Time to Upgrade?

[deimos3428]

^ So how much memory is the Civ process taking? I guess it must be properly "64-bit enabled" if that process alone is using >2GB.

The CivV process itself is only taking up ~800MB, but the problem seems to be the massive amount of file caching. Loading an end-of-game (2090AD) game, the total Commit in Windows 7 task manager flirts with the 4GB mark. This means we've run out of physical ram before we've run out of things to cache. After shutting the game down, it dropped back to about 1.3GB. So that's a whopping 1.9GB of file caching, and perhaps the game needs more for optimal performance, to cache everything it can into RAM.

With only 4GB and without a page file, the game also tends to crash after a while. That shouldn't really happen at all, the system should overwrite file cache when it needs physical RAM. But it doesn't seem to do this right. With the page file enabled, the game runs flawlessly, even though the amount of page file usage is trivial it likes some to be there.

I think the long term solution for performance is to buy more RAM, and let the game cache as much as it likes. Maybe CivV could fill an additional 4GB of file cache, but I doubt it. Personally I don't think it's worth the cost just for CivV -- I'll live with a little slowness.

 

[maniac5999]

Bah, sorry the 940 isn't going higher, but hope it's still ok for you!

It seems that I have quite a dud. I got 3.5 <mostly> stable at 1.475V. It passed half an hour of OCCT when I put it there using just the multiplier, but when I changed it to use known good settings for the RAM/NB etc. by setting the base clock to 241 I got a pair of crashes. Do people think that I'm pushing the L3 too hard on this guy?

Also, It's flirting with 60* running OCCT with these settings on my 120mm tower cooler (Sunbeam CCF)with the fan set to low, and the top of the cooler barely warm and I'm wondering if people think that this is appropriate and/or safe. Does it sound like I should try re-mounting it? Of course it's winter in NJ right now and the room temperature can easily be 20*F/10*C higher in the summer. I'd like an OC that I didn't have to worry about in the summer heat, so does anyone know what the max safe temp for the CPU is? (AMD conservatively lists it at 62*, but that sounds way low.)

 

[betasub]

Kuma: 1:18.01, 1:18.44, 1:20.82 Average: 1:19.09
Phenom II 940: 56.43, 51.00, 51.56 Average: 53.0

So interestingly we're looking at a 50% reduction in level load times for a pair of extra cores. I have no idea how this could be, but it's very surprising, I'd expect this to be fully I/O limited.

Are your Kuma times are in minutes? Let's convert them to seconds:

Kuma: 78.01, 78.44, 80.82 Average: 79.09

So that's a 33% reduction from 79 -> 53. Not 50%, but still nice.

 

[maniac5999]

Are your Kuma times are in minutes? Let's convert them to seconds:

Kuma: 78.01, 78.44, 80.82 Average: 79.09

So that's a 33% reduction from 79 -> 53. Not 50%, but still nice.

Sorry, I meant to say "Kuma takes 50% longer than Phenom" 33% reduction = 50% increase