How important is Ram to Arma 3 performance

[brasscakes 10]

I currently have 2x 2gb of ram, if i upgraded it to 8gb or 16gb would i notice any performance increase in arma 3 ?

I am having issues with major lag stutters when playing online which my friend doesn't seem to get, we have similar systems in terms of cpu/gpu but he has 16gb compared to my 4gb...

[UltimateBawb 1]

Post exact specs. please.

[brasscakes 10]

I5 3570k @ 3.4ghz (Not overclocked)

Asus Z77 Extreme4-M

2x2GB OCZ PC3 12800 Special Ops Edition ram

Nvidia GTX680

Samsung SSD

Get the giant lag stutters even with settings set to medium/high, they tend to only happen online (single player not too bad, still does it sometimes when looking about with alt head down). They happen maybe every 5 or so minutes and last about 2 seconds.

[clarionhorn 10]

very important. i have an ssd and 8 gbs of ram, but the game still lags. the engine is dying, it doesn't know how to properly utilize resources.

[dnk 13]

The game doesn't use more than 2 or 3GB of RAM (I forget which), so you'd see no gains from increasing it. I have 4GB and never see my total use rise past about 3.6GB. Most of the RAM usage seems to be on the graphics card.

SSD would be the way to reduce stuttering, but it seems you've got one already. To be frank, a couple seconds of stuttering once every 5 minutes is nothing. I get constant ministutters every time I turn my head always. What might be the issue is your graphics RAM. If you have IQ settings too high, occasionally it will max out and have to clear out a large part of the memory and start reloading data, at which point you might see the stuttering. Using some sort of benchmarking program (like hwinfo) that measures both VRAM usage and FPS or frametimes will help a lot in finding if that's the issue. Easy fix is to reduce IQ, particularly texture quality.

Also, your specs are very basic and you didn't mention your game settings, so it's hard to give any further information.

Also, this is probably best put in the Troubleshooting Forum.

[UltimateBawb 1]

Clocking up your RAM and/or buying lower latency RAM would give you some performance gain. Also look into overclocking that CPU, Arma sees massive benefits from OCing.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

ArmA is a 32-bit-application and uses only around 3 GB of RAM, but your computer may do some other jobs while you're playing, so a bit more than 4 GB of RAM may make sense. But don't expect any miracles.

On this forum there is a thread where the speed of RAM is being discussed. Some people claim to get better performance since they use faster RAM in an otherwise unchanged system.

[clarionhorn 10]

ArmA is a 32-bit-application and uses only around 3 GB of RAM, but your computer may do some other jobs while you're playing, so a bit more than 4 GB of RAM may make sense. But don't expect any miracles.

On this forum there is a thread where the speed of RAM is being discussed. Some people claim to get better performance since they use faster RAM in an otherwise unchanged system.

the variation in performance is so great within the engine itself, that benchmarks are somewhat meaningless. a unit could get stuck somewhere and not enter the fight, an explosion occurs a few seconds after/before on the next benchmark, etc, etc. 1 to 5 percent difference is basically no difference in terms of fluidity.

[roshnak 41]

Some people claim to get better performance since they use faster RAM in an otherwise unchanged system.

I really can't think of a reason you wouldn't get better performance with faster RAM. Quicker access, etc.

But yeah, more RAM isn't going to help you out because Arma won't use it, which is honestly pretty unacceptable at this point.

[Tyl3r99 41]

I have 16gb ram!!! but may as well have 2....

[NeuroFunker 11]

my windows 7 x64 uses 2,4gb ram in idle, when the game uses at least 2 gb of ram, even 3, and you have just 4, this is where stuttering begins, it starts to write files to the disc in page file, and slows the system down. Getting at least more 4gb ram, won't hurt your performance, actually improve it. A buddy had 4 gig and blamed slowdowns when i was fine, i told him to get another 4 gigs, and he was pretty happy with the performance on his quite dated rig. But yes, don't expect a mirracle here. Actually my physical ram is loaded to 6 gb, and system commit to 8gb, while playing arma, according process explorer, but 12gb of ram was even to much but i'm keeping it. Also i remember in arma 2, people were reporting 15-25% performace increase, having ram clocked to 2100+mhz

[Fonzie 2]

There was a small study here some time ago, saying 2133mhz memory vs 1600mhz memory gives you 5% more FPS. If you want to max dem frames, get high clock memory.

[Azza FHI 50]

If its lag in multiplayer only then one possibility is your antivirus or firewall is causing stutters. Think i saw it on youtube. Simple test is to disable them and see if the stutter is still there. If thats the problem then figure out how to set the firewall to allow arma3 traffic

[Leon86 13]

Lots of ram may reduce stutter, doesn't do much for average fps.

[stealth2668 12]

I was having some serious stuttering with 4 GB of RAM. I upgraded to 8GB and it was all fixed. I also since then replaced my cpu + mobo but the RAM was where the real performance gain was from.

[roshnak 41]

I was having some serious stuttering with 4 GB of RAM. I upgraded to 8GB and it was all fixed. I also since then replaced my cpu + mobo but the RAM was where the real performance gain was from.

Since Arma can't even use the 4 GB you had originally, I don't know how that's possible. Unless you are running a whole bunch of applications in the background.

[Leon86 13]

If arma runs out of adress space it uses the page file to store stuff it needs quick acces to. On a 64 bit OS the data is slowly written to the page file, but it's not actually removed from memory until you run out of space. This trick allows for memory use above the 32bit adress space limit.

http://www.bistudio.com/english/company/developers-blog/85-breaking-the-32-bit-barrier

[dnk 13]

Again, Arma can only use up to 3GB of system RAM. When pressed for RAM, my system can reduce all other uses to well under 1GB. So how would adding over 4GB help?

It might be your extra RAM was also faster?

I'm genuinely curious, because right now I'm considering upgrading my RAM, but I'll probably go with an SSD (not just for this game, but for other apps also). I figure the SSD will do more to remove stutters and "big frames" in this game than faster/more RAM (currently 1066/7 2x2 DC).

[stealth2668 12]

Since Arma can't even use the 4 GB you had originally, I don't know how that's possible. Unless you are running a whole bunch of applications in the background.

You seriously have NO idea? Your OS alone uses up RAM and I also use VAC and have steam running in the background. That's almost 2 GB of RAM right there. You think your system idles at 0 RAM usage and has the whole 4 GB for your game?

---------- Post added at 10:04 ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 ----------

Again, Arma can only use up to 3GB of system RAM. When pressed for RAM, my system can reduce all other uses to well under 1GB. So how would adding over 4GB help?

It might be your extra RAM was also faster?

I'm genuinely curious, because right now I'm considering upgrading my RAM, but I'll probably go with an SSD (not just for this game, but for other apps also). I figure the SSD will do more to remove stutters and "big frames" in this game than faster/more RAM (currently 1066/7 2x2 DC).

I don't think SSD's can improve stutter, just load times. Once you play a game the cpu moves all files into your RAM because it has a faster access time I believe. At that point your SSD is not doing much unless you don't have enough RAM, in which case the cpu needs to get those files from the SSD. That would be where the stutters would come from. More RAM will fix the stutters unless the graphics settings are too much for your GPU. Try lowering your settings to make sure it's nor your gpu first.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Stealth2668

[Greenfist 1863]

I don't think SSD's can improve stutter, just load times. Once you play a game the cpu moves all files into your RAM because it has a faster access time I believe. At that point your SSD is not doing much unless you don't have enough RAM, in which case the cpu needs to get those files from the SSD. That would be where the stutters would come from. More RAM will fix the stutters unless the graphics settings are too much for your GPU. Try lowering your settings to make sure it's nor your gpu first.

How can the cpu fit all of the 12GB Arma data to the 2GB of RAM? :)

Of course SSD greatly reduces stutters, no matter how much RAM you have.

[stealth2668 12]

How can the cpu fit all of the 12GB Arma data to the 2GB of RAM? :)

Of course SSD greatly reduces stutters, no matter how much RAM you have.

SSD's don't greatly reduce stutters. I don't have an SSD and I don't have stutters. In fact, going from 4 to 8 GB resolved ALL my stuttering because RAM is faster than SSD's. As a result I was able to increase my graphics settings (which I thought was the problem originally).

EDIT: I don't think it loads ALL the game files into RAM. I'm sure it's just essential stuff. You wouldn't load the whole campaign into the RAM at once, you would do 1 at a time. Not all missions contain all vehicles, so those along with their corresponding sounds, textures etc. wouldn't be loaded until needed. That's probably how it works.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Stealth2668

[roshnak 41]

I don't think you understand. Arma can not use more than 3GB of RAM. It does not matter how much faster RAM is than an SSD because Arma can't use more than 3GB of RAM. It doesn't matter if you have 32GB of RAM because Arma can't use more than 3GB of RAM. Arma is a 32-bit application. 32-bit applications can't use more than 3GB of RAM.

What you are experiencing is most likely a placebo.

Edit: Also, SSDs can absolutely reduce stutter in Arma 3. Since Arma doesn't load every object at once, you can experience stutter when moving into new areas and loading new objects.

[NeuroFunker 11]

are you sure, your system uses exactly 1gb, so 4gb ram are enough for you?

[roshnak 41]

That's why I said "unless you are running a whole bunch of applications in the background" in a previous post.

[Greenfist 1863]

SSD's don't greatly reduce stutters. I don't have an SSD and I don't have stutters. In fact, going from 4 to 8 GB resolved ALL my stuttering because RAM is faster than SSD's. As a result I was able to increase my graphics settings (which I thought was the problem originally).

EDIT: I don't think it loads ALL the game files into RAM. I'm sure it's just essential stuff. You wouldn't load the whole campaign into the RAM at once, you would do 1 at a time. Not all missions contain all vehicles, so those along with their corresponding sounds, textures etc. wouldn't be loaded until needed. That's probably how it works.

I meant; if you have stutters, it's very likely an SSD will reduce them. (Stutter may include fps drops and slow loading textures and LODs.) I didn't say all stutter is caused by a lack of SSD.

Could you do a test for me? (I have only 4GB RAM, so I can't) 1. Download and run sysinternals process monitor. 2. Start some regular mission. 3. Start capturing with the monitor. 4. Play for while. 5. Stop monitoring and see how many bytes Arma read the game files while you were playing. If everything necessary was loaded in RAM at start, you should have almost no disk activity.

That'll tell you how much HD is used.

By the way, I have win x86 with 3.6GB RAM. All necessary processes use 0.8GB, leaving 2.8 available for Arma. Has anyone seen it use that much? Would 64-bit and 8GB help my performance at all?

Edited January 20, 2014 by Greenfist