I have 4gb of RAM on py pc and i know oblivion only makes use of 2gb (some say its more like 1.8) and did some searching and found this program http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php What do people think about this? is there anyone who uses it and does it really work like advertised without problems? Big question is should i use this if i have 4GB of RAM?

I am using it myself. The 4GB patch itself doesn't really make a difference. The 4GB patch with OSR WILL make one. The game is very stable for me since I am using both.


4GB and a 64-Bit Windows installation is essential.

Funny how I keep running into you... haha. I realize you're back from a long leave of absence from Oblivion. For future reference, the topic in my signature would be the right place for the question.
It really comes down to if you are using a 32-bit or 64bit Windows. If you are using 32bit windows, the gains are minimal, (I mean you might get Oblivion to utilize an additional 300mb of physical ram.) If you have a 64 bit OS, you are likely to increase the amount of ram Oblivion can utilize by roughly 1gb of physical ram. (I accounted for the fact that you may not have your OS optimized for gaming performance.)

EDIT: The 4gb LAA patch works with or without OSR. OSR is only necessary to increase stability once you have a heavy mod load. BUT, OSR is obviously a mod everyone should play with for other reasons.

I already have OSR and i do have a 64bit system. I did take a look at your thread but did post there as i had no clue at most of what you were talking about :tongue: And i have no clue what you mean by "I accounted for the fact that you may not have your OS optimized for gaming performance" that sounds technical so i will say yes you are right in assuming that. i guess i'll just try the patch and see if it helps.......whats the worst that would happen :brokencomputer:

Exactly. It won't hurt anything. You will only benefit from it

Oblivion will not use the full 4GB without a increased heap size as far as I know.

Unless some discoveries were made since all my initial research, I would have to disagree.
Though its been so long since I actually read what I researched, it might be worth a second look.
Either way, it would be silly to play Oblivion without both these days... Especially OSR

the 4gb enabler is a life saver for me. before I patched it, my game was lagging inside caves and outdoor areas with lots of trees, grass, and people. even with streamline fading out all of them ...

after I applied the 4gb enabler, everything popped back up - meaning streamline didn't need to fade them out anymore and I'm running at stable speed all the time. no more lagging in caves (at least 20 fps) and outdoor (at least 15 fps) with all the trees and grass appearing.

basically, it makes my game playable and gives me 10+ extra fps =)

the only place my game lags now is when there's like 10 NPCs and in Bravil w/ Better Cities ... -_-

I recently upgraded to win7 and tried the LAA. It definitely reduced the amount of time spent accessing the hard drive, which reduces stuttering. I can see the Oblivion (and windows+bacground processes) now uses between 2.7 and 3.4 gigs of ram on average. so that's roughly 1gb MORE ram being used thanks to the patch. Woah. Also a much more stable game.

LAA really wouldn't have this sort of impact...(Increasing FPS) Maybe since OSR seems to be so closely referenced to LAA, you experienced an increase in smoothness of gameplay due to OSR. (Assuming you are using OSR) Just don't want claims that LAA increases FPS floating around when it isn't the case. Otherwise, very happy for you and your performance gains.

Again, FPS increases would not be due to the use of LAA. Are you all sure you aren't confusing what OSR and LAA each do?

The improvements described in the last two posts sound more like what OSR is capable of more so that LAA.
LAA simply allows Oblivion to make use of all your systems physical RAM. There really shouldn't be a noticeable difference in game play other than the fact your game will prolong a memory ceiling crash for a much longer period of time.

If they're all getting that much less disk stutter because the game isn't swapping to virtual memory anymore, it's certainly possible. It's just not very probable.

To clarify, I was referring to the pause and reduced performance temporarily encountered upon loading a new cell, not constant low fps. I should have said so instead of just "stuttering".

Edit: I have had OSR running on the previous non-LAA install as well. That said, my upgrade to win7 also involved replacing most of my computer's internals, so my comparison is somewhat meaningless! (I upgraded from dual core E8400 @ 3.15 ghz to an I5 2500K @ 3.7 ghz. I also changed to 4 gb ddr3 ram instead of ddr2 and a sata6 hard disk but I doubt that would make any noticeable difference.)

The only time I've experience swapping memory from harddisk was when my VRAM ran low. Prior to using the LAA patch, I do remember the game would experience a slow down period when the game is nearing the 1.8gb memory ceiling. This might be what they are talking about. Though, this period only lasted 5 minutes max typically, and then CTD. But the slow down was quite noticeable. I guess if the Oblivion process thinks it's out of physical ram to use, than it would attempt to swap memory using the harddrive. Perhaps I was a bit hasty to jump in and say NO. This is just a theory really, nothing to back it.

Exactly. I say it's not probably because the game likely wouldn't last long in that scenario. It isn't impossible though. Plenty of applications survive just fine once they exhaust real memory and the OS begins paging to virtual memory. Most games don't usually fit the profile for where that would work, and Oblivion especially, but if for some reason the drive is fast enough to keep up with the demand it might continue to operate. It would manifest itself in-game as a sharp drop in performance.

LAA would resolve this only if the game did not later consume the additional real memory it now has access to.