Memory Issues with Windows 8/ Dell XPS 15 Haswell

[serjndestroy]

I have the 16GB RAM high-dpi Dell XPS15, but when playing quite a number of games, I get a "Close this program to prevent data loss/Your computer is low on memory" message, followed by a huge drop in FPS in-game, which resolves itself after a couple of seconds/minutes.

Examining my resource usage usually reveals exactly 4GB memory usage, with the other 12GB in standby. Sometimes there is disk churn at with 100% disk usage (fully running on the harddrive, not using SSD / intel rapid response)

Memory usage can go over 4GB when using chrome/on linux, so it's not a faulty RAM chip or module. I've also looked into the high-dpi memory usage bug in win 8 where you'd get memory leaks when running games fullscreen that's not at native resolultion, but this happens on windowed games, and games running at high resolution as well.

Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

[Air]

Is your Windows 8 installation the 32-bit version?

[serjndestroy]

Yep, it's the default Windows install (8.1 64 bit), would be hillarious if Dell got that wrong.

[_I_]

sounds liek a 32bit program is running out of ram
32bit programs can only allocate upto 2g of ram ea

what program is it thats crashing/causing ram problems

[Bad 💀 Motha]

This can also occur when u have no pagefile amount assigned. Did u happen to set the PageFile setting to None?

[serjndestroy]

Pagefile is fine, as far as I know.

It might be the 32 bit app problem, but it happens with tonnes of games (The Forest, Bastion, The Guild 2, Tiny and Big) Dota 2 slows down but I've never gotten the memory error message.. Never happens in a non-game app though. Don't think it happens in non steam games either, come to think of it...

[speedsoul]

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/558747287821778188/

[serjndestroy]

Like I mentioned though, it happens in windowed games + games that match the resolution of the screen though... Maybe it's a combination of the high-dpi that makes the error more common. Thanks for the link though!

[Pomelo]

Check the Pagefile settings to make sure.

Had a similar issue on my desktop. I thought the pagefile was set correctly, but it seems some update (or the 8.1 upgrade?) screwed it up and assigned it to like 200MB max or something? Which of course filled quite quickly.

Set it to Auto, no issues since.

Publicado originalmente por FALLING TOILET:

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/558747287821778188/

HD4000 is Ivy Bridge. Haswell doesn't use HD4000. OP has Haswell.

[serjndestroy]

You're right, my pagefile was set to off... I swear I didn't touch it though; bizzare. Hopefully that fixes it thanks

[Pomelo]

Publicado originalmente por Rhunshphot:

You're right, my pagefile was set to off... I swear I didn't touch it though; bizzare. Hopefully that fixes it thanks

did you happen to do the free upgrade from 8 to 8.1 (via the Windows Store)? Cause that's when my pagefile setting broke.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

After 8.1 Update be sure to check any major system-wide settings, such as the PageFile.
You will also want to clean install your device drivers after such an update.

[Azza ☠]

Win 8 adds extra random fun :)

Logically that issue would only occur if your OS is 32 bit and therefore capped to 4GB. Pagefile or not wouldn't make a difference. However, you can never fully understand the logic of Win 8 - It wasn't even designed with Desktop PCs in mind, rather touch screen, tablets, window phone, and the xbone (smaller devices they can make media money from).

[Pomelo]

Publicado originalmente por Azza ☠:

Win 8 adds extra random fun :)

Logically that issue would only occur if your OS is 32 bit and therefore capped to 4GB. Pagefile or not wouldn't make a difference. However, you can never fully understand the logic of Win 8 - It wasn't even designed with Desktop PCs in mind, rather touch screen, tablets, window phone, and the xbone (smaller devices they can make media money from).

You're wrong. We solved it already. He's on 64bit but something screwed up his Pagefile setting.

And no, Win 8 was not designed with tablets and touch in mind, at least not exclusively. It was designed so it could work good on both, and it does. Its performance is better than Win 7, and its new Start UI is easy to work with you take the short time it takes to learn the new controls, which it btw explains to you while the first setup takes place.
I'm positive you never used the OS for more than 5 minutes?

[serjndestroy]

Ok, just got the out of memory error again whilst running Bastion, and Planetside2 is experiencing strange lag every 5 mins or so, with no noticable load on memory, disk or cpu :| I cant think that the Planetside issue could be GPU related, as I used to be able to play on High with no issues, and now I'm running it on medium, it could be network related but the gui and everything freezes up as well, so I don't know if the network code could affect that..

Re the Win 8; 8.1 has made a lot of things better, but the start menu / metro/modern apps takes at least 30 secs-minute for me to start, I don't know if somethings messed up with my config but performance is just not there. Fortunately I barely have to touch it other than launching Steam heh.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

this is an upgrade installation from windows 8 to 8.1. if using built-in gpu, try to manually install latest intel driver.
or go here for auto-detection:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

if using nvidia discrete gpu:

http://www.geforce.com/

if dell xps 15 uses customized driver packages:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Eula/scan/?sourcePage=H&scanType=TMC&loadSection=N&IsTag=False&Selection=xps-15