me consider getting upgrades as I was stuttering a lot. When looking in Task Manager I could see that my memory usage was pretty much capped out.
I currently have 16 GB and people seem to think that is more than enough, so I don't know if getting more will actually help or if it's something else I should be looking at instead.

Here's my current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060
SSD: WD Black SN750
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB
MOBO: MSI Z390-A PRO

I use three monitors. Game is on one and usually Discord and firefox on the others.

I think moving to 32gb should help you out, I ran into the 16gb ram cap a few years ago. I keep a vm and tons of tabs open and I had to keep closing my browser before I could play anything. Upgrading to 32gb resolved the issue, 16gb is enough to get you going for now, but 32 is the standard amount that users will be moving to pretty soon. On the plus your motherboard has 4 ram slots so all you need to do is throw in another 2 sticks and you're good to go.
 

madja

Honorable
Feb 5, 2018
12
0
10,510
I think moving to 32gb should help you out, I ran into the 16gb ram cap a few years ago. I keep a vm and tons of tabs open and I had to keep closing my browser before I could play anything. Upgrading to 32gb resolved the issue, 16gb is enough to get you going for now, but 32 is the standard amount that users will be moving to pretty soon. On the plus your motherboard has 4 ram slots so all you need to do is throw in another 2 sticks and you're good to go.
Some people say that two of the slots are slow and two are fast. Would I be fine with just buying two more of the same 8GB or would it be better to get completely new 2x16?
 
Some people say that two of the slots are slow and two are fast. Would I be fine with just buying two more of the same 8GB or would it be better to get completely new 2x16?
There are no fast and slow slots, only single and dual channel. Just make sure with 2 sticks there is one unused slot between them, that way you know you're using dual channel, which is much faster than single.

Personally, I would buy new RAM, you can use another set of 2x8 but they want to be identical to the first set in every way, otherwise you could have issues...this is why I'd get a new set of 2x16. Plus DDR4 RAM has become a lot cheaper for the faster kits, so I'd look for 3,600Mhz CL16, and make sure XMP is enabled in the BIOS otherwise it will run slow.