Question about RAM on a Low End PC

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TL;DR: What's the best RAM configuration I can get for around $150 that will improve FO4?

 

I'm giving my daughter my Xbox where I normally play FO4 and I'm switching over to PC. Problem is I'm stuck with a low end PC that rates between minimum and recommended requirements. Performance and graphics mods have helped tremendously and I'm now turning my attention to upgrading the RAM. I'm on a budget and already upgraded the graphics card the best I can on what I have.

 

How important is RAM? I have 8GB DDR3 1600. Its outdated and an upgrade in the cards for sure. Two questions.

 

1. Would 16GB really make a difference? Again I'm on a budget and if it wouldn't make a big difference on gaming performance I'd rather stick with 8GB.

 

2. If I stick with 8GB which should I be more concerned with, moving up to DD4 or a higher speed than my current 1600 (or a little of both?)

Edited May 4, 2018 by [email protected]

[bbiller]

Things to understand:

1. The speed of that RAM will affect how quickly things get loaded from memory to that card, so what will also be important is what your motherboard can handle. It will not matter if you get 1866MHz memory if your motherboard can't use it (I've got 32Gb in my system and a 3Gb card, so my graphics are set low, but I do have a few graphics settings altered to what my videocard can handle, so the wait time for me isn't too bad). Having more memory means the game can store more and all the other things running on your system will have more to work with, too. If you can get 32Gb at a slower speed that your board can handle, that will get out classed by half of that at a higher speed that your board can handle. I would definitely at least have 16Gb, but if you can go 32Gb at your motherboards max memory speed, do it, you will see benefits to your boot time, too.

 

2. I would check the specs from the games you want to run, set up a spreadsheet so you can see those recommended and low end specs at one glance, that will let you see that most at least want 16Gb but love 32Gb. That spec chart will help your buying options.

 

As to a memory move, DDR3 can still run a lot and if you have a good board running at max memory not overclocked, that will work just fine, 1866MHz is a max non-overclocked speed on DDR3, so check prices there. I know the G. Skill Ripjaws pairs of 1866MHz (2x16Gb) can be had for various prices, so check on that. Memory timings will be important regardless of DDR type and speed, so do your research, check those reviews. As to going the DDR4 route, those MHz speeds vary as will timings, so again research will help.

[[email protected]]

You're a big help! Thanks so much! :D

[JimmyRJump]

Don't stare yourself blind on RAM speeds, though. For FPS, it won't make that much of a difference. It's nice for benchmarks, sure, but a gain of just a couple of frames per second doesn't justify an exhuberant expense. I'm running 4x4GB DDR3 RAM @1600MHz and it does just fine. When overclocking my RAM to 1916MHz (highest stable clock) I gain two frames per second. That's it.

 

You'll gain more from quantity than from speed. Especially with a program like ENBoost that lets a game use system RAM as Video RAM (V-RAM is the amount of RAM the video card has on its back).

[jones177]

Hi

 

This game does not care about ram speed.

 

I have tested DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) with XMP on & off. If there was a difference it was below 1fps.

 

The frame rate between DDR 3 & 4 is not noticable either.

 

When the game came out I had 8gbs of DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ram. After 7 months of DLCs & modding, Windows 7 started complaining about ram when the game was running. I upgraded to 16.

 

Newer saves use less ram than older ones. My new save uses about 2.8 gbs ram & my old saves use about 4.

 

My advice is to stick with 8 until Windows complains or the game gets choppy after playing for a while.

 

Later

[JimmyRJump]

Hi

 

This game does not care about ram speed.

 

I have tested DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) with XMP on & off. If there was a difference it was below 1fps.

 

The frame rate between DDR 3 & 4 is not noticable either.

 

When the game came out I had 8gbs of DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ram. After 7 months of DLCs & modding, Windows 7 started complaining about ram when the game was running. I upgraded to 16.

 

Newer saves use less ram than older ones. My new save uses about 2.8 gbs ram & my old saves use about 4.

 

My advice is to stick with 8 until Windows complains or the game gets choppy after playing for a while.

 

Later

Wndows often gives a RAM-shortage message even with 16GB of system RAM. It's completely off. And in my case, the game uses around 5.5GB of system RAM and between 3 and 6GB of V-RAM. That's up to almost 12GB in total (monitored through MSI Afterburner as seen on the display of my G19 keyboard)... I'm playing in 1080p with all whistles and bells enabled. Getting between 40 and 60fps on an MSI RX470 GamingX 8GB GPU with an i7-3770K on an AsRock Z77 eXtreme11 motherboard and 4x4GB KHX Genesis @1600MHz and over 700 mods of which 300 have a plug-in (253 esp/esm, 47 esl).

[speedynl]

its easy, if you use a 64bits OS go 16gb it will not hurt you, but benefits you(most modern game need it), 8gb is ancient use it when you use a 32bits OS

as for any GPU the more mem the better most of the time, not always depends if any game will use it

 

also keep in minds its a beth game, they don't know the word/meaning of optimalization, in other words no matter what sys you have the game never runs as it should

Edited May 4, 2018 by speedynl

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Appreciate the input from everyone.