Is steam a drain on resources? : Othor Games

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:12 pm

My PC isn't perfect and it's sort of running vista so it struggles to multi-task.
Will steam slow my computer down and affect Skyrim?
Is there any way to limit the drain from steam if it does affect performance?

I would have asked this in the steam thread but the search function keeps crashing my browser.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:31 pm

There's nothing you can do. It's part of the requirements and you'll have to accept that. If you want a good perspective on if you can run the game well or not, then you're going to need to give info.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:40 pm

There's nothing you can do. It's part of the requirements and you'll have to accept that. If you want a good perspective on if you can run the game well or not, then you're going to need to give info.

There isn't anything I can change on the hardware side. I just know that Rockstar games launcher was a nightmare and I don't know if steam will be the same.
I was hoping I could just limit the memory it could use. Damn.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 4:35 pm

We can't really help being that you did not give us the computer specs......

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:01 pm

Well, my task manager lists Steam at 157,208 k, not a huge chunk of memory, seeing as Firefox uses around 430,000 k. How much ram do you have?
EDIT: That's with steam up. Backrgound it reads at around 30,000 k.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:28 pm

It only takes a bit of RAM as far as I know.

I have only 4 GB and the only games I play on Steam are vast strategy games that need a lot of resources (Empire Total War and Napoleon Total War) and they run quite smoothly so I don't think it'll really affect Skyrim. Although I would have absolutely preferred not to have to use Steam.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:10 pm

I can only handle 2GB of ram.
I'll be disconnecting from the internet and closing my anti-virus software. So that might help a bit.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:21 pm

Well, my task manager lists Steam at 157,208 k, not a huge chunk of memory, seeing as Firefox uses around 430,000 k. How much ram do you have?

157MB?, mines currently open and only using 20MB.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:43 pm

Is there any way to limit the drain from steam if it does affect performance?

You can turn off the Steam overlay. Right click Skyrim (once it is unlocked, not yet possible), select "properties", uncheck "enable steam community in game".

It doesn't really make a huge difference, some games do run better without it though so the placebo effect should be there.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:57 pm

At the moment Steam is using 30k of memory while idling. Next to nothing.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:16 pm

I didn't realize I had steam up behind a window. Edited.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 4:29 pm

Mine is around 40k, but that's probably because it keeps re-downloading counter strike source for some reason.
Origin is at 57.8k so you can atleast be glad you're not trying to run BF3

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:28 am

Make sure to reduce Steam to a tray icon once you launch the game. Don't leave it open. For me it was taking about 72k as a maximised window and only 12k as a tray icon.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:40 pm

With out my one game running it some times shows 160k other times 30k-12k, thats with the steam icon sitting next to the clock on an xp system. Experiences may very.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:12 pm

Ok, I'm not so worried now, I'm now sure I won't melt my PC trying to run steam and Skyrim.

Thank you.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:09 pm

don't use Steam myself and never will but it did cause a friend of mines PC to crash every time the program tried to hit the internet. the only thing that fixed it was uninstalling steam from his PC.

the problems i'v heard of with the progream is one of the reasons i went with the 360 version.

as far as you problem it all depends of the system your using and how many other things you have running in the background. though i don't recomend ever shutting down your anti-virus as long as Steam is running.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:40 pm

If it already struggles, are you sure it can run Skyrim at all?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:21 am

If it already struggles, are you sure it can run Skyrim at all?

That's my question.

Vista itself really needs more then 2 GB of RAM just to run well, and if your PC is already struggling to the point that Steam will slow it down then I don't really see your PC being able to run Skyrim that well.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:02 pm

Mine is using 12 MB at the moment. As long as you don't use the browser it's not going to take up much memory.

Also if just loading Steam would make a difference to your system's performance, then you wouldn't be able to run Skyrim.

» Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:03 am

Steam is actually fairly CPU dependant. When playing RAGE and other games, I've seen Steam's CPU usage go as high as 20% on my Phenom 965 CPU.