4gb ram or 8gb ram ?

[TheEpicGamer7gr 0]

i have amd fx-6100 (6 cores)

gt 630 2gb ddr3 

4gb ram 

 

i know that dayz need a monster cpu but should i update my ram to 8gb ??? 

[SmashT 10907]

I dunno what affect it will have on performance in DayZ but with the price of ram nowadays there really is no reason not to.

[Warhoax 63]

Updating your ram will make that your PC is able to run more programs at once. Every program asks to put information in the RAM memory, if it's full, windows will create a pagefile on the HDD and store the information there. The RAM speed is significantly better than the speed of the HDD, thus a switch to a pagefile hurts performance badly.

Athough, you only notice the moment the ram gets full, as windows will swap files from the RAM and the pagefile, to create free ram and have active files in the RAM instead of the pagefile.

 

The recommended amount of RAM in the system requirements of Dayz is 4GB. This means that you need a system with 4GB of ram and not that Dayz will use all 4GB.
If your OS matches the requirement - thus windows 7 SP1 - there should be enough RAM for Dayz. Typically, the greater the version of windows, the more RAM memory it will take, because it's newer, better... I'm pretty sure that windows 8 is also fine tho'.

You have to keep in mind though, if you want to run a lot programs besides Dayz, more ram would come in handy.
I run the regular and a bit more - skype, steam, origin, chrome, malewarebytes, music player, etc... - while playing games, these all need RAM memory.
If I turn off the option to use windows pagefile - thus eliminating the possibility of using the HDD as memory - I often get the message that I need to shut down Dayz or Photoshop to get more free memory. If there is none, programs will crash. (This is with 8GB RAM)

In the end, the answer:
*Is it needed? No.
*Would it hurt? Definitely Not.

 

Besides, if you build a new PC later on, the speed of the RAM & the connector type may still be OKAY at that point in time to use it in a new build.



 

Edited February 14, 2015 by Warhoax

[Hi Im Brad 57]

16

[McWendy 675]

I dunno what affect it will have on performance in DayZ but with the price of ram nowadays there really is no reason not to.

Man! what a bad advice.... i dont know what it does but it wont hurt so yeah upgrade..... right....

My wife; honey 50% discount on hats! Me: do you need a hat?! Wife: no but it says discount we will save money. Me: not buying something u dont need saves money.

(People with forum team names should think twice before advising, your words will be seen as THE answer.)

So OP you dont neeeed more RAM to run. It will most likely reduce loading times, but only a little. It will not do anything ingame so getting 8gb+RAM for more frames will not work.

[scrubbie_mcnoob 136]

Speaking from my own experience, going from 4gb to 8gb does make a slight difference in dayz, it runs smoother (less frame drops, windoze and all the other shite in the backgound runs without problems). 

[byrgesen 1341]

DayZ wont really use 8gb of ram, but like SmashT said, with the current prices of ram, it a good idea to have 8+gb, because it will simply make your computer better at multitasking.

Perhaps you run the game, a browser in the background, steam (obviously), some music and possibly other software aswell.

This is where the 4gb of ram will make a difference.

 

But dont buy it because you expect DayZ to use it, it wont ever use 8gb of ram, because most of the game is read directly from the HDD/SSD (thats why people claim better performance when going with a SSD, even though it doesnt improve the framerate it self)

[Warhoax 63]

Man! what a bad advice.... i dont know what it does but it wont hurt so yeah upgrade..... right....

My wife; honey 50% discount on hats! Me: do you need a hat?! Wife: no but it says discount we will save money. Me: not buying something u dont need saves money.

(People with forum team names should think twice before advising, your words will be seen as THE answer.)

So OP you dont neeeed more RAM to run. It will most likely reduce loading times, but only a little. It will not do anything ingame so getting 8gb+RAM for more frames will not work.

Atleast it's better than saying things like: "It will most likely reduce loading times". Which is pure bullshit, as your RAM memory will not be any bottleneck there.

If you want to run other stuff on the background you simply need more than 4Gb, in order to run it smoothly.

[madmaxm 26]

16Gb. My 8gb is to low atm. Most of the games, that i play need 4-8 Gb alone and 2gb+ alone is windows reserved. Dayz needs 4gb (so, like 6gb+ togheter on your pc).

Edited February 14, 2015 by metalica24

[nexventor 429]

The question should be 8 or 16gb.

[Warhoax 63]

16Gb. My 8gb is to low atm. Most of the games, that i play need 4-8 Gb alone and 2gb+ alone is windows reserved. Dayz needs 4gb (so, like 6gb+ togheter on your pc).

 

That is not true, system requirements are what your system needs to run a program or game.

If it states "4GB", your system needs 4GB, not 6Gb. If you run another operating system that the recommended one, it's possible that the OS uses more RAM and thus you do need to count in some extra resources. But that doesn't apply right now.

[eno 1049]

The question should be 8 or 16gb.

 

I'd be looking at this as well- probably a better question. Running antivirus, maybe full fledged suites of internet protection plus all the programs mentioned above... steam chat window open... maybe voice chat... TS3 or even just a room with a few buddies on it not to mention the 60 or so processes that are running in windows automatically unless you've stripped them down to bare bones- it's strictly opinion but having a 64bit operating system with any less than 8gb of RAM is limiting. 

 

My heavy system runs 16 but I do feel that was a bit of overkill. Probably a bit much- but when I built the system that was the sweetspot for pricing so there we go. My first gen i7s all run 12GB which is a nice place to be depending on the games you're running. Everything is overclocked to balance out performance nicely...

 

In your situation assuming all your RAM slots aren't taken up on some crappy out of the box turnkey computer with the 4gb you already have- then a move to 8gb makes sense. Then maybe we have a conversation about what RAM... do you get good RAM that is already fast... decent RAM with good heat spreader configurations that you overclock or just plain white bread that fits in the slot and registers as RAM in your system as an additional 4gb. Are you adding? Or replacing? Keep in mind whatever RAM you have will only perform at the rate of the slowest denominator. 

 

Whatever- as already mentioned... negligible impact on performance no matter what you do (in game). Running the game on an SSD, having additional video RAM and a faster video card... now we're starting to talk about getting some return on investment. 

 

Upgrading RAM is good for your computer's overall performance as applications begin to take more to function in the background... So I would DEFINITELY do it- but not to improve performance on DayZ.

Edited February 14, 2015 by ENO75

[eno 1049]

On a follow up note- the suggestion I made of moving the game to an SSD made me realize that while I do run it on an SSD on my laptop, my main rig has my steamapps folder mounted on my larger HDD alongside other large files that limit SSD capacity. 

 

How does one move some games over to SSD while keeping others stashed away on HDD? 

 

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling in a different library folder (which could probably still work?) I went on the hunt and found this thread: 

 

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-1974084/moving-steam-games-ssd.html

 

A few good suggestions in there including this little app: 

 

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

I'm not endorsing the app since I haven't used it but it looks like a likely candidate for when I get home. Not to derail the thread about RAM but to divert it slightly towards tangible upgrades that improve performance... what did YOU do to transfer the game between mounted folders on HDD and an SSD or other RAID array? 

[BleedoutBill 1636]

If you are not currently experiencing problems, then extra RAM will not provide any benefit.

 

As someone already mentioned, additional RAM will allow you to run additional programs, simultaneously, without a degradation in performance. If you run too many programs at once (requiring more RAM than you have installed) Windows will use virtual memory for those additional applications. What is virtual memory you may ask? That is a area on your hard drive which is a sort of a parking space for when you run out of memory. That's good right? Well, it is good right up to the point that you want to alt-tab to the program on the parking space. Before Windows can use that "parked" program, it needs to park something else (to make room in RAM) and then read that "parked" program back into RAM. Since the hard drive is dramatically slower than RAM, you get lagging and unresponsiveness.

 

If you are the kind of person who wants to have a browser open with a Chenarus map as well as a few dozen other tabs, recording software running, Twitter running, e-mail running, etc., etc., etc., all while trying to run DayZ, then you probably need more the 4GB of RAM. If you switch from one program to another and your PC becomes unresponsive while at the same time your hard drive begins grinding away, then you probably need more than 4GB of RAM.

 

I have found that most laptops perform dramatically worse on 4GB than a PC. Why? Because the GPU in the laptop typically shares the RAM with the CPU. This means that instead of 4GB available to programs, you probably only have about 3.5GB. This may sound like a small difference, but the loss of that 0.5GB means that you are going to be parking programs to virtual memory much more frequently and any time you have to access the hard drive, performance suffers dramatically.

[Killawife 599]

The questions is outdated, it should go: 32 or 64 GB?

 

 

 

I have 16 Gb myself. I tried 32 but it made no difference.

[pilgrim* 3514]

On a follow up note- the suggestion I made of moving the game to an SSD made me realize that while I do run it on an SSD on my laptop, my main rig has my steamapps folder mounted on my larger HDD alongside other large files that limit SSD capacity. 

 

How does one move some games over to SSD while keeping others stashed away on HDD? 

 

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling in a different library folder (which could probably still work?) I went on the hunt and found this thread: 

 

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-1974084/moving-steam-games-ssd.html

 

A few good suggestions in there including this little app: 

 

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

I'm not endorsing the app since I haven't used it but it looks like a likely candidate for when I get home. Not to derail the thread about RAM but to divert it slightly towards tangible upgrades that improve performance... what did YOU do to transfer the game between mounted folders on HDD and an SSD or other RAID array? 

 

SSD is the best answer to improving DayZ

 

On your SSD you NEED the operating system PLUS the game files.

 

Your OS package - when it's on the SSD -  has a lot of stuff that can be shifted to your standard hard disk - means you have to reinstall windows and then clean it up quite a lot.. windows generally puts everything on the same disk with the "real" OS you need. Easy example is your personal file folders.. you want to move those back to the old HD..Keep your "Program Files" folder on the old HD.. also - in the future - you have to look out for software that installs without asking you where. Make sure it does not install on your SSD.. keep that just for Win and DayZ as much as possible.

 

If your PC is not now already loaded with stuff, (and you have the nerd in ya)  the easiest way is to disc-copy from your "C" Hard Drive to your SSD (call it drive "D" ?) , keep your "Program Files" on "C" (your old HD) and go through the registry so it points back from your new Windows (SSD) to your old "Prog Files" on "C" . If you know how to do this kind of thing, its easier than reinstalling everything, unless your PC is loaded with softs,-  but with some 'big stuff' software it gets tricky - eg Adobe Suite  and MS Office and some others will RESIST.. heh

 

Otherwise, (and safest)  just reinstall windows on the SSD .. reinstall all your programs into "Program Files" on your old Hard Drive, so your new windows can find them.. and reinstall DayZ to the SSD.. (check which DayZ files you need to copy across so you don't start with a new character). From then on, keep ONLY the minimum on your SSD.

Then - whenever - spend as much time as you care to, moving Windows extras OUT of windows (SSD) and onto your old HD.

 

This probably sounds like a big pain in the neck, but running windows and DayZ on one SSD (fairly cheap and small) is BY FAR the biggest gain you'll get.. It makes The Difference, I swear.

 

xx pilgrim

Edited February 14, 2015 by pilgrim

[slywether 28]

Speed and quality of ram factor far more than the ammount.  Going from 1600 to 2400 with a proper high end cpu will result in a gain, albeit a small one.  Same with DDR3 to 4 at this point, with a ridiculous price difference.  Quality namebrands like Crucial, Kingston, G skill, etc make a difference, but mostly from a longevity/not DOA point of view. 

 

8gb is a pretty good standard, and you will probably never need more, but as said above upgrading to faster 8gb can result in semi decent gains.

 

Also SSD is tits, the.

 

To your original question though, you probably will not notice any difference just getting more ram.

[BleedoutBill 1636]

Speed and quality of ram factor far more than the ammount.  Going from 1600 to 2400 with a proper high end cpu will result in a gain, albeit a small one.  Same with DDR3 to 4 at this point, with a ridiculous price difference.  Quality namebrands like Crucial, Kingston, G skill, etc make a difference, but mostly from a longevity/not DOA point of view. 

 

8gb is a pretty good standard, and you will probably never need more, but as said above upgrading to faster 8gb can result in semi decent gains.

 

Also SSD is tits, the.

 

To your original question though, you probably will not notice any difference just getting more ram.

Using really fast RAM with an APU, or a CPU with integrated graphics is definitely worth the extra money. Before I buy RAM that is significantly faster than 1866, or so, with a discreet CPU/GPU combo, I would first want to make sure that my CPU, GPU, SSD, RAM (at least 8GB) and other components were up to snuff, as there is a bigger bang for the buck in these areas.

 

X99 / DDR4 is a different calculation all together. 

[SaveMeJebus 164]

Man! what a bad advice.... i dont know what it does but it wont hurt so yeah upgrade..... right....

My wife; honey 50% discount on hats! Me: do you need a hat?! Wife: no but it says discount we will save money. Me: not buying something u dont need saves money.

(People with forum team names should think twice before advising, your words will be seen as THE answer.)

So OP you dont neeeed more RAM to run. It will most likely reduce loading times, but only a little. It will not do anything ingame so getting 8gb+RAM for more frames will not work.

Funny that such a criticism also contains nothing but terrible advice and misinformation.  You may not notice much difference AT FIRST but after dayz runs for 15-20 minutes and Ram gets full and it starts the pagefile swap business you will definitely notice it (and it will use every bit of 4 gig, I speak from experience that the upgrade helps)  Perhaps you should reread it, you would have realized he meant that the upgrade can do nothing but good.  Every system is different so not like he could tell him ... hrmmm yes this will increase your performance by 30%

Edited February 15, 2015 by SaveMeJebus

[pilgrim* 3514]

  ^ right

As a working principle I always put in as much RAM as I can fit in the thing - ( without talking about different speeds and technical stuff).  Plenty of RAM is G00D.

SSDs also have speed differences, etc, and size/price differences ... but SSD is VERY GOOD

So - while you're sorting out that SSD - just fill up your slots with the most RAM you can get in there. Memory is pretty cheap now, why skimp ?

 

And for PAGEFILE - a good tip is to set it manually to the recommended size (or double it), but set the Minimum and the Maximum to the same value. That gives you a permanent pagefile space on the disk that does not change size or location, no fragmentation, this works better for various reasons. To get (slightly) bettter out of the pagefile calculate its size in multiples of 64. (or for much better info, check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889654 if you're really that type of person ).

Depending how your hardware is set up, it should be a good idea to have windows on the SSD with no pagefile there, but a (nice, large, static max=min) pagefile on the HD.

This is easy to test out.

Edited February 15, 2015 by pilgrim

[s1rGr1nG0 81]

When it comes to computers ALWAYS get the most CPU and RAM you can possibly afford.