I FIXED my stutters/lag/freezes problem

[dogness]

Yes, I fixed it and I know how I fixed it. In fact, I can unfix it if I want to.

In short, the problem was...NOT ENOUGH RAM.

Now, I have 3 GB of RAM running on WinXP (32-bit). I thought I should have had plenty of RAM. However, thanks to an incorrect setting in my BIOS, Windows only had access to 1.5 GB of RAM. That was enough to run the game, but not enough to avoid the stutters.

The stutters happen when the game runs out of available RAM and has to access the virtual memory swapfile. That requires accessing your hard drive and the game will stutter/lag/freeze until all of the data it needs is read from the disk into RAM.

Because I can control the amount of RAM available to Windows via BIOS, I was able to run some quick tests. Here are the results:

If you have 1.5 GB of RAM available to Windows, loading 1.30 will take much longer than it did with 1.29 and you will have considerable stuttering for the first 20-30 minutes of play as data is loaded into RAM as you encounter it. So, every time you encounter a new area, vehicle or warning message, you will get a stutter. The game is playable but if the stutters come at the wrong time, it can be very frustrating.

If you have 2.0 GB of RAM available to Windows, loading 1.30 should be about on par with 1.29. Overall, most everything should fit into RAM and you shouldn't encounter too much stuttering. Depending on how many background apps you have running and how long you play, you might encounter the occasional stutter when you go to a new area of the map or get a new warning message.

If you have 2.5 GB of RAM available to Windows, everything should be smooth and stutters should be non-existent. This is what I am now set to and I can play for several hours without any issues. I imagine if I played long enough, I would eventually get a few, but that wouldn't bother me.

Now, the question you probably have is:

How do I figure out how much RAM is available to Windows on my machine?

Answer:

Start->Control Panel->System

It will open the System Properties window.

In the lower right of the window there will be a section called Computer:

The third line of that section should say something like this:

2.66GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM

That amount of RAM listed there is how much RAM is available to Windows. If you have less than 2.5 GB listed, then you are probably suffering from the symptoms listed above.

If you are in that situation, do me a favor and reply to this post with the following info:

OS (including whether it is 32- or 64 bit)

Amount of physical RAM installed in your machine

Amount of RAM that Windows is reporting is available

Depending on your info, we might be able to help you get your system properly configured.

[PITTPETE]

Well, I was one of those suffering from the 2-3 second random freezes after 1.30

Coincidentally I ordered more RAM yesterday to bring it ujp from 2 to 4 gigs.

I run XP(32bit).

I will let you know if this helps

[Talako]

So, I need to download more RAM. I should have figured that.

[dogness]

Well, I was one of those suffering from the 2-3 second random freezes after 1.30

Coincidentally I ordered more RAM yesterday to bring it ujp from 2 to 4 gigs.

I run XP(32bit).

I will let you know if this helps

Yeah, version 1.30 is definitely more hungry for RAM than 1.29. After a couple hours, it will be pushing 1.5GB of use. So, depending on how much stuff you are running the background, you will see freezes from time to time with only 2GB.

As for upgrading, one thing you need to be careful of is the 2 GB limit in 32-bit XP. This has to do with the way Windows allocates memory addresses. By default, it only allocated 2 GB worth for RAM.

Nowadays, with a modern BIOS and the latest version of WinXP, it can see up to 3GB worth of RAM. However, to get this you may have to tweak your OS, your BIOS or both. You definitely will not be able to access 4GB unless you get a 64-bit version of Windows.

So, once you have the RAM and it is installed, check the amount of RAM that is available to Windows using the steps that I described in the original post. If it is still 2GB, post here and we can probably get it working for you.

[nobipure]

Hmmmm I suffer from exactly the symptoms you describe, and often get the smart heap virtual memory errors that cause me to have to restart the game...

Intel Core2 Quad 2.4 GHz 3GB RAM

Memory reported: 3071MB

Running Vista 32 bit

And I am illiterate with computers, so I have no idea about what I am running in the background... I usually play with explorer open for AI maps, etc.

S!

[Tigger6]

I am running 32bit XP that sees 3GB of RAM (out of 4GB total). I have stutters- but what is silly is that with 3GB of ram, the game is using 1.2GB of RAM (1.5+GB ram is reported free) and 1.2GB swap. Why, lord why?? Why does it get paged away to disk??

[jaguar12]

with 3 gb or ram u might wanna turn your page file of completely. to the OP, what changes have to be made to make windows see more ram? i currently only have 3 gb of ram but it would be nice to know for future reference.

cheers

ps

on the control paneal > system screen it says i have 2.66ghz processor yet below it it says 1.97ghz at 2gb ram

why does the bottom figure only say 1.97ghz when the bit above says 2.66 which is the actual speed of my processor?

[buckly]

I run vista it says I have 4 gb of ram, but can only use 3.25 depending on what you read.

If I go where you did, click performance, the advanced tools, veiw advance system details.

It shows I have 4 gbs in there, 3gbs tot, 1.95 avail, 6gb of virtual mem blah blah blah.

So I am glad this worked for you and hope it works for others, but for me I still stutter

[Tigger6]

with 3 gb or ram u might wanna turn your page file off completely.

How do I do that? I have never used this silly operating system before. Can't find any file which says what gets mounted where. The whole idea of having a swap file on a FAT filesystem is brain damage. I have a 4GB swap partition at the beginning of the disk as it should be. I don't suppose I can use it, right?

[jaguar12]

switchin of the page file is easy.

control panel > system > advanced > performance settings > advanced >

virtual memory change > select no page file then reboot.

if u have less than 3gb of ram then i wouldnt advise doin this. if u do encounter any problems such as games ctding then just go back in and set it to system managed.

[slpr2]

Moar RAM is always better but the more RAM you have, the more likely it is that it gets fragmented. Its the same as HD's.

The internet says that this little application can help.

It defrags the RAM by writing the whole memory to the swapfile. The swapfile will then be defragged and loaded back into memory.

If you run this after loading BGE it could help to reduce stutters or at least dramatically increase framerate.

http://www.catbytes.de/ramdefrag.htm

[swoods]

Moar RAM is always better but the more RAM you have, the more likely it is that it gets fragmented. Its the same as HD's.

The internet says that this little application can help.

It defrags the RAM by writing the whole memory to the swapfile. The swapfile will then be defragged and loaded back into memory.

If you run this after loading BGE it could help to reduce stutters or at least dramatically increase framerate.

http://www.catbytes.de/ramdefrag.htm

Looks nice. Does it come in an English version?

[WittmannUS]

Yeah, version 1.30 is definitely more hungry for RAM than 1.29. After a couple hours, it will be pushing 1.5GB of use. So, depending on how much stuff you are running the background, you will see freezes from time to time with only 2GB.

As for upgrading, one thing you need to be careful of is the 2 GB limit in 32-bit XP. This has to do with the way Windows allocates memory addresses. By default, it only allocated 2 GB worth for RAM.

Nowadays, with a modern BIOS and the latest version of WinXP, it can see up to 3GB worth of RAM. However, to get this you may have to tweak your OS, your BIOS or both. You definitely will not be able to access 4GB unless you get a 64-bit version of Windows.

So, once you have the RAM and it is installed, check the amount of RAM that is available to Windows using the steps that I described in the original post. If it is still 2GB, post here and we can probably get it working for you.

Close. what it is is 32 bit OSs can only use 3/4 of the ram you have. to use it all you must get a 64 bit OS.

[slpr2]

Looks nice. Does it come in an English version?

Yes. Believe it or not, there is even a french version.

http://www.catbytes.de/ramdefrag_download.htm

[dogness]

Close. what it is is 32 bit OSs can only use 3/4 of the ram you have. to use it all you must get a 64 bit OS.

Depends on your hardware. My system needs 1.5 GB reserved for PCIe devices. So, I can only use 2.5 GB of RAM.

But you are correct that for most people, they should be able to see 3GB (not 2GB as I stated).

[dogness]

One thing that has caught my eye in the responses is that the people who report that they have more than enough RAM available to Windows (greater than 2.5 GB) and are still getting stutters are all running 32-bit Vista.

As I am running 32-bit WinXP, I cannot be of much help. But, maybe it is something for CRS to look into.

[dogness]

why does the bottom figure only say 1.97ghz when the bit above says 2.66 which is the actual speed of my processor?

My does the same thing. One line states the factory speed of the CPU and the other one states its actual speed. I do not know why but it is nothing to worry about.

[elegance]

It means you processor is slowing itself down, either to conserve energy or because it is running too hot on stock speed and tries to cool itself down. My old P4 2.6GHz laptop would often run at 300MHz(!) until I cleaned the fans and exhausts that were full of dust.

[swoods]

Yes. Believe it or not, there is even a french version.

http://www.catbytes.de/ramdefrag_download.htm

Excellent!! I will try this when I get home.

Thanks a bunch..

[jaguar12]

cant be overheatin as real temp tells me that the cpu ss runnin at 50c which is way below the the max safe temp.

maybe it is throttlin back though, i seem to recall some bios settings that can affect this but i cant remember what they are.

[alphie]

Close. what it is is 32 bit OSs can only use 3/4 of the ram you have. to use it all you must get a 64 bit OS.

He is right, 32bit OSs can only access 4GB natively. After the 4GB barrier the 32bit OS and processor has to use math formulas each time it has to access ram to figure out the memory addresses above 4GB. A 32bit OS will break up its 4GB of RAM, into 2GB for kernel, 2GB for applications. Also, all 32bit OSs use whats called a sliding window; you will never access ALL the ram above 4GB, your first 2GB are for OS, then the other 2GB are for applications and that 2GB window slides up and down your memory pool. Say you have 8GB of ram, not only does the 32bit OS have to do math (PAE) to access the higher addresses, but you still only use 2GB for applications, just that 2GB will slide up and down the remaing 6GB you have left in your system.

Anything over 4GB of RAM is a waste on a 32bit OS. 64bit OS, with 64bit processor is the only way your going to access all that RAM over 4GB concurrently and your processor doesnt have to do formulas just to figure out the addresses of that ram above 4GB.

This guy explains it pretty well..

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2004/02/19/the-4gb-windows-memory-limit-what-does-it-really-mean.aspx

S!

alphie

P.S. I wouldnt recommend turning off your swap file no matter how much ram you have in your PC. Windows uses swap for all sorts of things that isnt necessarily related to memory storage.

[jaguar12]

i was advised by an IT person that of u have over 3gb or ram it is safe to turn of your page file. your right in that the OS does use a page file for essential tasks but even if u turn of the page file it will still use apage file for those tasks, it just wont use a page file for applications which means your applications will run faster as they wont have to access the page file.

a question to u alphie,

i currently have 2gb of ram and i run windox xp 32 bit. does this mean that my OS uses 1gb ram for the kernal and the other 1gb for applications by default?

does this mean that if i upped to 3gb or even 4gb of ram i could configure the OS to still only use 1gb for the kernal and the rest for applications? have i got that right?

[alphie]

a question to u alphie,

i currently have 2gb of ram and i run windox xp 32 bit. does this mean that my OS uses 1gb ram for the kernal and the other 1gb for applications by default?

does this mean that if i upped to 3gb or even 4gb of ram i could configure the OS to still only use 1gb for the kernal and the rest for applications? have i got that right?

The answer is it depends. I know that sounds cryptic, but it really does depend on how your system is setup, what options you have configured in the boot.ini and how the application you are running was programmed to access memory. Here is a reference on msdn that explains memory management and memory settings in your PC. Pay attention to sections 4 gigabyte tuning, PAE and AWE.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366718(VS.85).aspx

Since you only have 2GB available now, I would highly suggest you bring your system up to 4GB in order to run the game with the most memory, and not having to enable the PAE option on your 32bit OS. Just remember anything above 4GB is really a waste while using a 32bit OS; which is the point I was really trying to make.

I hope this helps,

alphie

[GOPHUR]

The best advice is not to mess with your swap file. Let windows manage it.

You should try and minimize processes and applications that are consuming ram on your system if you have less than 4 Gig.

On 32 bit windows your OS will only use 3.25 gigs of ram.

The game peaks out at about 960M on my system with a similar VM size. The page file for Win XP is set to 1.5 times the amount of physical ram on the machine but in cases with this much ram it is just not used very often, hence as the original poster explains, no more stutters because I don't have to load from the page file, everything is already in memory.

[mccroy12]

What happens if you have 0.99 GB of Ram ?????. For me My PC frezzes when i start the game. If i train off line after 1 min it frezzes so i play on my other laptop it does not do this but IT does after a hour or two a memory Error pops up. Or the game closes i have two Laptops i use and i really. Well dont want to have to buy a new laptop. I just want to upgrade this one that has low ram the only thing is is that there is a lot of firends of mine allways say either. You can upgrade a laptop or It is not able to be upgraded. and we all kown that new laptops that are ment for gameing cost at least 1000 to 3000$. This laptop can handle eveything else just not the ram and mabey the GHz

It frezzes when i spawn not when i start the game

(Just added in forgot to))

((to those that hate my grammer and spelling I FIXED it rofl))

Yes, I fixed it and I know how I fixed it. In fact, I can unfix it if I want to.

In short, the problem was...NOT ENOUGH RAM.

Now, I have 3 GB of RAM running on WinXP (32-bit). I thought I should have had plenty of RAM. However, thanks to an incorrect setting in my BIOS, Windows only had access to 1.5 GB of RAM. That was enough to run the game, but not enough to avoid the stutters.

The stutters happen when the game runs out of available RAM and has to access the virtual memory swapfile. That requires accessing your hard drive and the game will stutter/lag/freeze until all of the data it needs is read from the disk into RAM.

Because I can control the amount of RAM available to Windows via BIOS, I was able to run some quick tests. Here are the results:

If you have 1.5 GB of RAM available to Windows, loading 1.30 will take much longer than it did with 1.29 and you will have considerable stuttering for the first 20-30 minutes of play as data is loaded into RAM as you encounter it. So, every time you encounter a new area, vehicle or warning message, you will get a stutter. The game is playable but if the stutters come at the wrong time, it can be very frustrating.

If you have 2.0 GB of RAM available to Windows, loading 1.30 should be about on par with 1.29. Overall, most everything should fit into RAM and you shouldn't encounter too much stuttering. Depending on how many background apps you have running and how long you play, you might encounter the occasional stutter when you go to a new area of the map or get a new warning message.

If you have 2.5 GB of RAM available to Windows, everything should be smooth and stutters should be non-existent. This is what I am now set to and I can play for several hours without any issues. I imagine if I played long enough, I would eventually get a few, but that wouldn't bother me.

Now, the question you probably have is:

How do I figure out how much RAM is available to Windows on my machine?

Answer:

Start->Control Panel->System

It will open the System Properties window.

In the lower right of the window there will be a section called Computer:

The third line of that section should say something like this:

2.66GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM

That amount of RAM listed there is how much RAM is available to Windows. If you have less than 2.5 GB listed, then you are probably suffering from the symptoms listed above.

If you are in that situation, do me a favor and reply to this post with the following info:

OS (including whether it is 32- or 64 bit)

Amount of physical RAM installed in your machine

Amount of RAM that Windows is reporting is available

Depending on your info, we might be able to help you get your system properly configured.