Cities Skylines using a crazy amount of ram

[Colours]

I'm playing the game with no assets from the workshop and just Road Anarchy, More Network Skins, and i think nothing more. I checked the "elements/assets" page ingame and there is just 4 assets. How can I get 99% Memory usage from the game when even with 0 population and nothing constructed??


(16GB DDR4 is what i have)

[MarkJohnson]

Yes, commit is the Virtual Memory.

[Viper]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

I don't know how ease to explain it to you.

What is telling you your assets are in kilobytes or megabytes?

Some of your misconceptions are: Your paging file (Virtual Memory) is part of the same memory as RAM (RAM stands for random Access memory, i.e. memory) The two together are your total memory.

In your example of 7.5GB System memory (RAM) pluis 14GB pagefile would mean a total of 21.5GB for total system memory. Otherwise the game wouldn't load at all with only 7.5GB RAM. The base game by itself is over 10GB.

I mean what is the purpose of a page file if it does nothing? It is there as it counts toward your total memory.

I mean you have loading screen mod telling you this already. Do you think those extra numbers are meaningless, yet he puts them in his apps for nothing?

But please post the kilobyte numbers and what it telling you its size so I can clarify it for you.

You obviously don't know what your talking about. This guy is talking about System memory ( Ram). The memory that is listed when you bring up the task manager and look under the memory tab. YOu know those memory sticks you install in your PC.Virtual Memory is not a part of the memory in your PC and is not even considered in total memory. It is managed by the OS and can be disaled set to 0 if you want to but by default it is about twice the size of your installed ram. You have been paying far to much attention to that loading screen mod.

The page file is just a place that windows moves seldom accessed data when it runs out of system memory so that the entire OS doesn't crash. It is on storage and if its on an HDD its 100s of times slower than system ram. By default the OS manages it . but you can take over control and make it as small or as big as you want or even totally disable it if your PC has enough memory.

https://lifehacker.com/understanding-the-windows-pagefile-and-why-you-shouldnt-5426041


It is not ever considered part of your memory. When they sell you a PC . They dont say on the sales add ..unlimited memory limited only by your HDD size. A PC running on virtual memory would crawl. It would be a slide show. I think you need to learn what virtual memory is if you think its part of your system memory..because its not. SO stop acting like I'm the one in error here.Read the article above.

[MarkJohnson]

This guy is talking about System memory ( Ram). The memory that is listed when you bring up the task manager and look under the memory tab.

I understand completely. His RAM is full, because his page file is full! Increase page file size and he frees up RAM and keeps his system from crashing, until he adds more workshop, or another DLC is released, or he buys more DLC from the store.

Maybe he followed your advice and removed the page file? and now he has issues.

Virtual Memory is not a part of the memory in your PC and is not even considered in total memory. It is managed by the OS and can be disaled set to 0 if you want to but by default it is about twice the size of your installed ram.

First, it is of course part of total memory or it wouldn't be posted in the memory section of task manager. It wasn't created because it has no use.

Second, Windows automatically adjust the paging file size, up to twice your RAM, it is set to zero initially.

It does it very poorly, and effects this game greatly and I always recommend manually setting to triple your RAM size for best results for those who have workshop addiction.

This is Microsoft's article. Not me, nor some third part who make ridiculous and unfounded claims:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4055223/memory-allocation-errors-can-be-caused-by-slow-page-file-growth

In short it says:

Originally posted by Microsoft:

Symptoms
Applications that frequently allocate memory may experience random “out-of-memory” errors. Such errors can result in other errors or unexpected behavior in affected applications.

u]Cause[/u]
Memory allocation failures can occur due to latencies that are associated with growing the size of a page file to support additional memory requirements in the system. A potential cause of these failures is when the page file size is configured as “automatic.” Automatic page-file size starts with a small page file and grows automatically as needed.

The IO system consists of many components, including file system filters, file systems, volume filters, storage filters, and so on. The specific components on a given system can cause variability in page file growth.

Ironically, the link you posted shows just how important it is to have a page file. lol

The page file is just a place that windows moves seldom accessed data when it runs out of system memory so that the entire OS doesn't crash.

Exactly my point. people over subscribe to too much workshop and it gets dumped to the page file for storage to be later swapped into RAM to be processed by the game. except it doesn't as most user never use very many of the assets they download. I have helped users over the years and always see saved games with literally thousands of assets subscribed, but only a few hundred actually used in their city. and they usually just got the error, and it happened because they decided they needed even more assets in their game, and they didn't even use them. lol

A PC running on virtual memory would crawl. It would be a slide show.

This is false 99% of the time. You would be needing to have an insane amount of stuff in memory being used simultaneously at once. Having your page file full doesn't affect performance any at all. What slows you down is overloading RAM as it can't process its needs and then has to place important files to page file then, fetch what it needs from the page file back into RAM.

This game is processing only small data asset files that swap out almost instantly. You wouldn't even notice it in this stationary game at all. If you were running in a 3D jungle shooter, then you may have an issue. But this game is an ant farm game that doesn't need high action nor high FPS. So lagging and stuttering is rare in this game by its design.

FYI, you just can't delete the page file, if you run out of RAM memory, then the system will just crash, from not enough memory, but a page file would help prevent the crash.

[Viper]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

This guy is talking about System memory ( Ram). The memory that is listed when you bring up the task manager and look under the memory tab.

I understand completely. His RAM is full, because his page file is full! Increase page file size and he frees up RAM and keeps his system from crashing, until he adds more workshop, or another DLC is released, or he buys more DLC from the store.

Maybe he followed your advice and removed the page file? and now he has issues.

Virtual Memory is not a part of the memory in your PC and is not even considered in total memory. It is managed by the OS and can be disaled set to 0 if you want to but by default it is about twice the size of your installed ram.

First, it is of course part of total memory or it wouldn't be posted in the memory section of task manager. It wasn't created because it has no use.

Second, Windows automatically adjust the paging file size, up to twice your RAM, it is set to zero initially.

It does it very poorly, and effects this game greatly and I always recommend manually setting to triple your RAM size for best results for those who have workshop addiction.

This is Microsoft's article. Not me, nor some third part who make ridiculous and unfounded claims:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4055223/memory-allocation-errors-can-be-caused-by-slow-page-file-growth

In short it says:

Originally posted by Microsoft:

Symptoms
Applications that frequently allocate memory may experience random “out-of-memory” errors. Such errors can result in other errors or unexpected behavior in affected applications.

u]Cause[/u]
Memory allocation failures can occur due to latencies that are associated with growing the size of a page file to support additional memory requirements in the system. A potential cause of these failures is when the page file size is configured as “automatic.” Automatic page-file size starts with a small page file and grows automatically as needed.

The IO system consists of many components, including file system filters, file systems, volume filters, storage filters, and so on. The specific components on a given system can cause variability in page file growth.

Ironically, the link you posted shows just how important it is to have a page file. lol

The page file is just a place that windows moves seldom accessed data when it runs out of system memory so that the entire OS doesn't crash.

Exactly my point. people over subscribe to too much workshop and it gets dumped to the page file for storage to be later swapped into RAM to be processed by the game. except it doesn't as most user never use very many of the assets they download. I have helped users over the years and always see saved games with literally thousands of assets subscribed, but only a few hundred actually used in their city. and they usually just got the error, and it happened because they decided they needed even more assets in their game, and they didn't even use them. lol

A PC running on virtual memory would crawl. It would be a slide show.

This is false 99% of the time. You would be needing to have an insane amount of stuff in memory being used simultaneously at once. Having your page file full doesn't affect performance any at all. What slows you down is overloading RAM as it can't process its needs and then has to place important files to page file then, fetch what it needs from the page file back into RAM.

This game is processing only small data asset files that swap out almost instantly. You wouldn't even notice it in this stationary game at all. If you were running in a 3D jungle shooter, then you may have an issue. But this game is an ant farm game that doesn't need high action nor high FPS. So lagging and stuttering is rare in this game by its design.

FYI, you just can't delete the page file, if you run out of RAM memory, then the system will just crash, from not enough memory, but a page file would help prevent the crash.

Who recommended it . I just said it could be done. And many have done so. It forces your PC to only use real memory. ..so whatever. Yes running only the game and nothing else he has used all his system memory and all his virtual memory to. lol......And by the way task manger only shows the percentage of system memory used. OH yea go ahead set your page file to 2 terabytes and tell people you have 2 terabytes of memory installed...lol. Virtual memory is not part of memory. Your apps do not run in virtual memory. The only thing there is old data..not any data being used currently. That app CSL is known to use a ton of it. If your not running it then it won't happen. Anyway I am not going to argue with you about it any longer since you just don't get it.

[Viper]

Originally posted by me22ca:

CSL is an insane commit space hog. I'll often see 21GB commit usage even though the working set is "only" 9GB.

So check which number you're measuring.

Hes not running CSL. This other poster is trying to use that as some kind of proof that CIties Skyline uses a lot of memory. NO CSL uses a lot of virtual memory. Cities Skylines uses 5-6 GB with all DLC and no assets or mods of System Memory. How much Virtual Memory is being used is irrelevant. TO get up to 16GB you would have to have a ton of stuff running besides the game. Turn off all your mods and assets. Bring up the task manger and you will see yourself.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Viper:

Who recommended it . I just said it could be done. And many have done so. It forces your PC to only use real memory. ..so whatever. Yes running only the game and nothing else he has used all his system memory and all his virtual memory to. lol......And by the way task manger only shows the percentage of system memory used. OH yea go ahead set your page file to 2 terabytes and tell people you have 2 terabytes of memory installed...lol. Virtual memory is not part of memory. Your apps do not run in virtual memory. The only thing there is old data..not any data being used currently. That app CSL is known to use a ton of it. If your not running it then it won't happen. Anyway I am not going to argue with you about it any longer since you just don't get it.

He only has 16GB RAM, this game with all DLC will use over 25GB of memory. Windows auto page file is whacky and doesn't work properly, especially past x1 memory it will have a chance to crash.

so he has a total of 25GB game memory, minus 32 GB page fle, if he's lucky, means he has 7GB free. Windows will easily ujse up 3 GB on on a 16GB RAM system, plus a/v drivers, other apps, bloatware, spyware, etc. he ends up with all of his RAM and all of his page file full.

Manually set page file to triple RAM as suggested, and he'll free up at least half of his RAM and have most of the game offloaded to the page file as he hasn't used any asset but some roads and vehicles.

Of course you don't want to argue your point as it doesn't exist. This is how memory works. It is a very simple solution and you'll see dozens of post on the subject and the cure is always the same. Increase the amount of RAM (expensive), manually increase page file for more virtual memory, or unsub workshop until it frees up enough memory to free up RAM to keep it from crashing.

FYI, memory is memory no matter what kind. RAM (Random Access memory), Page file (Virtual Memory), hard drive, SSD, DVD, CD, USB Flash Memory are secondary memory. Not to mention level 1,2,3 and now, I think level 4 Cache memory. It all works the same, just in different formats.

To the OP, I seem to have forgotten to have you increase your page file to free up your RAM a little.

Just turn off Windows auto paging file and set it manually and you will be fine. (as long as you don't add more workshop) Make sure you set Initial and maximum sizes to triple your RAM for best results. 48GB (48000 MB for page file purposes)

Here's a video that walks you through it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRe_MtNvVSM

Again, make sure to set the initial and maximum sizes to triple your RAM (48 GB or 48000 MB for page file purposes)

[Dafader]

Game is broken !

[Viper]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by Viper:

Who recommended it . I just said it could be done. And many have done so. It forces your PC to only use real memory. ..so whatever. Yes running only the game and nothing else he has used all his system memory and all his virtual memory to. lol......And by the way task manger only shows the percentage of system memory used. OH yea go ahead set your page file to 2 terabytes and tell people you have 2 terabytes of memory installed...lol. Virtual memory is not part of memory. Your apps do not run in virtual memory. The only thing there is old data..not any data being used currently. That app CSL is known to use a ton of it. If your not running it then it won't happen. Anyway I am not going to argue with you about it any longer since you just don't get it.

He only has 16GB RAM, this game with all DLC will use over 25GB of memory. Windows auto page file is whacky and doesn't work properly, especially past x1 memory it will have a chance to crash.

so he has a total of 25GB game memory, minus 32 GB page fle, if he's lucky, means he has 7GB free. Windows will easily ujse up 3 GB on on a 16GB RAM system, plus a/v drivers, other apps, bloatware, spyware, etc. he ends up with all of his RAM and all of his page file full.

Manually set page file to triple RAM as suggested, and he'll free up at least half of his RAM and have most of the game offloaded to the page file as he hasn't used any asset but some roads and vehicles.

Of course you don't want to argue your point as it doesn't exist. This is how memory works. It is a very simple solution and you'll see dozens of post on the subject and the cure is always the same. Increase the amount of RAM (expensive), manually increase page file for more virtual memory, or unsub workshop until it frees up enough memory to free up RAM to keep it from crashing.

FYI, memory is memory no matter what kind. RAM (Random Access memory), Page file (Virtual Memory), hard drive, SSD, DVD, CD, USB Flash Memory are secondary memory. Not to mention level 1,2,3 and now, I think level 4 Cache memory. It all works the same, just in different formats.

To the OP, I seem to have forgotten to have you increase your page file to free up your RAM a little.

Just turn off Windows auto paging file and set it manually and you will be fine. (as long as you don't add more workshop) Make sure you set Initial and maximum sizes to triple your RAM for best results. 48GB (48000 MB for page file purposes)

Here's a video that walks you through it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRe_MtNvVSM

Again, make sure to set the initial and maximum sizes to triple your RAM (48 GB or 48000 MB for page file purposes)

case closed Mark..25 GB lol.

https://imgur.com/a/lP1jbGf

https://imgur.com/a/ALoIj1B

Dont want to hear another word about it.

[Professor H. Farnsworth]

I chuckled reading through this.
Cities: Skylines with 400 Assets, and some 10-20 mods use 4,8GB of RAM all the DLC (except the Radios and Content Creators)
I don't know where he gets 20+GB of Memory, but eh.. That's not even remotely true *rolls eyes* all it takes to figure out is opening the Task Manager...

The game may use up more Virtual Memory, but that has nothing to do with RAM, if he is using up 99% of his RAM then there's a problem elsewhere with 16GB of it.
Windows 10, by default, reserve 8GB for system processes, that leaves you with 8GB ram. The base game will use roughly 4GB RAM, which means the remaining 4GB RAM he has available is being used by other processes.

I highly suggest looking in to Chrome, that alone on my PC takes up some 1GB of RAM for me. Do not have Chrome running and if - get the one that disabled Tabs unless they are actively used.
Eliminate any program from running on start up except the bare necessities. You want your keyboard software, your mouse software, nvidia/amd software running and that is it. Anything else is superfluous.

[Viper]

Originally posted by Professor H. Farnsworth:

I chuckled reading through this.
Cities: Skylines with 400 Assets, and some 10-20 mods use 4,8GB of RAM all the DLC (except the Radios and Content Creators)
I don't know where he gets 20+GB of Memory, but eh.. That's not even remotely true *rolls eyes* all it takes to figure out is opening the Task Manager...

The game may use up more Virtual Memory, but that has nothing to do with RAM, if he is using up 99% of his RAM then there's a problem elsewhere with 16GB of it.
Windows 10, by default, reserve 8GB for system processes, that leaves you with 8GB ram. The base game will use roughly 4GB RAM, which means the remaining 4GB RAM he has available is being used by other processes.

I highly suggest looking in to Chrome, that alone on my PC takes up some 1GB of RAM for me. Do not have Chrome running and if - get the one that disabled Tabs unless they are actively used.
Eliminate any program from running on start up except the bare necessities. You want your keyboard software, your mouse software, nvidia/amd software running and that is it. Anything else is superfluous.

Yes I agree with that . Chrome take a ridiculous amount of memory especially if you have several web pages open. I easily go over 1 GB with normal internet surfing and sometimes close to 2 GB.

[Viper]

Oh by the way tripling your page file to triple it size is a very bad idea. DO not do that. Hdd are extremely slow.

Increasing page file size may help prevent instabilities and crashing in Windows. However, a hard drive read/write times are much slower than what they would be if the data were in your computer memory. Having a larger page file is going to add extra work for your hard drive, causing everything else to run slower.
Page file size should only be increased when encountering out-of-memory errors, and only as a temporary fix. A better solution is to adding more memory to the computer. Lets WIndows manage your page file. It knows how much should be allocated. DO not mess with it. WIndows will typically set it to 1.5 the size of your installed memory. That is more than enough.

[Professor H. Farnsworth]

Yeah, but I have 4 SSDs (state of the art courtesy of my workplace) and I'm only using 1,5 of them.. So I figure I can use them 48GB of page file for now, rather than spending some 200$ on 4 new RAM sticks (in 1x2 kits to ensure same bus speed, timings etc).
I'm sorry, but Windows is notorious for not... well.. being ♥♥♥♥.
There is no harm done in increasing your pagefile.. Literally. None. The only issue you can (if you're totally oblivious) is you increasing a pagefile to more than GB you have available on the HDD/SSD you put the pagefile on. In which case Windows will just shut down with an out of memory error (and no harm done to your pc, it shuts down to prevent harm..)
Fact is that Windows will only increase your pagefile if it needs to use the extra space - which is an issue, because by the time you need that extra space on it - your system has grinded to a halt, because it didn't foresee the need in time. Sorry, but if anything Windows doesn't know what to do except promote its rather useless store.

[Viper]

Originally posted by Professor H. Farnsworth:

Yeah, but I have 4 SSDs (state of the art courtesy of my workplace) and I'm only using 1,5 of them.. So I figure I can use them 48GB of page file for now, rather than spending some 200$ on 4 new RAM sticks (in 1x2 kits to ensure same bus speed, timings etc).
I'm sorry, but Windows is notorious for not... well.. being ♥♥♥♥.
There is no harm done in increasing your pagefile.. Literally. None. The only issue you can (if you're totally oblivious) is you increasing a pagefile to more than GB you have available on the HDD/SSD you put the pagefile on. In which case Windows will just shut down with an out of memory error (and no harm done to your pc, it shuts down to prevent harm..)
Fact is that Windows will only increase your pagefile if it needs to use the extra space - which is an issue, because by the time you need that extra space on it - your system has grinded to a halt, because it didn't foresee the need in time. Sorry, but if anything Windows doesn't know what to do except promote its rather useless store.

SSDs are still very slow compared to System memory. System memory is rated in nanoseconds access time and gigabytes a second transfer speed . Not the 450-500 MB second max you can get out of an SSD. 3200 memory transfer data at 32,000 MB/Sec. Thats about 65- 70 times faster than the fastest SSD and 1000s of times faster than a HDD. All your doing is creating extra use of your SSD which will wear it out much quicker. SSDs are rated in how may times you write data on them unlike system memory which is not very slowly destroyed by using it.System memory is non volatile memory. Your reducing and SSD s lifesapan by repeatedly writing data on it. SSDs are best by just reading from them as much as possible which is a non volitile process. It will still last many months..but I would rather my SSDs last years..not months.

[me22ca]

To emphasise how much it overuses commit, Resource Monitor currently says Cities.exe is using

Commit (KB) 17,238,832
Working Set (KB) 3,305,352

WTF, devs.