Memory Upgrade Affect

I really need to go to 16gb.

It's just the price of two Founders Badges.

although that might not be enough as the game progresses some people are reporting 9+ gigs used and we have what 2 more map sizes?, more major races, minor races, pirates, intersteller rifts and upgraded ai still to come

Yeah baby, bring it on!! 😉

I upgraded and purchased 16 gigs of performance DDR3 Gskil for 148.00. I have zero performance issues now. Also if you are at 6gigs ram, go and increase your page file to 8 gigs you should have all your problems solved. That was my anser to stuttering, hangs and crashes when I was sitting at 8 gigs of ram. 

9 GB? really?

From my observations:

When i started immense map the Ram started from 2,5GB basically- it moved up to 4,6GB at mid game, now in the late game when all the action is loose- it idles around 3.1 GB. Maybe it has something to do with timings.

I do have 16 GB ram total.

My solution was smashing my old laptop that had 6 gigs of ram. Well i didn't really "smash" it. The laptops demise was coming, and i had plenty of warning. I had to get a replacement until i can build a new gaming rig.

Now i use a laptop with 8 gigs of ram that has a free upgrade slot, and it will get that extra ram soon.

On the old laptop Gal Civ 3 would hard freeze. Even on tiny maps with only 1 opponent. I would task manager the game, and was shocked when i saw it was using 4.6 gigs of ram right at game start. Consider this for laptop users. You may have 6 gigs of ram, but your GPU will use a chunk of that ram strictly to render. My old laptop set aside 1.5 gigs of ram strictly for the GPU. So in reality i only had 4.5 gigs of system ram available. Which Windows 7, and other programs like steam used up about a gig of that ram. So it was no wonder the game locked up when it went over 5 gigs.

My new laptop has 8 gigs (which thank god its upgradeable), but it sets aside 1.7 gigs for the GPU. That leaves me 6.3 gigs for system use. Which about a gig is used up by Windows 8.1, and other programs. Gal Civ 3 no longer hard freezes, and i can play a decent game now, but i don't dare try to use larger maps, or more than 2 opponents until i can get some more ram.

The point is be careful. Laptop users don't have as much ram available as you would think. Your GPU will take up a good chunk of that ram depending on your GPU, and manufacturer.

I'm 154 turns into my first try at an immense map, and haven't had any problems on my laptop that has 8 gig.  Perhaps, as @Major Stress points out, that's because I've got a video card with its own 4 gig, so the video isn't eating away at my system ram.  Task Manager shows GC3 is using 3.8 gig.

If your laptop GPU has its own memory then its not as big of an issue. However most laptop GPU's share system ram. Especially laptops that use Intel GPU's. I was wrong about my new laptops GPU. I thought it used up to 1.7 gigs. The specs say it can use damn near 4 gigs for video memory! So yea i need that 2nd 8 gig ram chip soon!