High memory usage
By
Bill Z Bubba,
Posted on: 2009-10-27 20:58 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
I'm having zero crashing or lag or anything outside normal performance issues, but I will verify that the CHV app is using just over a GB memory on my 2GB memory rig.
Be well, people of CoH.
the game has used 1-1.5 gig for me since i started playing in aug 07. nothing out of the norm. that is why it is recommended to have at least 2 gigs of ram.
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THIS, though I wouldn't say it used 1.5gb back in '07. When I started playing in '06, it was rare to see it hit 1.2gb, but over 1gb was still certainly common, and it has slowly gotten higher with each new issue release. It's not uncommon for me to see the client using about 1.4gb after a short while.|
Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint
the game has used 1-1.5 gig for me since i started playing in aug 07. nothing out of the norm. that is why it is recommended to have at least 2 gigs of ram.
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As far as crashing goes, my client does crash consistently as soon it reaches 1.6g, which is only after several hours of play. It's not something that ever happens very frequently though. Logging into PocketD, it might use less than 600mb, but being in a busy area in a larger zone could bring it to about 1.1g. The value does vary based on where you are, what's going on, and how long you've had the client open. this doesn't mean there is a memory leak, but rather it saves a lot of information about what is going on and who you encounter and it'll use more and more memory the longer it's opened.
In short, I don't think the "higher memory usage" is the OP's issue because the numbers they posted are well within the norm. I'm assuming the crash is due to something else, and we'd need more information to figure out what that is.
First, what kind of crash is it?... Does the whole system lock up, or just the CoH client, or is it simply just disconnecting you from the server? Does it give an error message or dialog box? Is there a sound loop at all? Does it simply freeze the current screen, or boot you to desktop, or boot you to login screen?
Then, CoH_Helper and HiJack this for more specific system info.
Well, for me it always (well, at least for the past year or two) has been 600K, 700K in Grandville or other 'tend to be laggy' zones for me until today. So just because you got a 1+ gB, doesn't mean everyone else has that much too, lol. I was just stating the game uses almost twice as much as usual.
@Master Blade, it is a game freeze. Everything just stopped moving and there was a soundloop. Well, actually the first time I timed out in the loadingscreen, but I reckon same thing happened. I've only been stuck in loadingscreen like four times in the almost four years that I've played might I add. Also the window of CoX (playing windows mode, because graphics can go funky if I alt+tab, but that aside) itself wasn't responding to anything either.
Brutes are built to kick @$�, not to save that of yours - Double Electro
My DeviantArt | RobotSouls.com
1: How much RAM do you currently have?
2: What other major memory hogs do you have on your system?
Currently I play on a system with 8GB of RAM. The game sucks up about 1.6GB most of the time.
While I do crash out on occasion, most of the time I'm fine. Usually crashes come shortly after extremely heavy usage (zone raids, etc).
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
I usually got 2 gigs of RAM and I only have the necessary programs working whenever I play, so basically Windows is the only other memory hog and Norton, but that only uses 30K. And with normally 600K kB being used by CoX, 2 gigs is more than enough for me. I barely ever crash. BARELY EVER! So, please do not come with the suggestion to buy more RAM. This entry is not about my RAM nor my computer. It's about the game using up almost twice as much as usual and the suspicion why others tend to crash because of that same reason (but then of course from the usage of memory on their own computer ^^
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Brutes are built to kick @$�, not to save that of yours - Double Electro
My DeviantArt | RobotSouls.com
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Please show where he asked you to "buy more RAM". He simply asked how much you had.
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Originally Posted by Virago
I usually got 2 gigs of RAM and I only have the necessary programs working whenever I play, so basically Windows is the only other memory hog and Norton, but that only uses 30K. And with normally 600K kB being used by CoX, 2 gigs is more than enough for me. I barely ever crash. BARELY EVER! So, please do not come with the suggestion to buy more RAM. This entry is not about my RAM nor my computer. It's about the game using up almost twice as much as usual and the suspicion why others tend to crash because of that same reason (but then of course from the usage of memory on their own computer ^^
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We'll see....
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Originally Posted by Virago
I usually got 2 gigs of RAM and I only have the necessary programs working whenever I play, so basically Windows is the only other memory hog and Norton, but that only uses 30K. And with normally 600K kB being used by CoX, 2 gigs is more than enough for me. I barely ever crash. BARELY EVER! So, please do not come with the suggestion to buy more RAM. This entry is not about my RAM nor my computer. It's about the game using up almost twice as much as usual and the suspicion why others tend to crash because of that same reason (but then of course from the usage of memory on their own computer ^^
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Okay. I didn't ask you how much you had to tell you to get more. I asked that, and what kind of memory utilization you were getting from other apps/services on the system to figure out if you were simply bottoming out your memory and thrashing to disk.
I provided a comparison of my system to give you an idea of how much the client CAN pull.
Also, are you participating in raids? If you are, you're REALLY going to be sucking up memory. After a couple raids, I usually need to do a reloadgfx or restart the client. Usually because I've beaten on it badly enough that if I just keep going, it WILL eventually crash.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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I was saying to not bother suggesting it. You know, in new replies >.>|
Originally Posted by Flameshot
Please show where he asked you to "buy more RAM". He simply asked how much you had.
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You know what? Don't bother. Close this stupid topic. I was just trying to help the devs by stating there's a much higher than normal memory usage (I always check memory usage regularly in various demands of my computer, like raids, missions or outdoors and it's always been 600K - 700K for me) and all you people do is pointing at your own memory usage and that 1gB is normal for you. While I apreciate you're trying to help, you're obviously not listening. So, again, please close this topic. It's obvious it's not going the way I intended this to go.
Brutes are built to kick @$�, not to save that of yours - Double Electro
My DeviantArt | RobotSouls.com
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Originally Posted by Virago
I was saying to not bother suggesting it. You know, in new replies >.>
You know what? Don't bother. Close this stupid topic. I was just trying to help the devs by stating there's a much higher than normal memory usage (I always check memory usage regularly in various demands of my computer, like raids, missions or outdoors and it's always been 600K - 700K for me) and all you people do is pointing at your own memory usage and that 1gB is normal for you. While I apreciate you're trying to help, you're obviously not listening. So, again, please close this topic. It's obvious it's not going the way I intended this to go. |
1: Ragequit much?
2: Right now you're running a copy of the client that has multiple event codes activated. Do you or do you not think that memory footprint might increase because of this?
3: The reason you probably wouldn't notice the higher memory utilization some of us see is because you're disk thrashing more than we are. We merely pointed out that the game will consume whatever free memory it can up to a certain point.
If you construed this to bragging or misunderstanding of your plight, you were wrong.
So thank you for wasting people's time by being too impatient to answer simple forensic questions because you couldn't see the point to them.
Please don't expect assistance in the future if you're going to behave in a similar manner.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
You might want to look at this thread http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=195606
Lol, I never thought I would need to use that command when the memory usage is almost twice as much as usual when you just have rebooted the game. However thanks for the link. I do tend to use that slash-command after having played for a while, but that's not about this topic right now.
I'm sorry you think I wasted your time. However I did thank you and everyone else for trying to help and I did stress out several times that it is not normal for my game with my settings to hit above 1 gB, even in 'heavy' places and that I wanted to share this info. Don't take this as offensive, but I can't help it that you misread it. Sure, I could have written it all differently, but I thought I made myself clear enough several times. It just feels like this isn't going anywhere. I thought I was just trying to help and after a while things did more bad than good in here. That is why I want this topic to be closed. Not because I supposedly ragequitted.... The internet is a peculiar thing, where it is so easy to misunderstand a person or misread his/her intentions *sighs*....
Brutes are built to kick @$�, not to save that of yours - Double Electro
My DeviantArt | RobotSouls.com
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The game generally uses below a gig (Around 600-700k as you mentioned in your first post) when the engine is running optimally. That's not something that's possible with the introduction of a new issue (Update). Each time a new issue is released, the game skyrockets memory usage to a gig and above. Generally becoming unstable around 1.5gigs of memory usage.|
Originally Posted by Virago
I did stress out several times that it is not normal for my game with my settings to hit above 1 gB, even in 'heavy' places and that I wanted to share this info.
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So sure, your game ran at 600-700k when the game was functioning properly, but it most certainly won't when it's not. There was a major issue released just a short bit ago, and it actually changed the way the game functions with itself (ie. Power Customization). So it's basically impossible for a game to receive such a huge update, and continue to run optimally in such a short amount of time. That's even ignoring the fact that the Halloween event was so close there was probably very little time to worry too much about optimizing the last Issue.
The devs need to optimize the code a bit and patch up the memory leak of course, but that doesn't happen over night. What boggles me is how anyone can act so surprised or bent out of shape over something that happens EVERY SINGLE TIME there is a new issue released.
Keeping in mind that due to these changes and the upcoming Going Rogue, chances are slim this game will ever run in the 600-700MB range again. If it does, I'll be pleasantly surprised. So as much as you didn't want to hear it, buy more RAM.
All that aside....If you read the thread that was linked a few replies up, you'll see that you are absolutely not the only one experiencing these issues and even those with copious amounts of RAM are having stability issues because the game has a terrible memory leak. I realize you were looking to help, but unless you know the code of this game and are a programmer who's pretty good at optimizing code, there isn't really much you can do. Just as there's nothing I can do. Other than /bugging any issues we might have or letting the devs know of specific situations that cause the memory leak etc on your particular machine.
We'll see....
If it's any consolation, COH will never use more than 2GB of RAM unless they release a 64bit version. So they'll have to keep a much closer eye on memory leaks now.
1.2GB of RAM has been the norm for me for about a year now. It's been steadily rising since the 500MB it used to take back in 2005.
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Before I start, I'd like to say this is not a ZOMG U SUKC!!!!eleventyone! entry, lol. I just want to share some info to help you guys make the game even better than it is and also hopefully get an answer on why it is happening.
I noticed a lot of crashing -usually game freezing- from various people on my team on Victory villains (don't ask). I too crashed twice. The second time the game crashed (just when I dinged 50 and tried to take a screenie @.@) I noticed according to the task manager the game was using over a 1.000.000 kB memory. When I rebooted the game, I noticed it was over one gB again just after loading fully back into the game. It normally takes the game around 600.000-700.000 for me, so there's where it started to daunt me. I mentioned this to some other players and they too noticed a much higher number than normal.
I cannot proof the freezing up of the game with both me and the others has to do with that high number, nor can I proof why that number is so unusually high. However I do think you guys might want to know about this and possibly look further into it. I did not post my computer info, because more people are experiencing the higher memory usage. However if you need more info, let me know and I'll try to help.
Brutes are built to kick @$�, not to save that of yours - Double Electro
My DeviantArt | RobotSouls.com