Skyrim PC patched, can now claim 4GB RAM

@nerdydesi1

Sad my PC has 8g, but what's even more sad is the fact I got the ps3 version so my kid could play it with out hogging my PC to play it on all the time.

@nerdydesi1
Not to mention they're always on sale on Newegg every damn day.

@drunkingamebar

well it's a start, 4gb is better than 2gb, but that still leaves me with 12gb chillin...I guess thats what I get for "needing" to fill all the ram slots...

@nerdydesi1

"And DDR3 ram is so insanely cheap these days it would be a shame not to take advantage of it."

No, it's a shame there really is no good reason to release a non-64 bit executable in the current day and age. 64-bit CPUs have been available since 2003 and they've been released in every market segment since 2006; everything from $1000 demonstrations of excess to chips barely suitable for a netbook have been 64-bit capable. Even the Xbox 360 and PS3 have 64-bit capable CPUs.

Anyone who's bought or built a machine (be it desktop or laptop) in the last 4 years most likely has a 64-bit operating system. Finally, the massive increase in the VRAM found in discrete videocards has made the use of said 64-bit operating systems a necessity (as VRAM is also factored into how much memory an OS can address); most cards now have at least 1 GB, premium cards have 1.3-2 GB, and recently released high end cards have 3 GBs of GDDR5 memory.

Developers need to quit catering to the Windows XP crowd and start releasing 64-bit exclusive software; the OS support is there, the hardware support is there, and the marketshare to make it worthwhile also exists. Will it allow for massive improved games? No, of course not. It will, however, allow for more stable titles.

@Stevorino

I ain't think there's enough data to properly fill 6gb+.

@Esposch YET, remember the inevitable DLC hasn't came out yet. Plus well, it's an Elder Scrolls game and thus there will be a shitload of massive mods in the coming months on top of that.

@Esposch True, the whole game is 6GB, there is no point to put the whole game in the RAM at one time...

@Stevorino

The reason they stop at 4 Gb is because you still need ram to run the background things like Windows your Antivirus software, steam ect ect ect

@Stevorino It's a Bethesda game. It's not exactly resource-intensive.

@Stevorino

I believe it has to do with It being a 32-bit program. a 32-bit program can modified to address larger memory sizes, but it's still limited in being a 32 bit program. This is why 64bit exes are awesome! :)

@Stevorino

I believe it has to do with It being a 32-bit program. a 32-bit program can modified to address larger memory sizes, but it's still limited in being a 32 bit program. This is why 64bit exes are awesome! :)

@Secolliyn

That is not why. Just because something can use 4 GB of ram doesn't mean it needs to. It gets to share like all the rest of the software on your computer.

@Stevorino It's impossible to address more than 4 gigs of ram to an application running in 32 bit, most recent computers are 64 bit, so they can address FAR more ram (don't ask me how much, but trust me, it's more ram than you have), but this is a game designed for cross-platform capability, and to run on as many computers as possible, so it's probably only 32-bit.

@Milak
The max on windows is 192 gigs.

@eagandale4114
yes, because modern versions of windows are 64 bit, but xbox and ps3 are 32 bit, so the game is built in 32.

@Stevorino

32 Bit exe. Can't use more than 4.

ST

@Stevorino

As a few people above said, the maximum amount of memory addressable by a 32 bit program is 4 GB ( ~ 2^32 bytes ). The reason they had to patch it in is that 32-bit Windows only allows an individual program up to 2 GB of memory by default. It can however, be explicitly configured as "Large Address Aware," allowing it to use the full 4 GB.

@Milak Correct. Also, Steamworks DRM doesn't support 64-bit executables yet. I'm hoping they fix this. With current 64-bit games (like DCS A-10c Warthog), the overlay doesn't function and it doesn't show you as being in game or track your playtime.

@Stevorino

Not possible without a 64-bit executable. Skyrim ony uses 32-bit, hence the 4 GB limit as that's the maximum amount of RAM possible

@Milak Actually, modern PS3 architecture is 64 bit, as was the PS2; I don't know about the eggsboxes. The main thing is that the 360 and PS3 consoles each have only 512MB of RAM. Highly optimized for each console, they could make Skyrim work with that much. For the far less optimized PC version, they thought 2GB + whatever VRAM you have would be enough. They thought wrong, of course.

All that is a symptom of the main problem, which is that from the beginning they tried to limit the whole Skyrim project to be able to fit on the consoles, rather than make it as amazing as they could for the PC and then scaling it back for the consoles, like DICE did with Battlefield 3.

@StReborn

I don't think it's possible to play a Bethasda game for any reasonable amount of time and not hit glitches. I broke the game in the first 5 minutes during the opening tutorial sequence and had to start a new game.

@Raffi256
I might just be lucky, but in my 60 hrs. I've only experienced a few minor bugs.

@KirbyCommando

I completed the whole game (360) and didn't have any problems. It sucks that everyone else is though.

@Bubbameister33
They aren't glitches, they're features ;)

It's a shame you're missing out.

@(Unverified)

Alternatively, you can actively not say anything about that god forsaken, beaten to a bloody pulp horse, and help quicken its death into obscurity.

@Hyperion45 Did the meme take an arrow to the knee?

@(Unverified) I used to be a rabid annoying meme, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Good call Mr Wolf.

@Haikiba

Are you using a 64 bit Windows OS?

@Haikiba

Assuming you're running 32-bit Windows, I would be surprised if this patch didn't take advantage of your 3GB of recognized RAM.

@Haikiba

As mentioned above, as 32Bit program, it wont be able to use 4gb of ram. And i'm pretty sure that includes video-ram in some way. A 32bit windows using 4gb of ram and a 1gb graphics card will use 3gb of the ram and all the gpu memory. I'm not sure if perhaps, with a 64bit OS running, the game would use all 4gb of ram in your situation (the max for a 32-bit game) then the video-ram wouldn't count towards that.

@Bubbameister33

Yeah, what I was trying to say is 32-bit OS.

@Foetoid
With a 64-bit OS, 32-bit applications can use 4GB RAM if they set the 'IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE' flag. Without this they can only use 2GB. I presume this is what Bethesda has just done. (If so, it will also allow the application to use 3GB instead of 2GB on a 32-bit OS.)

Information from this MSDN page (I'm not an expert on this as it's many years since I've done Windows C++ development, so this is just a google result):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

@Haikiba

Since you're using 32 bit your OS can only use the 4GB. If you want to use the 8GB (and more) that you installed you're going to have to switch to a 64 bit OS.

@whylekat

It's not a big deal, all they did was change a line of code to say "true" instead of "false".

This patch doesn't do anything else for skyrim and as stated, modders had already done it.

@whylekat

Not only is this a tiny change that is actually just rolling back a patch they did before, but they're able to release patches on PC instantly whereas on PS3 it has to go through Sony's moderation first.

@noodless

Been on sale at BestBuy, Target, and Gamestop (only the CE at Gamestop.)

@LordSkyline OMG! Like RLY! ROFL! Like, FOR SURE OMG U NO? Like, OMG!