Excessive memory usage only when playing CW3

[Gabidou99]

Sometime for no reasons it use over 500k memory, almost 600k last time I played it. Is this normal? I'm on Windows Vista.

[teknotiss]

this should prob be in support....  8)
but as a general note it is a pretty intense game, i often get to 60% of Ram when watching Youtube documentaries alongside playing CW3...
hope that helps  8)

[Gabidou99]

this should prob be in support....  8)
but as a general note it is a pretty intense game, i often get to 60% of Ram when watching Youtube documentaries alongside playing CW3...
hope that helps  8)

I literally had all my browsers and Skype closed, and it still run at over 500k. How can I reduce the amount of memory it use, even If I will have to lag more?

[teknotiss]

this should prob be in support....  8)
but as a general note it is a pretty intense game, i often get to 60% of Ram when watching Youtube documentaries alongside playing CW3...
hope that helps  8)

I literally had all my browsers and Skype closed, and it still run at over 500k. How can I reduce the amount of memory it use, even If I will have to lag more?

well first thing would be to turn down/off all the video and audio settings and see if that helps, i think the mist effect is pretty heavy on resources.
if that's no good let us know...
btw, what do you mean 500k? how much RAM do you have?

[Gabidou99]

this should prob be in support....  8)
but as a general note it is a pretty intense game, i often get to 60% of Ram when watching Youtube documentaries alongside playing CW3...
hope that helps  8)

I literally had all my browsers and Skype closed, and it still run at over 500k. How can I reduce the amount of memory it use, even If I will have to lag more?

well first thing would be to turn down/off all the video and audio settings and see if that helps, i think the mist effect is pretty heavy on resources.
if that's no good let us know...
btw, what do you mean 500k? how much RAM do you have?

I only have 6 GB, but it usually run without lag and before it didn't use that much memory, usually 300k or lower. I also always turned off Mist effect. Is there a way to put low-quality settings or something?

[J]

I only have 6 GB, but it usually run without lag and before it didn't use that much memory, usually 300k or lower. I also always turned off Mist effect. Is there a way to put low-quality settings or something?

Mine takes up about 400MB RAM while having a rather small map loaded. With 6GB RAM this shouldn't be a problem at all (I have 3GB, and it's far more than enough for CW3+browser+OS), you can have 10 instances of the game running with big maps loaded at the same time! (if you don't have an operating system)

Note that if task manager says CW3 takes 241.932kB memory (on cw3 main menu), it is 242MB, not 242kB.

To answer your questions, 500MB is normal, and you don't have to worry about it at all. If it gives problems, just close CW3 or any other program that uses a much bigger chunck of memory (otherwise you wouldn't run out of memory). I couldn't find a turn off mist effects button in CW3 within 2 minutes, but if I ever found it mist would be turned off.

[Karsten75]

I couldn't find a turn off mist effects button in CW3 within 2 minutes, but if I ever found it mist would be turned off.

It's in the Visibility menu, top left of the screen.

[teknotiss]

I only have 6 GB, but it usually run without lag and before it didn't use that much memory, usually 300k or lower. I also always turned off Mist effect. Is there a way to put low-quality settings or something?

i have 4Gb and no issues really, except on huge maps with lots of units and CRPL active...
what map/s are you getting this on?
all of them?  ???
you said it used be less intensive on memory, have you installed any new background services etc?
new anti virus/malware/firewall? these can be a bit heavy sometimes
a google or apple client software? (prob wouldn't be much mem really but maybe?)
has any major updates for any of your software occurred recently?
8)

[Karsten75]

Lag is not a function of the memory consumed, but rather of the processor (CPU) consumed on maps with lots of things - reactors, relays, units, etc...

[Gabidou99]

I only have 6 GB, but it usually run without lag and before it didn't use that much memory, usually 300k or lower. I also always turned off Mist effect. Is there a way to put low-quality settings or something?

i have 4Gb and no issues really, except on huge maps with lots of units and CRPL active...
what map/s are you getting this on?
all of them?  ???
you said it used be less intensive on memory, have you installed any new background services etc?
new anti virus/malware/firewall? these can be a bit heavy sometimes
a google or apple client software? (prob wouldn't be much mem really but maybe?)
has any major updates for any of your software occurred recently?
8)

I don't have anti-viruses or anything running.

I don't think there was an update.

I was trying to play a Sleeper map and it started running "strong" with the fan making a lot of noise as soon the Sleeper spawned.

I tried a normal map, it was running fine for a dozen of minutes.

I refuse to make my computer running like that just to play a game, it's like saying it's fine to watch your best friends do painful push-ups while you are playing games.

This is weird because before I could run huge and laggy PAC maps without my computer having to use so much memory for it.

[Michionlion]

Frankly, I don't understand why using 500 MB (I'm assuming it's that, because 500K is .5MB, and there is no way CW3 is using that little) is a problem.  In most modern computers, things can easily take 1-2 GB of RAM.  I just went and played a random map for a test, and hit 600MB by the end, with a gaming rig that has 16GB Ram, and is pretty well optimized.  Running at that level of memory usage (especially if you have 6 gigs) should be no problem at all.  Also, turning off visual effects will only help performance (related to RAM) minimally, as if your bottleneck is RAM speed (or space) you have a really, really old computer (which isn't the case, I don't think, because then you would have <1GB RAM).  What really matters if you're trying to asses performance is GPU and/or CPU load.  Running CW3 should really take at max 50-60% CPU, depending on what CPU you have.

In addition, memory usage is not always parallel to performance.  You can think of memory as the sort of pool things get put into when they are created in game - each weapon, each drone, and so on contribute a small memory usage to the overall whole, but other things (like fancy CRPL) can also contribute, depending on what they do.  If you do have anymore computer related questions, I'd be happy to clarify/answer them!

[Gabidou99]

Frankly, I don't understand why using 500 MB (I'm assuming it's that, because 500K is .5MB, and there is no way CW3 is using that little) is a problem.  In most modern computers, things can easily take 1-2 GB of RAM.  I just went and played a random map for a test, and hit 600MB by the end, with a gaming rig that has 16GB Ram, and is pretty well optimized.  Running at that level of memory usage (especially if you have 6 gigs) should be no problem at all.  Also, turning off visual effects will only help performance (related to RAM) minimally, as if your bottleneck is RAM speed (or space) you have a really, really old computer (which isn't the case, I don't think, because then you would have <1GB RAM).  What really matters if you're trying to asses performance is GPU and/or CPU load.  Running CW3 should really take at max 50-60% CPU, depending on what CPU you have.

In addition, memory usage is not always parallel to performance.  You can think of memory as the sort of pool things get put into when they are created in game - each weapon, each drone, and so on contribute a small memory usage to the overall whole, but other things (like fancy CRPL) can also contribute, depending on what they do.  If you do have anymore computer related questions, I'd be happy to clarify/answer them!

When It start running at over 500k memory the fan of my Computer start making loud noise and it looks like my computer is going to explode. I have 6GB memory.

I tried to remove some of the quality setting in the Propriety window of the game, and it seems to run fine without running hot, but some more performance/RAM tips would be helpful.

[Michionlion]

That isn't RAM being the problem.  RAM usage (especially that low) does not normally produce a lot of heat.  That would be CPU usage, which is probably why turning down graphical settings and simulation settings helps a bit.  Another useful thing would be a picture of the task manager (you can access that by press ctrl-alt-delete) when CW3 is laggy.

[Gabidou99]

That isn't RAM being the problem.  RAM usage (especially that low) does not normally produce a lot of heat.  That would be CPU usage, which is probably why turning down graphical settings and simulation settings helps a bit.  Another useful thing would be a picture of the task manager (you can access that by press ctrl-alt-delete) when CW3 is laggy.

Apparently you're right, I played one of the laggiest map and I've seen it run at over 700k memory and my computer wasn't doing anything special.

[Michionlion]

Was that map being laggy?  If so, the problem is likely your graphics card, because the processor is only at 37% and the RAM is fine.  Not much I can recommend to increase performance in that case, besides running at a lower resolution and turning off some graphical effects.

EDIT:  by the way, that is 700.000 k, which is actually 700 MB (1MB = 1024k), just so you know.  Sometimes that can be confusing.