Bethesda patches Skyrim 4GB RAM problem

Bethesda has announced an update for the PC version of Skyrim running on 64-bit systems, finally enabling support for those with more than 4GB of system RAM.

Bethesda also announced that the official Bethesda-designed development tools will be made available for the modding community early in 2014.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an incredibly popular title among gamers, shipping more than ten million copies around the world on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms. It was one of Steam’s most played game titles for a week and also the fastest-selling game ever sold on the platform.

Skyrim’s popularity has also attracted modders in the dozens, eager to add their own spice into the game’s world with improved textures, new areas and missions and even entire (unofficial) expansion packs.

Skyrim has not been without its bugs. One of the tweaks necessary to run most of the community-based mods enabled the “Large Address Aware” patch, which allowed the game to use more than 4GB of RAM on a 64-bit Windows system. The lack of a proper 64-bit version of the game led to modders hacking into it and creating the tweak. By and large, the community has seemingly improved Skyrim more than Bethesda’s entire development team could.

Skyrim Dawnguard screenshot

Consoles still in the lurch

While the PC platform gets a whole lot of love, console players are stuck with the game as it is.

The Playstation 3 version of Skyrim is still riddled with bugs and performance issues, while the Xbox 360 version has less instances of crashes, bugs and glitches thanks to its more flexible memory subsystem. Both platforms will be receiving the Skyrim Legendary Edition, but it’s uncertain whether they will receive playability updates to make the game run better.

With the next-generation of consoles on the horizon though, there’s an expectation from gamers that the extra memory available on the consoles will solve their issues in the future. Games will no longer need to be neutered to perform well on lower-end hardware, as the Xbox One and Playstation 4 both feature modern hardware setups that will allow for similar performance and visuals found on the PC.