Should I upgrade to more RAM?

[Multibocks]

Hey all,

Im looking for some help on why my computer is not so hot for IS. It's pretty much top of the line and OC'd and yet Im only get 20fps on my main in Dalaran AND it stutters so badly that I lose followers sometimes. No, that's not mounted, that's just walking. I have them all facing down for camera to reduce draw distance and that doesnt seem to be doing much. What I have noticed is that I have great FPS outside of dalaran and WG (I'm sure this BG is bad for everyone). I have a widget that tells me how much RAM is being used atm. When Im outside Dalaran it's about 50% used. Inside Dalaran I can spike up to 90%. I think that might be too high and the computer may be page filing. Anyone know if my guess is correct? I have 6GB ram and 2GB vid card ram (not that vid cards matter much in wow.) Should I double this to 12? Is there anyway to know for sure if my computer is caching information instead of using the RAM? Thanks in advance.

edit: specs on comp for those interested, i7 oc'd to 3.6Ghz, 6Gb RAM, 2 x 4780x2, Raptor HDDs in raid 0.

[Yamakasi]

Hi,

I think it would be a great idea to upgrade your system to 12gig off ram, second best upgrade > ssd, made a big difference for me on my 5 box.

Grtz

[alcattle]

your Video card matters slightly as it loads some in RAM briefly while doing its thing. 5 toons in high activity areas like Dal or WG is taxing. If your MB supports more RAM, go for it. The SSD might help if you are seeing alot of HD hits during the follow problem.

[Farleito]

What OS are you using?

[Sajuuk]

More RAM could certainly help in Dalaran. I generally had my swap file disabled until I started having clients crashing.

Re; video card being an issue: Meh...I've five boxed just fine with a 9600GT.

[Multibocks]

Im using 64bit Vista.

[Fef]

I think it would be a great idea to upgrade your system to 12gig off ram, second best upgrade > ssd, made a big difference for me on my 5 box.

I was going to reply just that.

[Tonuss]

I run 12GB of RAM on a Core i7 system, and while my memory usage when 5-boxing is usually in the 4.5-5.5GB range, in some places (Dalaran is an obvious example) I've seen it spike to 7.5GB. This could be why you're seeing such lag in zones with lots of people (and thus, lots of textures to load). So I would also put in a vote for doubling your memory to 12GB.

[Multibocks]

that's what I was looking for thanks Tonuss!

[Bovidae]

Is there anyway to know for sure if my computer is caching information instead of using the RAM? Thanks in advance.

Look at the Performance and Reliability utility and look for Hard Faults; these are the i/o's of disk caching.