I've been gaming for years and built a dream PC about six years ago that ran smoothly. Lately, I've noticed performance drops in games like Rust and Tarkov after the latest Unity updates. My framerate went from around 100 to about 80 in Rust and 60 in Tarkov, which is quite disappointing. I have 128GB of RAM with 8 sticks of 16GB each, which feels like overkill. From what I've researched, having a lot of RAM isn't inherently bad, but could having so many sticks be stressing my motherboard and causing these lower frame rates? My other specs are an RTX 3090, an i9 10980XE, and an X299 Raider MS-7A94 motherboard, with the RAM running at 2666 MHz. I'm considering removing 4 sticks to see if it helps. Am I being too paranoid or is there a valid concern here?
2 Answers
Your CPU is starting to show its age, especially for demanding games like Tarkov and Rust. The i9 10980XE is a solid processor but it was built more for workstation tasks than gaming. Modern CPUs like the Ryzen 7600 or Intel's 9600K would definitely give you a better gaming experience due to their improved performance. It might be time to upgrade!
It sounds like your RAM isn't the issue since it was running fine before. Remember, having more sticks of RAM in quad-channel is similarly optimized as having fewer sticks in dual-channel, and you're not maxing out the RAM speed either. The performance drops are probably due to the new Unity updates rather than anything related to your RAM setup.
What CPU do you recommend? Would that mean I'd have to upgrade other components too?