How to fix bandwidth bottlenecks in No Rest for the Wicked?
Every time I stepped through the mist into a new map, the loading bar would hang at 40% for ten seconds, which is agonizing in a fast-paced combat game. My ADATA Valueram DDR4 2666 was running in single-channel, giving me a pathetic 21.3GB/s bandwidth that just couldn't handle the high-res texture streaming. I tried dropping texture quality to 'Low,' but the game looked like a blurry mess, and I couldn't bring myself to play it like that. I checked my slots and realized I'd installed the sticks side-by-side. I moved them to slots 2 and 4 to enable dual-channel mode. AIDA64 showed read speeds jumping from 21GB/s to 38-42GB/s, and load times plummeted from 18 seconds to just 7. I did hit one Blue Screen (BSOD) right after the change due to a memory parity error, but dropping the frequency slightly to 2664MHz fixed it. RAM temps are now 38-44℃ and CPU is at 65-72℃. Resource Monitor shows bandwidth is finally peaked, and the controls feel way more tactile.
