Does decreasing RAM cause high GPU usage?

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skychaser30

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Jun 9, 2011
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Hi. As the title says, does it?

I had 12GB 1333mhz DDR3, and the GPU usage was just around 70%, when I uninstalled one the sticks, it started fluctuating between 70% and 99%

By the way, would it be best to get 16GB RAM for a gaming setup, or buy a cooler and overclock the hell out of my 4690k?

Here's my specs

i5 4690k
GTX1070
12GB 1333mhz DDR3
Z87X-OC mobo
 
Solution
slyverine
I think your RAM is bottlenecking your system. You didn't say what 1070 you got , but i think all 1070 have higher clock speed, so keep that in mind. The extra RAM would be more handy for various reasons, like you can do other things while gaming, new games start to require more and more RAM etc. If you overclock your cpu you will get like 5 fps gain and that's it, with RAM you will benefit in many ways.
I would suggest to buy a new kit at higher speed,replacing all your memory modules.
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-z87x-oc.pdf
I think 2133 is a sweet spot.
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slyverine

slyverine

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Mar 4, 2016
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I think your RAM is bottlenecking your system. You didn't say what 1070 you got , but i think all 1070 have higher clock speed, so keep that in mind. The extra RAM would be more handy for various reasons, like you can do other things while gaming, new games start to require more and more RAM etc. If you overclock your cpu you will get like 5 fps gain and that's it, with RAM you will benefit in many ways.
I would suggest to buy a new kit at higher speed,replacing all your memory modules.
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-z87x-oc.pdf
I think 2133 is a sweet spot.
 
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Solution
rcald2000

rcald2000

Splendid
Nov 3, 2009
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+skychaser30 Your issue confuses me. Your GPU usage should have been 90+ utilization to begin with, whether at 12 or 8 GB of RAM.
Ideally you want your graphics card at 100% or as close as possible to that figure. If you decreased your RAM from 12 to 8 GB, and your RAM usage exceeds that 8 GB of RAM, then I would expect your CPU usage to go up because it's swapping data between your storage (HDD or SSD) and RAM.

What made you remove one stick of RAM to begin with?

If I had to choose between upgrading from 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM or overclocking my i5-4690K with a 3rd party CPU cooler, I'd go for the overclocking. I'm curious to know the main games that you're playing these days.
 
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Jelo Azupardo

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May 27, 2013
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@rcald2000, I think he means there is no headroom anymore if the GPU usage is high. I also think having 100% GPU usage is not right. Hell, I'd like mine to be lower. He has a 1070, that's a very powerful card.
 
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J

Jelo Azupardo

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May 27, 2013
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@rcald2000, I think he means there is no headroom anymore if the GPU usage is high. I also think having 100% GPU usage is not right. Hell, I'd like mine to be lower. He has a 1070, that's a very powerful card.

 
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