FO4 can't reach 4GB system ram usage without crashing. Crashing at 3.5 even when there's plenty more available

[fftfan]

OK I think I'm going to go 2x8GB, I am thinking about lower speed as well because less money on hand than I expected. 2022 sounds right to me as that's my current guess for TES VI. They'll probably have their next game in the next year or two which is rumored to be called StarField so presumably it's Bethesda's take on a space sim like No Man's Sky, meaning I might not even like it because those aren't my thing.

 

I just wanted to ask if "Offbrands" are still okay. Like that they're not like PSUs where the cheap off-brands can actually fry your PC or even explode or light on fire, there are hundreds of PSU brands and anything unknown generally means bad stay far away.

 

I am kind of thinking about that ADATA, Patriot 4 or Kingston Fury but don't want to get some cheap thing that'll wreck my PC. IDK can maybe spend more but probably have to see if can borrow cash or sell something quick in order to buy on Black Friday. Like $170 is what I can do fairly easily.

 

[JimmyRJump]

Kingston and Patriot aren't exactly "offbrand". They're right up there with Corsair, G-Skill, Geil and Crucial. Adata is amongst the leaders of storage devices for digital cameras and mobile phones. I've used Adata for a while in 2001/2002 until I switched to Kingston (modules of 128 and 256MB, can you imagine?). Wasn't too keen on Adata though. Had a couple of faulty modules and the speeds were way lower than Kingston, even within the same speed categories. But that was fifteen years ago.

 

All bigger brands use either Infineon and/or Samsung chips nowadays, so, the difference is in the batches and assembling and differences in own developments, of course. That's one of the things to keep an eye on. If it's a brand that doesn't use Infineon or Samsung chips, forget it.

 

I've been a user of Kingston for years, with the exception of the aformentioned use of Adata and some 2GB dimms from OCZ (before they quit manufacturing RAM and fully concentrated on SSD development), so I'm kinda biased here... but I never ever have had a single faulty Kingston module in fifteen years. And they overclock like mad, too. If you get 2400MHz dimms, you can run 'em at 3000 to 3200MHz without a problem.

[fftfan]

Kingston and Patriot aren't exactly "offbrand". They're right up there with Corsair, G-Skill, Geil and Crucial. Adata is amongst the leaders of storage devices for digital cameras and mobile phones. I've used Adata for a while in 2001/2002 until I switched to Kingston (modules of 128 and 256MB, can you imagine?). Wasn't too keen on Adata though. Had a couple of faulty modules and the speeds were way lower than Kingston, even within the same speed categories. But that was fifteen years ago. All bigger brands use either Infineon and/or Samsung chips nowadays, so, the difference is in the batches and assembling and differences in own developments, of course. That's one of the things to keep an eye on. If it's a brand that doesn't use Infineon or Samsung chips, forget it. I've been a user of Kingston for years, with the exception of the aformentioned use of Adata and some 2GB dimms from OCZ (before they quit manufacturing RAM and fully concentrated on SSD development), so I'm kinda biased here... but I never ever have had a single faulty Kingston module in fifteen years. And they overclock like mad, too. If you get 2400MHz dimms, you can run 'em at 3000 to 3200MHz without a problem.

Maybe I'll get the kingston one. I'm not very fussy but I really hope it'll be reliable as it's quite annoying to have a module not work and the other one seeming to be questionable, I did hope that G Skill would be a safe choice. As far as I can tell 2400mhz should do okay for Fallout 4 as I didn't have XMP enabled for a long time and did okay meaning it was at 2133mhz IIRC. I had some concerns as IIRC it's recommended for whatever reason that the Ryzen users choose a faster model RAM like >3000mhz.

 

I do wonder if Starfield or TES VI may scale strongly with RAM speeds which I really do expect to be the case if they try to keep using Gamebryo for them and scaling the graphics for games that are likely to be tuned for PS5/PCs with GPUs like the future Nvidia Volta series. I think with Fallout 4 the scaling is probably largely a result of trying to keep using Gamebryo which is like 15 years old and just kind of "hack" it to make it work for a 2015 game. I think the issues I am experiencing on Fallout 4 are likely at least in part due to this. I think the problems will get a lot worse if they try to keep using it even into the next generation, literally games 20 years after Gamebryo was created. They're going to hit hard limits with the level of visuals they can use and also the total scale the game can potentially be at. It's hard to imagine how they'll do with TES VI if it's going to be on Gamebryo since VI could potentially be 5 or more years away.

 

Things are already way beyond the scope that could have possibly been imagined when developing Morrowind so I have to imagine some of the methods they used back then aren't ideal now and certainly won't be faring any better in 2020. But if they do use a slightly modified version of Fallout 4's engine(which itself is a slightly modified version of Skyrim's engine which is a modified FO3/NV engine which was based on Oblivion which was based on Morrowind's engine, so basically everything is Gamebryo) I think a higher RAM speed could come into play so it will be handy to be able to OC them if needed. The game gets buggier if you run the HD DLC + a ton of mods and no doubt the scale of game data in TES VI will be beyond this as I'd expect the level of quality of FO4 HD DLC could be baseline by that time like Low/Medium textures for the people who are currently playing lightweight games like Wow/League/CSGO/etc. What they may have to do with the next games is rapidly cycle data on and off of RAM, this could mean needing a higher RAM speed for heavier modding. The OC capability could be a life saver if PS5 and most contemporary PCs are all using DDR5. Estimates are that DDR5 will be about double speed vs DDR4 so IMO it may be reasonable to expect everyday non-gaming PCs to have stuff like 3000mhz 16GB DDR5.

 

 

(if they use HBM2 for PS5 then who knows? Probably everyone has to get HBM2 RAM in their PCs I suppose?)

[T0O00O0O]

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Edited December 6, 2017 by T0O00O0O

[T0O00O0O]

redacted

Edited December 6, 2017 by T0O00O0O

[JimmyRJump]

 

Kingston and Patriot aren't exactly "offbrand". They're right up there with Corsair, G-Skill, Geil and Crucial. Adata is amongst the leaders of storage devices for digital cameras and mobile phones. I've used Adata for a while in 2001/2002 until I switched to Kingston (modules of 128 and 256MB, can you imagine?). Wasn't too keen on Adata though. Had a couple of faulty modules and the speeds were way lower than Kingston, even within the same speed categories. But that was fifteen years ago. All bigger brands use either Infineon and/or Samsung chips nowadays, so, the difference is in the batches and assembling and differences in own developments, of course. That's one of the things to keep an eye on. If it's a brand that doesn't use Infineon or Samsung chips, forget it. I've been a user of Kingston for years, with the exception of the aformentioned use of Adata and some 2GB dimms from OCZ (before they quit manufacturing RAM and fully concentrated on SSD development), so I'm kinda biased here... but I never ever have had a single faulty Kingston module in fifteen years. And they overclock like mad, too. If you get 2400MHz dimms, you can run 'em at 3000 to 3200MHz without a problem.

I did hope that G Skill would be a safe choice.

 

Hey, but it IS a choice :D

 

Only reason I went for Kingston was bacause at the time (2002) they still manufactured every single bit that went in and on their dimms, including chips. Since I was happy with their RAM, I stuck with the brand, even after they started using Infineon chips and handed out manufacturing to lisenced manufacturers. They also have a life long warranty on their KHX RAM (not sure about their ValueRam), so, check what the warranty is on G.Skill.