Not sure that a graphics card would have any effect on physical ram. Maybe video ram, but my focus with this issue isn't on video ram. Although, I may shift the focus to video ram if I notice a pattern of errors from "x" amount of Vram usage.

Corrupt system RAM can do this too.

Yes, I could test the ram out just to be positive sure that isn't an underlying issue.
Will follow up on that.

Hi

I have also run some tests and The oblivion engine is ONE hungry Beast,


JUSt before the crash it was at ........2,997,256 used ON the oblivion.exe as viewed in Task Mgr.


I have seen it higher, It is always a SLOW constant rise in the amount of ram that it is using. I do have Screen shots of both the ram usage this high also screenshots of Oblivion using 6 of the 8 threads windows shows for this CPU. I7 860 2.8 NO overclock. I think that what The Task mgr. shows is not a real # cause my readout on Keyboard can go from Idle Ram usage of 2.2 gig used , to 6.2 gig used.

Another thing of note is the 5,903,623 Page Faults... As i understood this is nothing more than Oblivion looking for memory that is no longer present?? Purged?...im using HTFpcb Extended,


I also have run Oblivion With EVERYTHING turned off Including ending task on Explorer and using task manager to start and play Oblivion. Yes ram usage Started out way lower and i Didn't notice any real change from normal. The Beast still grabbed 4 Gig of ram and seamed Hungry for more?

Hmmm...Off to read about the Heap stuff on the OSR thread. Im Using Heap 5 and 800 for the ??hash table??? Like i said need to read more there...The beast is Way more calm with OSR running .

@ camaro-69_327 - What OS are you running?

Lol...That might help..

Win 7 x64 defraged after installs.....Always

8 Gig ddr 3

8800 gtx 640 meg ram (as its ALWAYS used up )...IM upgrading ...lol

I7 860 2.8 Stock.. With System set to change on the Fly it goes to 3.2 alot

Sorry about the bold text in that last reply. I'm curious how your ram usage for oblivion.exe is able to reach above 2gb? I'll be adding some variables to my testing soon. OSR for one and lla 4gb patch again. One new update I have for everybody. Windows xp 64 ctd's fo me cosistentley around 1.6gb when allowing the memory to slowly increase from that memory leak script mentioned in my first post. Currently testing my memory with memtest+86. 1st pass had no errors.

I laughed when i read it ..so no worries dident even notice the Bold ...lol

I don't think Oblivion started using more memory till i also used the 4 gig patch on OBSE. ??



With everything I am loading....FCOM and the Like I know my stuttering and crashes are when vRam goes over the 640 meg my card has......I see 680- 750 alot....lol .

Maybe I did something wrong when I tried adding the 4gb patch before. It seemed like my ctd was still at 1.7gb for win7 64 and 1.6gb for winxp 64 when I had it installed before. I'll be addiing it again soon to test.

EDIT - Memtest turned out fine. I let it run for over an hour. All together it ran about 15 tests and 1 full pass.
Ok, so I added the 4gb patch mentioned in my first post to OBSEloader.exe. Still crashing at the same ram usage levels.
going to try adding OSR to the equation.

You only have 4GB physical memory, yes? Honestly if your game is bailing out close to 2GB you're not likely to see improvement from the 4gpatch until you get more physical RAM.

I don't think that is the case as when the crash occurs, I still show 1.2-1.3gb of available physical ram. That's pretty much the mystery I'm trying to solve here. What is getting used by that remaining memory?

Another update for everyone. I'm running the same test with osr 4.1 default .Ini settings and the 4gb patch. I always knew that osr helped overall system perormance and stability, but this was unexpected. Turns out osr reduces CPU load by half! The test showed CPU usage of 50% but with osr the CPU usage went down to 25%. Also another great improvement, the rate of time in which memory size increases. This was also reduced to half. This may be fro
the 30fps default cap. just crashed again at the same points. 1.6 for win xp64 and 1.7 for win7 64. Adding pcb clearing mod next. Will update.

EDIT - @ Arthmoor - On second thought, I think you might be right about your comment. After reviewing some of the other players experiences with ram usage, the one constant is that they do in fact have more physical memory. But, the question still remains...
What is Windows doing with the 1.2- 1.3gb of left over ram? There must be a way to allocate this towards Oblivion or something along those lines.

A new update. Purging cell buffer pretty much just delays the crash. Though it still happens at the same ceiling point eventually.
I suppose if I time my cell purges just right, I could pretty much keep my game from hitting the ceiling, but it will definitely be a pain to worry over.

All in all, it seems we all have a ceiling where our physical memory reaches it's limit based on how Windows or Oblivion allocates the memory.
If anyone can help answer the question as to where the left over memory I have sitting available is getting stored or used, it could really shed some light for many players and possibly become an standard for yet another CTD prevention.

All right!!! I have a break through!

Sitting here at work, I decided to toss some additional ram into a desktop machine. Total of 8gb ram for this test.
Loaded the memory leak mod and watched it CTD at 1.7gb again!!! :banghead:

Next, I added the 4gb patch to OBSEloader.exe. Again, CTD at 1.7gb!!!! :nuke:

FINALLY! I added the 4gb patch to the Oblivion.exe.... POOF!!!! :clap: My oblivion.exe physical ram usage has surpassed the 2gb mark
and will most likely keep going for sometime. I will report back where it ends crashing.

This was a simple mistake. But from all the posts I've read in regards to applying the 4gb patch, people have said to apply it to the obseloader.exe!
Never realized it needed to be applied to Oblivion.exe.

Now I just need to do this on my 4gb of ram at home to see if the 4gb patch will take effect. It obviously works for 8gb of ram. :woot:

EDIT - Passed the 3.5gb mark!

Excellent, I am watching this space with interest! Let us know then!

Cool! That's how I got to 3.6 GB! I never thought about /LAA patching OBSELoader.exe.

Somewhat related to this: I was having trouble generating distant land in Morrowind Graphic Extender (MGE) due to an out-of-memory error. Well, I applied the /LAA patch to MGE and voila! I could then generate distant land...

I wonder if it's ever unsafe to apply an /LAA patch to a 32-bit executable...?

Valamoor, I will never doubt you again. I even missed where you said you applied it to Oblivion.exe! I guess I was just so used to hearing that it needed to be applied to obseloader.exe that I totally missed that!

Many thanks for creating this thread and even more for having a breakthrough

I haven't had time to monitor my ram usage, but based on your findings, I plan to apply the update and see if it makes any difference to my game reliability (which is very variable and often bad depending on where I am).

Glad my dummy research has helped you. :goodjob:
I'm sure this is old news for many others, but I don't believe this is widely known.
Thanks for the positive comments!

OK! So the final verdict after the memory leak test using the 4gb patch on the Oblivion.exe running 8gb of ram!

Windows 7 64bit experienced CTD at 3.8gb of ram! That's about right. Now, I wonder if an
8gb patch is available?

EDIT - I will update later this evening on how far 4gb of ram will get you before a CTD.

Unfortunately an 8GB patch is impossible. We'd need a 64-bit version of Oblivion.exe to access more than 4 total GBs of RAM. That would be sweet, though, seemingly anyway...

Such a shame to hear... No doubt, Oblivion enhancement mods will overload even 3.8gb at some point.

Hm... it's great that you tested it all. But what I find pretty disheartening is that a CTD is ultmately inevitable in Oblivion, and even under the best of circumstances can only be avoided by not playing too long in one session... :swear:

Or... is this the eventual CTD nothing but a well intentioned reminder, deliberately put into the game by Bethesda, for us not to get completely lost in the game whenever we play it? It could be a feature after all....

Yeah, it's totally frustrating! Even 3.8gb isn't enough. Hopefully using PCB can lengthen the amount of time it takes for the mem to fill up. At least long enough to fulfill our game binges. I mean, we have to sleep eventually, right?

That's odd, because the only two LAA patches I knew of ( and can't find now ) both said to apply it to the Oblivion.exe file. I've never seen mention of using one on the obseloader.exe, and you shouldn't need to either since that program doesn't remain active once the game is launched.