Fallout 4 FPS might depend on your RAM speed

[Bouzoo]

 

Another Fallout 4 thread, but this one is quite interesting, at least for me, so I decided to post it.

 

Digital Foundry made an in-depth analysis of the game, they compared everything, consoles, low budget components, high end components, Nvidia vs AMD, you name it, but the most interesting thing is that there is a possibility that RAM speed might improve your framerate. You can read the full article by going to the source link.

 

Unfortunately there was no video about this like there usually is.

 

If sustaining 60fps is proving challenging, we have some advice for you: consider faster RAM. We ran through a series of traversal sequences using a Core i5 4690K paired with a Titan X running at 1080p - in short, a scenario designed to remove the GPU as a bottleneck and stress the CPU. We then re-ran the test with faster memory. Below you'll find our lowest and average frame-rate results from three different configurations:

 

1600MHz: 36.0/54.6

2133MHz: 39.0/61.0

2400MHz: 44.0/66.9

 

That's a 22 per cent increase in performance with faster RAM comparing the slowest to the fastest. Now, this scenario is an exaggeration as the GPU is a major limiting factor in performance and by using a Titan X at a low resolution, we have removed that bottleneck. So are there any real-life applications?

Well, click on the shot above to see that - yes - faster RAM can make a difference in general gameplay, even with Fallout 4's v-sync cap, and without an outlandish lack of balance in system components. Essentially, when the CPU is the bottleneck, faster RAM can provide an often dramatic increase in performance. However, before considering an upgrade, make sure your motherboard is compatible with faster memory. Usually this functionality is reserved for the top-end chipsets.

 

 

It should be pointed that this may not apply to everyone. As they said, they tested this by lowering the resolution and using a Titan X, so it might not make (such) an impact on your overall performance. They got 22% increase from slowest to fastest RAM, but someone else might get nothing.

 

I personally would like to see the performance difference (if it exists) from someone that is trying to run the game at "normal" 1080p 60 FPS with a lees powerful GPU, just to see it with a more "casual" setup. Yes the picture is with the 970, but more people with same builds might get different results as well. If someone does that PM me. 

If RAM turns out to matter, I think this might be the first game to do so, or was there another one?

What do you think?

 

Source

[Trik'Stari]

So I assume my 1866 RAM won't help.

 

DAMN

[GSTARR]

That's cool.

 

But bought overkill 64gb of 3000MHz of ram a few months back for my friend and his rig, I'll use the 32gb he doesn't use anymore lol

[Guest Kloaked]

ಠ_ಠ

[UnknownEngineer]

Running 2133 ATM, could just bump up to 2400.

 

I dont really need though, I play in borderless windows so it is locked at 60, and I get 60 prettymuch universally.

[Aniallation]

Single channel DDR3-1600 (what I use) is 18GB/s transfer speed, why would a game need more than that???

[Notree]

BF4 was similar. But why does it say they used a titan x then its says 970 in the screenshot?

[Bouzoo]

BF4 was similar. But why does it say they used a titan x then its says 970 in the screenshot?

 

They probably just took the screenshot with the 970 as an example but did the complete analysis with Titan X, to remove bottlenecks and all. 

[NAP51DMustang]

doesn't matter when the fps is capped at either 60 or 72 depending on monitor refresh rate. that is unless you edit an ini file and like broken physics

[Prysin]

Single channel DDR3-1600 (what I use) is 18GB/s transfer speed, why would a game need more than that???

drawcalls....

 

seriously though, depending on how the game is made, drawcalls can be affected by memory speed... im still reading through this long ass wall ot text on how drawcall performance is affected by various shit in your system....

[theereal]

Single channel DDR3-1600 (what I use) is 18GB/s transfer speed, why would a game need more than that???

Well, shitty optimization comes to mind

[Bouzoo]

doesn't matter when the fps is capped at either 60 or 72 depending on monitor refresh rate. that is unless you edit an ini file and like broken physics

It might matter for people with weaker cards. Not the best way to improve FPS but it might help to get a small boost in performance. Or if they release a patch that would remove the FPS cap. A huge patch but a possibility nonetheless. It goes w/o saying they might patch the game so it doesn't depend on RAM but that's for a different discussion.

[Agosto]

What about DDR4?

[Diederik_Gr]

Boy, 1333MHz here. Though'd it would never come to this.

[Bouzoo]

What about DDR4?

They didn't use a CPU that supports DDR4. Maybe in the future.

[Xorbot]

This just in, Fallout 4 floating-point compares:

 

//float f1

//float f2

 

u8 buffer1[4];

u8 buffer2[4];

bool match = true;

 

for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {

  u8* p1 = &((u8*) &f1);

  u8* p2 = &((u8*) &f2);

  if(*p1 != *p2)

    match = false;

}

 

return match;

[Dabombinable]

Boy, 1333MHz here. Though'd it would never come to this.

I'm running mine underclocked to 800MHz (albeit with the timings tightened a lot) since DDR2 is fine at those speeds.

[Albatross]

What what what what.

 

I'm going to test this. I will laugh if it stops my drops to 24fps. :lol:

[Maslofski]

excellent choice i made then, just started playing it today. Had to put a few useless settings to high/medium and i get a steady 60 FPS on 1440p with a fov of 110. it doesnt seem to use SLI though, so hopefully theyll fix that, since card 2 is at 37ºC, but usually around 50ºC. 

 

about 5 mods and this game is the best game ever

[NAP51DMustang]

It might matter for people with weaker cards. Not the best way to improve FPS but it might help to get a small boost in performance. Or if they release a patch that would remove the FPS cap. A huge patch but a possibility nonetheless. It goes w/o saying they might patch the game so it doesn't depend on RAM but that's for a different discussion.

fps is tied to physics and game speed, they can't fix that with a simple patch. that would require a major game rewrite (physics, rendering, and animation pipelines would all need to be modified), or did we learn nothing from arkham knight?

[Bouzoo]

fps is tied to physics and game speed, they can't fix that with a simple patch. that would require a major game rewrite (physics, rendering, and animation pipelines would all need to be modified), or did we learn nothing from arkham knight?

That's why I wrote a huge patch. 

[NAP51DMustang]

That's why I wrote a huge patch. 

heh, entire game huge.

[deviant88]

I bet this is just corporations bribing gamemakers to improve game performance if better ram is installed so they can start selling that useless DDR4, a silly game like fallout 4 gets more benefits than hardcore graphics pushing engines like Battlefield's frostbite, cryengine and unreal engine which see no major benefits from better ram, yet some average game like fallout sees immense performance benefits, yeah right you aint fooling me.

[NAP51DMustang]

I bet this is just corporations bribing gamemakers to improve game performance if better ram is installed so they can start selling that useless DDR4, a silly game like fallout 4 gets more benefits than hardcore graphics pushing engines like Battlefield's frostbite, cryengine and unreal engine which see no major benefits from better ram, yet some average game like fallout sees immense performance benefits, yeah right you aint fooling me.

that's most likely because Bethesda is shit for actually optimizing their games and rely on modders to do it post release. don't attribute to malice what is easily explained by stupidity or something to that effect.

[Benji_w]

 

SNIP

 

 

Ram speed makes a difference to some games anyway, this isn't new, it's been tested before (I really cant be arsed finding you the tests and results either) and shown to make a difference.