Mixing different sizes of memory sticks of the same model？

[blackbelter]

Hi All,

 

The other day I checked the memory usage in DCS. Out of 8GB, 5.XX is occupied, and the rest is standing by... I sucspect that this is the reason for the quite often crashes of DCS. So I know that the next upgrade of my rig is imminent.

 

I have now 2X4G of Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1866 ram sticks in dual channel. I intend to purchase 2X8G of the same model, and to set them up in the other two memory slots, so in dual channel, too. My question is, will the different memory sizes cause any trouble? FYI, I have slightly OCed my current memory sticks.

 

Thanks for your responses in advance.

 

Regards,

GQ

[G00dnight]

no problem at all just run them all the same OC'd or not. as long as the speeds and volts are the same should be alright.

[Bodo]

I'd be willing to bet that it's unnecessary to upgrade to 16GB but more necessary to check the stability of your OC.

 

Have you ran memcheck86+ and a prime95 run with your OC?

[Tailhook]

5GB of 8GB memory being used is not what is causing application crashing. What is, is most likely is your memory overclock. Memory rarely like to be overclocked and if overclocked they will never have 100% stability. Under-clocking memory is a different story. Memory is not like a CPU or GPU. Also, if you have stressed your memory, then chances are they are now officially defective and setting them back to factory Mhz/timing specs may have little to no increase in stability. I burned two sets of Corsair and G.Skill memory in the past by overclocking them and I had to RMA them because they no longer worked stable at factory specs.

 

If you intend to purchase a 2x8GB memory set and still keep your memory overclocked, the new memory set must have the exact same timings as your 2x4GB set. If you choose to no longer overclock your memory, putting in extra sticks of the same MHz, they should work just fine. If your 2x4GB set has lower clock timings than the 2x8GB set, the 2x4GB set will automatically be under-clocked and run at the same (slower) timings as the 2x8GB set.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Tailhook

[blackbelter]

no problem at all just run them all the same OC'd or not. as long as the speeds and volts are the same should be alright.

 

Thanks for your answer!

 

I'd be willing to bet that it's unnecessary to upgrade to 16GB but more necessary to check the stability of your OC.

 

Have you ran memcheck86+ and a prime95 run with your OC?

 

Yes, I did run those tests when I oced my system.. mem and cpu tests both. My system is pretty damn stable, so far at least...

 

What I saw the other day was that, while 5GB of memory is occupied, almost all the rest of the 8GB are standing by. I am not sure if the occupied + required-standing-by exceeds 8GB, what is going to happen. I suspect that the game will crash? I could be wrong. But after the latest DCS update, the game seems a lot more stable.

 

5GB of 8GB memory being used is not what is causing application crashing. What is, is most likely is your memory overclock. Memory rarely like to be overclocked and if overclocked they will never have 100% stability. Under-clocking memory is a different story. Memory is not like a CPU or GPU. Also, if you have stressed your memory, then chances are they are now officially defective and setting them back to factory Mhz/timing specs may have little to no increase in stability. I burned two sets of Corsair and G.Skill memory in the past by overclocking them and I had to RMA them because they no longer worked stable at factory specs.

 

If you intend to purchase a 2x8GB memory set and still keep your memory overclocked, the new memory set must have the exact same timings as your 2x4GB set. If you choose to no longer overclock your memory, putting in extra sticks of the same MHz, they should work just fine. If your 2x4GB set has lower clock timings than the 2x8GB set, the 2x4GB set will automatically be under-clocked and run at the same (slower) timings as the 2x8GB set.

 

Thanks for your answer! In the end, I purchased another 2X4GB kit (together with the saitek rudder pedals, :thumbup:), of the exact same model that I have in my rig, because it is on sale on Amazon. I intend to OC them to the same degree as my current memory. I'll have to see it the additional memory will destablize my system.

 

Thanks again guys! Let's :joystick:

[blackbelter]

Just had a few more crashes. Most of them happen during landing, or when nose down toward the ground, in other words, when a lot of ground textures need to be loaded. I still suspect that the lack of memory is the cause... I have unloaded all ground mods, in fact all mods except the SweetFX which I cannot fly without... Will see if there will be any further crashing.

 

However, there also other occasions in which crashing takes place. So who knows.

[xxJohnxx]

I run DCS just fine on 8 GBs of RAM all day long.

However, I see that you using SweetFX. I had that for a brief period and it looked nice, however at one point I removed it from my DCS because it caused crashes on my system.

I would suggest you remove it too, and do some flights. If your game still crashes, SweetFX isn't the cause, if it doesn't crash anymore, you found your problem!

 

Best regards,

 

Jonathan

[blackbelter]

I run DCS just fine on 8 GBs of RAM all day long.

However, I see that you using SweetFX. I had that for a brief period and it looked nice, however at one point I removed it from my DCS because it caused crashes on my system.

I would suggest you remove it too, and do some flights. If your game still crashes, SweetFX isn't the cause, if it doesn't crash anymore, you found your problem!

 

Best regards,

 

Jonathan

 

I so hope that you are wrong...:helpsmilie: After trying out sweetfx, I cannot fly without it... The original DCS graphics quality is now unbearable to me... Oh the lack of contrast :(

 

But I will try flying without it anyway. Thanks for your suggestion!

[blackbelter]

I run DCS just fine on 8 GBs of RAM all day long.

However, I see that you using SweetFX. I had that for a brief period and it looked nice, however at one point I removed it from my DCS because it caused crashes on my system.

I would suggest you remove it too, and do some flights. If your game still crashes, SweetFX isn't the cause, if it doesn't crash anymore, you found your problem!

 

Best regards,

 

Jonathan

 

Most likely you are right, as I haven't had a single crash since I removed sweetfx :(

 

Damn it... :mad:

[BIGNEWY]

I am running mixed pairs at the moment 2x4gb and 2x2gb the 4gb are 1866mhz and the 2gb are 1600mhz.

 

depends on your motherboard, but I have just set my setting in the bios to auto and all seems to be running fine so far.

[xxJohnxx]

Damn it... :mad:

 

I feel your pain. SweetFX is really nice. It's very unfortunate that it causes those crashes on only some systems, as not everybody seems to suffer from that problem.

I am not sure what's exactly causing the crash. Maybe it is some incompability with some driver, or some hardware.

I personally never really started to try to locate and fix the problem with SweetFX. However, if you can find the cause and a fix for it, feel free to share it, as it would be very appricated. :)

 

Best regards,

 

John

[xxJohnxx]

Blackbelter, how does it look? Did removing SweetFX resolve the crashes?

[blackbelter]

Blackbelter, how does it look? Did removing SweetFX resolve the crashes?

 

Hi there, I cannot say for sure now... It seems more complicated than that. The good news is that I am now flying with sweetfx enabled, without crashing.

 

I have gone through a sequence of fiddling... First, I removed all other mods but sweetfx, and the game continues crashing. Then I followed SiThSpAwN's advice, which is to reinstall DX9 and remove the DCS folder in UserName\Saved Games; the game crashed during the first ride afterwards. I then followed your advice, which is to remove the only remaining mod sweetfx. The game stopped crashing, at least for the few hours that I had tested.

 

The story didn't end here, however. I messed around with the settings in the Nvidia control panel, something that I hadn't done before. After altering a few settings, I suddenly had the idea that it could be the settings in Nvidia control panel that is causing all the problems. So I re-enabled sweetfx, and voila, the game does not crash anymore!

 

So that's the story so far. I still cannot say for sure what was causing the problem. I might be able to say something about it when the next time DCS crashes... I planned to post the story here only then, but since you asked, here it is.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers :thumbup:

Edited December 4, 2013 by blackbelter

[xxJohnxx]

Thanks for your answer! Nice that you could solve your problem at least for now! :)