Ever wonder how much memory really matters?

[heycarnut]

Helping a friend with some BF2 performance issues. Likely paging due to lack of memory. Decided to add an example to my performance and tuning document of why having plenty of RAM is important if you want the full BF2 experience. Check out the graphs at the end of the document. It is MS Rich Text (RTF) format, just use word or wordpad to open. Should be dated 10/05 - if not, your browser may be pulling its cached version. Clear your browser cache to correct this.

http://robgameemail.home.comcast.net/bf2_ded_inst.rtf

Enjoy,
R

[Talus]

Re: Ever wonder how much memory really matters?

I didn't need any tuning documents to tell me that 2 GB was a million times better than 1 GB.

[DieFledermaus]

Re: Ever wonder how much memory really matters?

I run on 1 gig pc3200 and Bf2 runs like a dream. Except for those connection problems. My virtual memory size is 1536 and 3072.

[heycarnut]

Re: Ever wonder how much memory really matters?

I run on 1 gig pc3200 and Bf2 runs like a dream. Except for those connection problems. My virtual memory size is 1536 and 3072.

It was never said that one could not run BF2 with 'only' 1GB of RAM, the document clearly states that it has been run with half that. To run it at its best (settings and performance, that is), can require dramatically more than that. It all depends on what else the machine has running (comms, etc.), how BF2 is configured (video settings, voip, etc.), and even the individual hardware environemnt (e.g., if your board has AGP in use, is this mapped into real memory space or not, etc.). The facts are the facts - this test bed is one of seven I use, is a 90th+ percentile gaming machine, and had nothing other than a comms program (ventrilo) and a VCD (Deamon) running, and was otherwise tuned for the game. The difference was dramatic. I've already had many, many people I've assisted with performance problems find the result to be empirically the same, but as with most things, your milage may vary.
I'm glad that you are satisfied with your performance and settings with your amount of memory. Perhaps you could donate 1/2 GB to a needy friend

As for the connection problems - these are aggravated by anything that impacts the game performance, or at least thet seem to be, since I can't set up any sort of real test-bed with a ranked server, and I've never had a connection issue on a non-ranked server. Using the same test system illustrated in the graphs, however, I never had a connection problem during the 3-4 hours of testing using the 2GB configuration, but had several with the 1GB configuration. My real system for playing is running 4GB, and I really can't recall the last connection problem I've had - certainly none in several weeks. And at least one of the persons I've helped with BF2 performance issues had severe connection issues (and paging) and more memory resolved both.
I think this is a server-side issue, and if the client is not 'appropriately' responsive, the server has fits, but again, I have no means of doing a real test of such a spectral issue.

Thanks for the feedback,
R

PS - it might be interesting to have a poll about this, but I think the sample would be too small - not many gamers seem to be running 2GB+, at least not yet.

PPS - After re-reading my response, I hope it didn't sound too asshat - I just want to be clear I am not implying you are out of luck with only 1GB, just that memory can have a huge impact on performance of this game.

[heycarnut]

Re: Ever wonder how much memory really matters?

I didn't need any tuning documents to tell me that 2 GB was a million times better than 1 GB.

LOL:p
Well, at least two times better...

R