Memory Usage Issue

[charliesheen]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this, but here is the relevant information...

Platform:
Windows 7 64-bit

ISP:
O2

Type of Internet Connection:
ADSL

Internet Connection Speed:
24Mb/s

Frequency:
Always

Steps:

I've discovered a major flaw in how this game uses RAM. It is due to this problem that regardless of how powerful your hardware is, you will always experience frames-per-second drops in busy places. In the case of Trabia server, the main example of this is Ul'dah. In order to reproduce the 'bug' for yourself to see that I am right, you will need to have a tool for monitoring frames-per-second, the ability to load resource monitor to monitor the RAM usage (task manager is fine too but using resource monitor is simpler), be able to monitor CPU and GPU usage, and finally you must run the game in windowed mode unless you have dual monitors. Note: Depending on how powerful your hardware is, the resultant frames-per-second drop will vary. But there will ALWAYS be a drop as I am about to describe.

Step 1: Load your frames-per-second monitoring tool and resource monitor in windows (found in task manager under performance tab, then click the memory tab in resource monitor. Here you will see final fantasy xiv in the list and details of how much ram it is using - working + commit, which is physical + virtual for the total).

Step 2: Travel to a place that is not busy, or monitor your FPS in a place you'd typically adventure in. On Trabia server, you will get maximum FPS in Gridania/The Black Shroud, as these places are deserted now. You will see that your FPS stays at a consistently good average in these places, therefore the game runs smoothly. You will also notice that RAM usage for the game sits somewhere around 1.3GB total. This is just an average I am giving, obviously this will vary by system.

Step 3: Teleport to a busy place, in my example it is Ul'dah. You should notice that your FPS drops as people start to appear around you. You should also notice that RAM usage will now begin to rise. This is normal and to be expected. But this is where the bug kicks in.

Bug: At around 1.7GB - 1.8GB total, the game stops asking for more RAM. Regardless of how much RAM you have in your system, and whether or not you are on a 64-bit OS, the game will stop here. Why is this a bug? It is a bug because the game is creating an artificial bottleneck. The game needs more RAM but it isn't asking for it, and because of this the FPS drops no matter how powerful your hardware is. Further proof that it is a bottleneck is that while this is happening, you should be able to see that your CPU usage and GPU usage is not at 100%. It probably won't be anywhere near it if your hardware is more powerful. It's because your CPU and GPU are sitting waiting for the RAM, or rather for the game to use more RAM.

In my case, my system specs are: Intel i5 running at 3.8Ghz, 6GB DDR3 running at 1600Mhz, Nvidia GTX 560Ti running at 900Mhz/4200Mhz, OCZ Vertex 2E SSD. Outside of Ul'dah during normal gameplay (i.e. battle leves in a party of 4), my fps is consistenly at 60FPS, with a minimum of around 45FPS (emphasis on MIN, I do not mean it goes to an average of 45FPS) if LOADS is happening onscreen. If I travel to Grid, my fps jumps to 80FPS average and goes over 90FPS fairly often. When I travel to Ul'dah, FPS drops to 30FPS regularly. It spikes consistently and can be anywhere between 30 and 60, there is really no average. While this is happening, my CPU usage is average of 65% on all four cores, and GPU usage is average 50%.

I have investigated this issue on three of my own PCs now, it occurs on all of them. Having better hardware reduces the effect, but does not eliminate it. I also asked someone from our LS to test it out for me. He is running crossfire with two powerful graphics cards and the same problem occurs - RAM usage caps around 1.8GB, CPU and GPU usage is not maxed, and a fps drop occurs. As pointed out by Rentahamster, this is approaching the 2GB addressing limit of 32-bit applications. I forgot to consider this point when I originally posted. However, this is the total sum of physical + virtual memory the game uses, and it never pushes to the limit. If you examine only physical ram usage, the game never goes past 1GB, or at least from my research it hasn't. So the 2GB addressing limit is still not the issue until the game actually uses more physical RAM.

"Why does the game need to use so much RAM to load other players? And why does it not use more PHYSICAL RAM in doing so?". That is the main points and nature of the 'bug'.

Please have the developers look into this as it is a major issue concerning the programming of the game. Thank you. #winning

[Rentahamster]

whether or not you are on a 64-bit OS, the game will stop here.

Your OS might be 64-bit, but the game client is still 32-bit, thus it is still limited to 2GB of address space and cannot access all the extra memory you have.

[Cutriss]

Your OS might be 64-bit, but the game client is still 32-bit, thus it is still limited to 2GB of address space and cannot access all the extra memory you have.

Bam, you're right, I didn't even think of that.

Well, I doubt that's ever going to change then...

[charliesheen]

Your OS might be 64-bit, but the game client is still 32-bit, thus it is still limited to 2GB of address space and cannot access all the extra memory you have.

It isn't using 2GB either. Please read. I know 32-bit apps are still limited in RAM usage, but the game isn't even addressing 2GB total.

[Rentahamster]

It isn't using 2GB either. Please read. I know 32-bit apps are still limited in RAM usage, but the game isn't even addressing 2GB total.

...what? I did read. You said. "At around 1.7GB - 1.8GB total, the game stops asking for more RAM." That's because the game client is hitting the 2GB memory limit.

It's not like it can stay at a constant 2GB all the time.

[Cutriss]

It isn't using 2GB either. Please read. I know 32-bit apps are still limited in RAM usage, but the game isn't even addressing 2GB total.

Part of that 2 GB space is overhead.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussi...8/3261309.aspx

[charliesheen]

...what? I did read. You said. "At around 1.7GB - 1.8GB total, the game stops asking for more RAM." That's because the game client is hitting the 2GB memory limit.

It's not like it can stay at a constant 2GB all the time.

If it required 2GB and it is available, how is this any different from maxing out CPU or GPU usage? You have also skipped the fact that the memory is does use is not all physical RAM. Why does the game restrict itself on how much physical RAM it is using which is far less than the total number I gave.

@Cutriss: So 200MB+ is overhead? I didn't know that, and if so that's pretty crap.

[Rentahamster]

If it required 2GB and it is available, how is this any different from maxing out CPU or GPU usage? You have also skipped the fact that the memory is does use is not all physical RAM. Why does the game restrict itself on how much physical RAM it is using which is far less than the total number I gave.

@Cutriss: So 200MB+ is overhead? I didn't know that, and if so that's pretty crap.

I didn't skip the fact that it doesn't use the entire 2GB of space. You need a cushion.

By all means, create a program that forces itself to use all 2GB of address space all the time. I hope you like out of memory errors and crashes.

[Cutriss]

@Cutriss: So 200MB+ is overhead? I didn't know that, and if so that's pretty crap.

If you're doing a ton of threading and not handling communications well, yeah, it can. The process space has to keep track of all its threads after all.

[charliesheen]

I didn't skip the fact that it doesn't use the entire 2GB of space. You need a cushion.

By all means, create a program that forces itself to use all 2GB of address space all the time. I hope you like out of memory errors and crashes.

That may be the case, but you haven't commented on the other side of the issue, that the game isn't using as much physical RAM as it could. Truthfully, I did know about, but forgot to consider the 2GB addressing limit of 32-bit apps when I made the topic, it slipped my mind. However you are ignoring the fact that the game on average only uses 400MB - 700MB of physical RAM which it clearly needs more to operate correctly on modern PC hardware. The most I've ever seen it use was around 900MB physical RAM.