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TheDarkWraith · 04-09-14, 07:58 AM

What many, if not 99% of you, fail to realize is the amount of memory on your video card actually plays a huge role (and can be detrimental to system stability). Why? It's called memory mapping. Those of you with video cards that have more memory than system memory or the ratio of system memory to video memory is < 2:1 will always be on the verge of having problems with most games.

See here for more reading: http://www.oempcworld.com/support/4GB_RAM.htm

Point is medium to high-end video card with lots of on-board memory is VERY bad for run-of-the-mill system with 32 bit OS.

For playing games like these you need 64 bit OS and at least 16GB of RAM if you have a medium to high-end video card with large amounts of onboard RAM.

There are many other factors that can 'increase' the memory mapped size for the video card. The resolution you have set in the game is a contributing factor. If you seem to be crashing in games try lowering the resolution and detail items. This will then lower the amount of mapped memory from the video card.

In today's age it just isn't right to be running a 32 bit OS when 64bit processors are so cheap and readily available. Most games, even today, are compiled as a 32 bit app. Thus the most they can theoretically access is 2^32 or 4GB. Running a 64bit OS and large amounts of system RAM (>8GB) allows the OS flexibility in memory management. Majority of the time most apps fail or CTD because they asked for a memory allocation and it was denied or they were accessing a null pointer.

For the user who said his game was crashing when Windows reports that total system memory used was ~1.65GB this makes total sense. A 32 bit OS (Windows for instance) only allows 2GB per process. I wouldn't take that 2GB per process literally either - it's more like 1.7-2.0GB. The game tried to allocate additional memory. As it was near or at it's max limit it returned a null pointer for that allocation. Game crashed on null pointer. You can get windows (32 bit) to allocate 3GB per process with a switch set - once again in real life it's not actually 3GB - it's more like 90-100% of that.

How the application was compiled also makes a huge difference. Like I said most games are still compiled as 32bit apps.

04-09-14, 07:58 AM	#17
TheDarkWraith Black Magic Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 11,962 Downloads: 147 Uploads: 5	What many, if not 99% of you, fail to realize is the amount of memory on your video card actually plays a huge role (and can be detrimental to system stability). Why? It's called memory mapping. Those of you with video cards that have more memory than system memory or the ratio of system memory to video memory is < 2:1 will always be on the verge of having problems with most games. See here for more reading: http://www.oempcworld.com/support/4GB_RAM.htm Point is medium to high-end video card with lots of on-board memory is VERY bad for run-of-the-mill system with 32 bit OS. For playing games like these you need 64 bit OS and at least 16GB of RAM if you have a medium to high-end video card with large amounts of onboard RAM. There are many other factors that can 'increase' the memory mapped size for the video card. The resolution you have set in the game is a contributing factor. If you seem to be crashing in games try lowering the resolution and detail items. This will then lower the amount of mapped memory from the video card. In today's age it just isn't right to be running a 32 bit OS when 64bit processors are so cheap and readily available. Most games, even today, are compiled as a 32 bit app. Thus the most they can theoretically access is 2^32 or 4GB. Running a 64bit OS and large amounts of system RAM (>8GB) allows the OS flexibility in memory management. Majority of the time most apps fail or CTD because they asked for a memory allocation and it was denied or they were accessing a null pointer. For the user who said his game was crashing when Windows reports that total system memory used was ~1.65GB this makes total sense. A 32 bit OS (Windows for instance) only allows 2GB per process. I wouldn't take that 2GB per process literally either - it's more like 1.7-2.0GB. The game tried to allocate additional memory. As it was near or at it's max limit it returned a null pointer for that allocation. Game crashed on null pointer. You can get windows (32 bit) to allocate 3GB per process with a switch set - once again in real life it's not actually 3GB - it's more like 90-100% of that. How the application was compiled also makes a huge difference. Like I said most games are still compiled as 32bit apps. Last edited by TheDarkWraith; 04-09-14 at 08:56 AM.