Use a RAM drive to reduce stuttering

[LoBiSoMeM]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

If I understand your words correctly this would mean that on a 3Gb RAM system CoD would use the available (let's say) 2Gb of RAM wehreas on a 6Gb RAM system it would use 5Gb (2Gb as per previous + 3Gb new RAM)? No it does not.

Mind also that a lot of limitations arise from loading/ unloading a lot of graphics details from the hard disk on to the RAM and, the Video RAM (as the plane flies over large distances).


So there is something to be won.

Now, it all depends by the speed of your hard disk (ms, cache, NCQ, transfer rate, fragmantation) and yes, you may get serious stutters.

Since a lot of us bit the bullet and spent a lot of money on new HW and new hard disks, I believe most of us have very optimised hardware (thus no stutters).
But for some people it may be of help.

I believe a RAMDRIVE is better than a SSD because (hopefully) the transfer rate should be much faster (the SSD has to go through the SATA channel after all).

Anyway, I increased my RAM by 6Gb to 12GB because I was curious yesterday.
Created a 6Gb RAMDISK and loaded the whole CoD on it.
I can not say I noticed any substantial difference (on the other side, I do not think I ever had stutters either).
I run SLI GTX570 and my problem is that over land the GPU utilisation drops at 50%-60% against 99% over sea and wanted to see if the RAMDISK would solve some of this.
It did not really although I noticed at times that my GPUs went to 70%-80% above land.
On the other side, I was flying yesterday on the REPKA server for about 1,5hrs at nice 50fps and no stutter at all and very smooth game (it looks to me more like a placebo effect).


~S~

The problem is optimization and VRAM loading, maybe, not RAM usage or disk access at all. Because of that, all the RAMDISK route don't do substantial improvement, as in ArmAII. ArmAII problems arise in early versions because all LOD loading and texture streaming don't priorize right.

You don't understand my words, because my english sucks... That's no need to IL-2 COD use more RAM than it uses now. That's not the problem. We can have smooth gameplay sometimes, and in other flight in the same conditions, stutters. And we can't see consistent improvement using RAMDISK.

So, conclusions are easy.

[335th_GRAthos]

Ah, OK.


I must admit now, I have been playing online during the past 2 days.

I have been fying exclusively the Hurricane (Rotol).
The first thing I must do is to switch off the mirror.

After that I enjoy constant 55-65fps at all moments, no stutters at all, my GPUs are constant on the 85% utlisation and I am very happy.
I needed to install a second fan inside my chassis to bring more cold air inside in order to have the GPU temperature dropping from 92°C down to 85°C but that was all.

I now need to find the courage to test without ramdrive in order to make an objective comparison.

[Ataros]

I stopped using ramdrive 2 official patches ago. Bad stutters over land where removed then.

[jimbop]

Originally Posted by Ataros

I stopped using ramdrive 2 official patches ago. Bad stutters over land where removed then.

Yes, same here. No need for this any more but it was an interesting exercise.

[JG5_emil]

Originally Posted by Fall_Pink?

I tried the ram disk solution, but I'm afraid it won't help CoD. I've checked and even made a 4 Gb ram disk and placed the entire 'parts' dir. on it, but stuttering was still there. The stutters are therefore not caused by slow and/or frequent hard disk access. It's the game and render engine that produce these stutters and is not related to hard disk access.

Rgs,
FP

No Joy for me I still get micro stutters which are only really visible if I look hard enough.

AS you say I think it is down to the rendering....maybe my GTX460M isn't quite up to the job. I know it's a stretch to play COD on a laptop.

[Ataros]

Originally Posted by JG5_emil

No Joy for me I still get micro stutters

Check out a link #5 in my sig as it can be antivirus or power-management, etc.

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by JG5_emil

No Joy for me I still get micro stutters which are only really visible if I look hard enough.

AS you say I think it is down to the rendering....maybe my GTX460M isn't quite up to the job.

Well, this is one of the best explanations, I have the same problem when I run Black Death.
When I play online I do not notice it.
It is defintively the limit of the GPUs today (ok, ok, in combination with "less than perfectly optimised" programming + incrediobly complicated options) which probably will be solved two or three generations later...

I have noticed this as well because my friends fly CoD in much smaller GPU systems than mine and they experience this in situations where my rig runs smoothly.

[JG5_emil]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Well, this is one of the best explanations, I have the same problem when I run Black Death.
When I play online I do not notice it.
It is defintively the limit of the GPUs today (ok, ok, in combination with "less than perfectly optimised" programming + incrediobly complicated options) which probably will be solved two or three generations later...

I have noticed this as well because my friends fly CoD in much smaller GPU systems than mine and they experience this in situations where my rig runs smoothly.

Yes blackdeath is where i notice it most....I am a bit OCD about such things even though my game runs pretty well....as soon as I see something I dont like even in a fairly pointless benchmark like black death I have to fix it It was the same in IL2 when the made the perfect water....my game ran great but I had to have it.....never did get perfect water without micro stutters :p

I am going through some of the other suggestions in the previous posters sig...there are a lot

[335th_GRAthos]

Well, there is an easy way to test it...


Make your screen window 1024x768 and check whether the problem still exist (I bet it will not).

Install a SW lke GPU-Z or NV monitor (I forgot the name ) and watch how the VRAM usage is reaching the maximum memory installed in your card. I bet your problems start when your available VRAM is reaching its full capacity.
Subsequently, you know how to fix it...

Personally I say, 2-3 generations of GPU cards we need to wait before we can see real improvement happening....

~S~

[JG5_emil]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Well, there is an easy way to test it...


Make your screen window 1024x768 and check whether the problem still exist (I bet it will not).

Install a SW lke GPU-Z or NV monitor (I forgot the name ) and watch how the VRAM usage is reaching the maximum memory installed in your card. I bet your problems start when your available VRAM is reaching its full capacity.
Subsequently, you know how to fix it...

Personally I say, 2-3 generations of GPU cards we need to wait before we can see real improvement happening....

~S~

Yes I have a gaming laptop so I didn't ever expect it to run half as well as it does. My graphics card has 1.5 GB of VRAM though but maybe its just not powerful enough.

Anyway I'm not moaning just a fiddler at heart and can happily fly certain missions with TIR and will be buying a real computer soon although I am hanging on till I hear of people having success with triple monitors.