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Geek Culture / Slow loading times in games

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:02
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I want to try and fix a problem I have with certain games, which is the loading times and slow down at the start of a game.

Would it be my RAM that is causing these slow downs and long loading times in games? (Mostly RTS). Surely it can't be my CPU or GPU? If so, I'm probably going to buy some new RAM when I get paid, but I don't want to spend £90 and find out the problem is still around after I have new RAM.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0Ghz, 2.0GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz, ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
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Aaagreen
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:05 Edited at: 12th Sep 2010 20:07
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What hard drive have you got? Is it SATA or IDE?

I don't think it's your RAM (although you could do with another 2gb). It's most certainly not your CPU.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:54
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I have a Samsung SATA Hard Drive, 320GB.

I've only had my GPU for about 4-5 months. I've had my CPU for about a year now.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0Ghz, 2.0GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz, ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
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Benjamin
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 21:18
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I'd say it's probably down to CPU, HDD speed, and memory speed.
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Aaagreen
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 21:29
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Why do you have a 64 bit OS for a measly 2gb RAM?


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 21:36
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Quote: "Why do you have a 64 bit OS for a measly 2gb RAM?"


I've been meaning to get more RAM for a while, but just haven't got around to doing so. I'll probably get this.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0Ghz, 2.0GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz, ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
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Aaagreen
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Posted: 12th Sep 2010 21:54
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I've got this.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Melancholic
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 09:36
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It could be your memory as its only single channel and 400Mhz, that is extremely slow for RAM. You could try overclock your RAM if you have good cooling and feel confident enough. Otherwise i suggest upgrading your RAM. The link you posted is better then Aaagreen's by 266Mhz which is over half you current RAM speed.


I can count to banana...
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Aaagreen
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 13:56
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It is better, but my point was I have no problems with what I have so why spend all that extra money?


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Melancholic
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 21:04 Edited at: 13th Sep 2010 21:05
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Quote: "It is better, but my point was I have no problems with what I have so why spend all that extra money?"


To future proof, you could ask a hardcore gamer why he has a 4 way sli gtx 480 setup when a single gtx 460 would do fine and you'd get a similar answer.

There is a point where getting the best components becomes stupid though. In this case DDR2 is dying and making way for ddr3 so the best thing to keep him from a full motherboard upgrade would be to get the best.


I can count to banana...
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 21:32
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I have been building my own computers for the past 8 years, but only started full system builds about 4-5 years ago. I think I've been through at least 4 personal computers in that time.

I'm pretty sure it is the RAM slowing down my games, as it is only 400Mhz each 1GB. I might actually buy single 1GB sticks that are 1066Mhz each, that way I will have more speed, instead of getting a 2GB stick that is sharing 1066Mhz between each side.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0Ghz, 2.0GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz, ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
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Dextro
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 23:06
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The slowest component always determines execution speed.
Before you start buying more ram or changing components, try first scanning the disks for errors, defragmenting, disabling unused services or startup programs. The registry can also (read: it will) slow down performance, it would be worthwhile checking it for errors. Some registry repairing programs also let you defragment the registry.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 16th Sep 2010 19:52
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Quote: "The registry can also (read: it will) slow down performance, it would be worthwhile checking it for errors. Some registry repairing programs also let you defragment the registry. "


Doubtful. You're more likely to break your registry. People, this isn't 1998, stop running maintenance on the registry!

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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 16th Sep 2010 19:56
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Quote: "Doubtful. You're more likely to break your registry"

Youll even more likely get a virus.

Smoke me a kipper, ill be back for breakfast.
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 00:14
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Quote: "Doubtful. You're more likely to break your registry"


One of the Registry cleaners did break the registry and I had to run a system restore XD.

7 Days till I can buy some RAM. Speccy is telling me I have 400Mhz, but when I bought it from PC world, it was meant to be 800Mhz, is it saying it is only 400Mhz because each side is 400Mhz? If so I will just buy a 2GB stick of 800Mhz.

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Aaagreen
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 00:57
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When you get, say, 4gb DDR2 800mhz (2x dual channel 2gb) then both sticks will operate at 400mhz together, as oppose to one 800mhz 4gb stick on it's own.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Melancholic
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 01:13
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Quote: "When you get, say, 4gb DDR2 800mhz (2x dual channel 2gb) then both sticks will operate at 400mhz together, as oppose to one 800mhz 4gb stick on it's own"


I am pretty sure it does not, dual channel works by combining a 64 bit stream from each stick into a 128 bit stream. Thus doubling bandwidth per stream


I can count to banana...
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bitJericho
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 16:16
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Just buy the best rated ram for your motherboard and in sets. Tell us your motherboard and we can tell you what kind of ram to use (or just google it)

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 21:51
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Asus M4N78, but I know what RAM it can support, read the specifications at Asus.com, I can't have more than 1 1066Mhz stick in each channel as it doesn't support it.

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Melancholic
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 22:24
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Have you checked bios ram settings?, maybe they are underclocking your ram for some reason.


I can count to banana...
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 23:32
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There are a few settings I can change, but some I don't understand, the ones I do, only allow the Mhz to be increased, some thing like 333, 444 or 555, haven't looked for a while.

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Dextro
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Posted: 18th Sep 2010 06:28 Edited at: 18th Sep 2010 06:28
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I'm talking from experience here. To date, I still regularly clean my registry, every time I start getting long load times on some games.
The registry can only become corrupt if you use a crappy registry cleaner which doesn't even do backups (most of the freeware types).
Many windows programs have to look at the registry whenever it needs to load external libraries and sometimes assets. DirectX being one of them. Since the registry is pretty much parsed, it can become quite slow after being bloated by so many unused registry keys not deleted by the uninstallers, which happens rather frequently.
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Isocadia
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Posted: 18th Sep 2010 09:29
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So, what registry cleaner do you reccomend

Isocadia
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Ocho Geek
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Posted: 18th Sep 2010 15:03 Edited at: 19th Sep 2010 00:51
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From personal experience, I went from 1GB (ouch) to 4GB and loading times in crysis were superb, not to mention the increase in game speed

EDIT: RAM sorry for quoting random quantities

Ocho Geek - Pretending to be a useful contribution to the forums since 2005
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Dextro
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Posted: 18th Sep 2010 19:50
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@Isocadia:
I use Auslogics, and for the 3 years I've been using it, never had any problems.

@Ocho Geek:
Quote: "The slowest component always determines execution speed. "


I'm not saying fixing the registry will magically "repair" inadequate system specs, all I'm saying is that by fixing the registry and defragmenting may help systems which had no poblems before.
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 26th Sep 2010 10:28
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My current RAM is 1.800 Voltage, I am looking at a Kingston stick but it is 1.85V, will both sticks work together?

Current Ram:



New

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