Excessive RAM usage on 1.05 on Client PC

[Rambo-16AAB 0]

PC spec;-

AMD 64 ( single core )3200+ ( overclocked at 2.19ghz )

512 RAM

Asus 7600GS Video with 512 onboard RAM

Win XP on Service pack 2, all updates installed.

10 Gig free HD space after game install.

Internet connection, ADSL 8mb down / 400k up

On V1.04 my systems resource meter would show 60% CPU & 46% RAM usage playing a trest map online on our own server.

Now on V1.05 I cant play multiplayer at all. CPU runs up to 100%, Ram up to 95% and thats just on loading the same test map on the same server. Once the map eventually loads, CPU will sink back to 45% usage, RAM sill running at 87% and I get 2FPS and occasionally for a few seconds up to 14 FPS. I have tried all combinations of the video settings that my gear can use, and it makes no difference to the online FPS.

The interesting thing is I can put the map in the single player folder, load it in seconds, and run at up to 50 FPS, Normal FPS is 20-30 with all settings on high. Memory usage while its running ( single player ) is still 45% CPU & 87% RAM. The this test was the same map, hosted by myself as a play/host type game on LAN and I get the same long load times and back to 2FPS again.

All tests were done while servers were empty and I was on my own and on a fresh install of the game.

Not sure what to class this problem as, but definately need a fix for it.

[quiet_man 8]

PC spec;-

AMD 64 ( single core )3200+ ( overclocked at 2.19ghz )

512 RAM

Asus 7600GS Video with 512 onboard RAM

Win XP on Service pack 2, all updates installed.

10 Gig free HD space after game install.

Internet connection, ADSL 8mb down / 400k up

have you tried "-maxmem=XXX"?

replace XXX with a reasonable number (450 or 512?)

1.05 uses more memory as many people complained about the lack of used memory

QuietMan

[Lt_Damage 0]

Regardless of what this or any game status as minimum specifications, you are absolutely dreaming if you want to run any game well with 512mb of ram.

[Rambo-16AAB 0]

I can run any other game well, and Arma ran well up untill the 1.05 patch.

If was my system rap causing the problem, I wouldnt be able to load the same map in single player or multiplayer.

[psycosmos 0]

Try what quiet_man suggested.

Oh, and get more ram anyway. I'm sorry, but playing Games with 512 MB ram isn't something I would even have considered 3 years ago, let alone today.

There's your Windows that, striped bare to only the most important services, will need at least  around 150 MB of it, but more like 250 MB if you didn't streamline it, easily more depending on optional services and programs. The AGP Apperture probably uses something between 32 MB and 256 MB, depending on your bios settings. That's in a best case scenario about 320 MB left for applications, if they need more, the big swapping begins and with it usually the stuttering when the game needs data that is not in the ram.

ArmA seems to get partially around this by the streaming it uses (=less data in ram needed), but most other games eat up those 320 MB like nothing. I doubt that even Battlefield 1942 (released 2002) runs fluid with such a setup, let alone BF 2 (released 2005), that sucks up about a Gig of ram. Those are just examples, but you get the picture.

I would suggest at the very least 1,5 GB ram for a gaming pc that is supposed to run all games well, even if it's an older pc that has its limits elsewhere anyway. 1 GB is already problematic with a lot of games, 512 MB is simply out of discussion.

But all this probably depends on the definition of "running well".

(just my thoughts...and my english training)

[Airstar 0]

Come on people, read what the man says. With 1.04 his game worked ok, now with 1.05 very likely even all swap mem is used.

How can you start telling him to get more memory?? If this is always the solution, at Arma 1.96 we need Vista 64bit and 16GB of memory...

Bottom line, coders say there are no severe changes in code made from 1.04->1.05, however there are lot of us whose computers came down to their knees with all mem used after patching to 1.05. There is obviously a memory leak somewhere, but there has been no other comment about this from the devs except "nothing big was changed, so there is no known issues".

[Bad Pilot 0]

One change made was to use more available video RAM for textures. The problem here exists with a PC that has 512MB system RAM trying to feed a ravenous 512MB video card. I'd wonder if that was a problem with the system.

If it's an AGP computer, some guy said reducing the aperture helps. I'm currently testing that for myself and can't yet say (I've been busy). If anything in my first paragraph is true, lowering the texture quality will speed things up, as would having enough (more! RAM.

-Fenix out