2GB Really Helps!

[CaptJordus]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

Lol. Ok genius, load up BF2 and once your in game, drop to your desktop, load your task manager and check to see how much memory is being used by BF2.exe. Please post a screenshot so all of us can verify your answer.

I love people who try to debunk what someone says without proof.

This looks like only 7XX MB to me.

[sknight]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

Well, I think my next upgrade is a new MoBo. I have 1GB PC3200 ram, but my crap VPR MoBO only goes to 266Mhz, which for you noobs is only a little over half of it's capabilities :) The MoBo also only uses 4x AGP while my 6800 OC allows 8x. FSB is semi crap at 500 MHz...so once I upgrade that I should have an all around increase. After that it's an upgrade to my 2.26Ghz chipset.

[parish]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

This looks like only 7XX MB to me.

Good job. Now, go load into a map and play for a few seconds and try again. The game state at idle does not use as much during play. If you add up the total ram usage for the game (and this depends on quality settings) you can hit 1.6GB active during play. Make note he also mentioned he had 512MB and therefore your 7XXMB would be over his physical limit of memory, but I am sure you realized that before I pointed it out to you.

Any PC at idle will use only the bare minimum memory to keep the running programs and prcoesses alive. When you load into something and it takes priority, the system gives more to that process. It fluctuates consistently. My main point was not to debate with anyone, it was to confirm that 2GB WILL make a huge difference in the game. The fact that others have posted the same should be proof enough.

I appreciate your dedication in taking a screenshot. Thank you for the valued input.

[CaptJordus]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

I took it in the middle of playing a round on teamDOF 32man Wake Only Server.

Although, i dont know why CPU was only at 35% since there was a good amount of **** going on.

oh well.

I still feel like 1GB is plenty enough (although i use windows 2000, and this is probably a huge contributing factor).

I'm not saying 2GB wont make it BETTER. but 1 gig seems to be sufficient. As i get very little, if any, stuttering.

[bob332]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

being the author of this page - http://bf2hardware.sytes.net:6583/ i wanted to stop by and see what others were saying about the information.

first and foremost the reason i created the page was due to the fact that i do not want to invest in more pc3200 ram. the reason being is that since the current intel cpus use ddr2 and the next amd m2 socket coming out will use ddr2, there is really no reason to invest in more ram when my next upgrade will not be able to use it. but if i was building a new machine now, at this very moment i would build using 2GB (2x1GB) so i could run @ a higher resolution (and probably get a 7800gt too :)).

but it is very easy to have only 1GB and play BF2 fine as my site easily shows. the information i presented was showing max memory usage for the entire computer, not just the game. the max the game uses would be the total minus ~240MB which is what my computer idles at. so if total peak is 960MB and the other computer processes take ~240MB then bf2 would peak @ 720MB. these are for the settings i have listed only.

also, Capt Jordus - you can see in the screen print that you accessing your pagefile because it does max out at 1.26GB sometime when your computer was on. this was probably when loading a game or in an intense firefight.

parish - you say to put the pagefile on a different hdd as a blanket statement, but i say you need to quantify your recommendation. if somebody is running a quick system hdd, like a raptor or using a 10-15Krpm u160/u320 scsi hdd, keeping the pagefile on the same hdd would make more sense in this case...

[Wild_Wokman]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

BF2 uses a lot of ram and page files. Yesterday, it was using 730mb of ram and had 968mb of page files. Does that seem like a lot to be paging?

[ksmarty]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

I posted this in another spot under hardware and I'm not sure where it should go. I just purchased 2 (1GB memory modules) for a Dell Dimension 8400. Dell stated I could keep the 2 (512's) in there for a total of 3 GB. Will that work or will it cause problems?

[OtinDako]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

Contrary to some beliefs, you can actually turn off swapping on some operating systems.

I'm using Windows XP Pro and you can definately turn it off, I think other windows os, you can turn it down to zero (the equivelent of turning it off). Not sure of the earlier ones like windows 95, shame on you if you are still using that.

Why would you want to turn it off?

The short answer is windows is dumb.

The longer answer is, take for example if you had 2 gig's of memory and you are currently using 1 gig of memory. At certain times, when your computer needs to use more memory, common sense would tell you that it should use the extra 1gig that is available.

But windows is dumb.

For some reason I can't comprehend, it will swap out memory instead of use the free available memory (c'mon its not really that hard for microsoft to put some basic condition like 'if free memory is greater than required memory then use the free memory, else free up some memory via swap")

Using free memory is a lot faster than swapping memory (you have to swap out a page or two, and then you use the freed up space as opposed to using already free ram space).

Well, if you turn off swapping, you force your computer to use up any free memory on your ram.

The only downside is, if I ever use a program that uses more than 2gigs at any given time, I am screwed (well, not really, odds are, the cpu will probably just over-write existing ram, either that or the system will return a out-of-memory error).

Otin.

[bob332]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

I posted this in another spot under hardware and I'm not sure where it should go. I just purchased 2 (1GB memory modules) for a Dell Dimension 8400. Dell stated I could keep the 2 (512's) in there for a total of 3 GB. Will that work or will it cause problems?

i have not used that many different size modules in a long time. you could always put them in, run cpu-z and make sure it is still in dc mode and run memtest or prime95 to make sure there are no issues.

[Donkey]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

BF2, set to the highest settings, uses approx 1.6GB of memory when running. Anyone that tells you that 2GB does not make a difference is wrong. Even on the lowest settings, it uses 1GB of memory. The most significant 2GB difference being load times and first-in-map sweetness. A low ping and some extra memory can make all the difference in the world.

One thing you can do to improve performance in BF2 is to adjust your swap file settings if you do not have or cannot afford 2GB of RAM. The recommended method of doing this is to move your swap file to a different physical drive. Before I had 2GB, I did see a performance bump in BF2 after doing this.

Just so it does'nt come into question, I am running an ATI Radeon X800XT PE and a P4 3.6GHZ cpu with 2GB Corsair XMS Extra low latency.

Where did you get this information....Because you obviously forgot about all the other processes running on your machine...I have heard the best way to play BF2 is on a stripped down version of XP...one that even removes Explorer from running...tricky I know but doable

[bob332]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

Where did you get this information....Because you obviously forgot about all the other processes running on your machine...I have heard the best way to play BF2 is on a stripped down version of XP...one that even removes Explorer from running...tricky I know but doable

when i first got my x800xtpe i was playing all on high at i think 1280x960 and hit 1.4GB total ram usage, so i could see running all high on 1600x1200 would push it to 1.6GB just for the game. as far as using a lean xp, make your own with NLITE OS, works like a gem and you can remove all kind of stuff.

[ryanlopez05]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

the two gigs is more helpful then a good video card lol... trust my i have a 7800gtx

[ryanlopez05]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

This looks like only 7XX MB to me.

look at your total mem in use

[bob332]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

the two gigs is more helpful then a good video card lol... trust my i have a 7800gtx

no, that is not true. you are saying that because you have a 7800gtx where you can play @ 1600x1200 or 1920x1440 4AA no problem, most settings on high. this would definately put you over the 1GB limit, probably more like 1.6GB total usage where you would see a big difference with 2GB because without it your machine would keep having to write sh!t to the hdd.

you have to put things into perspective, @ 1280x960 even w/ 6AA you can keep total usage under 1GB with a computer that idles @ ~240MB, i do it and i am usually one of the first 5 people on the maps, constantly, with my fps always 40-50+. and as you can tell by the fact tha my machine idles @ ~240MB i do have quite a bit of background programs running.

you can not make a blanket, ignorant statement saying a 2GB is better than having a good gpu. if you want, buy a 9800Pro and put 2GB with and tell me how the gameplay is @ 1600x1200 4AA. i would much rather have a better gpu mixed with a decent amount of ram if i had to make a choice, which is what i have done.

running a p4 means i don't have the issues the a64s do when running 4 sticks, so i could easily pick up 2x512 for ~$100 and run it a little o/c @ 215MHz, so $$ is not an issue. there is just no reason for it since the difference between medium texture and high texture is very little in terms of the visual value especially since bf2 is usually a fast paced game and you don't just sit around looking at the scenery.

you also have to take into accout what type of display people have. if they have a 19" lcd, then resolution is 1280x1024.

these are things you need to take into account before making blanket statements. sometimes peoples e-penis is more important than reality.

[Donkey]

Re: 2GB Really Helps!

when i first got my x800xtpe i was playing all on high at i think 1280x960 and hit 1.4GB total ram usage, so i could see running all high on 1600x1200 would push it to 1.6GB just for the game. as far as using a lean xp, make your own with NLITE OS, works like a gem and you can remove all kind of stuff.

That is what I was looking for I just forgot the name....

My buddy told me about it but I havent got around to doing it...I'm waiting on getting a couple more u320 SCSIs before i go crazy...Basically I need to do some serious rearranging of my storage and OS drive arrangements....

So that 1.6GB is for just the game....interesting