Will 1 gig of RAM do?

G

Guest

I'm looking to do some modest gaming and was wondering if 1 gig of RAM will
make a difference from 512.
 
W

Will Denny

Hi

The amount of RAM for playing games doesn't always count towards a good
gaming machine. What graphics and sound cards have you got? An upgrade
from 521MB to 1GB will make a difference, but will be dependent on other
installed devices.
 
G

Galen

In
Ryan said:
I'm looking to do some modest gaming and was wondering if 1 gig of
RAM will make a difference from 512.
Click to expand...

In some aspects yes but you'd be better off spending your money to buy a new
video card if you don't have one with 256 MB or above on it already. RAM
will help the OS run faster and the game will load faster but the graphics
portion of the game will not be effected that much from RAM unless your
graphics is via an onboard unit. If that's the case you'll get a much higher
FPS with better resolution with a new card. Video cards have gone down in
price lately and there's a good many places to shop for them online if you'd
like.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes
 
M

Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)

Gaming requires fast processors and heavy graphics cards.. 1gb RAM will be
of little use to you..
 
M

Michael W. Ryder

Mike said:
Gaming requires fast processors and heavy graphics cards.. 1gb RAM will be
of little use to you..
Click to expand...


That depends on the game. Morrowind says it needs 256 MB of memory,
will work for awhile with 512 MB, but really needs 1 GB. I ran the game
for years with 512 MB and often ran into a "memory leak" problem with
the game where it would go from using around 200 MB of memory to over
500 MB before it crashed. Upgrading to 1 GB seemed to get rid of the
problem, or at least delayed it to where it doesn't affect me anymore.
The game was just as playable with a Radeon 7500 as with the 9700 Pro
that replaced it. The only difference was the 9700 displayed some of
the special effects.
 
G

Guest

I'm looking to play war games like Battlefield Vietnam and other games made
by Novalogic.
 
W

Will Denny

Hi

Yes, that card will do you. Remember to close any other programs that might
be running in the background - that can make one helluva difference!!
 
M

Miss Perspicacia Tick

Galen said:
In

In some aspects yes but you'd be better off spending your money to
buy a new video card if you don't have one with 256 MB or above on it
already. RAM will help the OS run faster and the game will load
faster but the graphics portion of the game will not be effected that
much from RAM unless your graphics is via an onboard unit. If that's
the case you'll get a much higher FPS with better resolution with a
new card. Video cards have gone down in price lately and there's a
good many places to shop for them online if you'd like.

Galen
Click to expand...


You are an idiot. Graphics is dependant on far more than just the graphics
card.Try sticking an X800XT Pro PE in a machine with a P2 and a 1x/2x AGP
slot and and identical card in another system with an Athlon FX-55. Then try
running 3DMark. If a high FPS was purely down to the graphics card, then the
scores should be more or less identical.

Oh and there's more to what makes a good graphics card than just VRAM.
You're probably one of those people who, if faced with two graphics cards -
say a 9800 Pro with 128MB and a 9600 with 256 would choose the 9600 "because
it has more RAM". Well you'd be a complete moron for doing so - a 9800 Pro
will beat the pants off a 9600 in 3DMark - the amount of RAM is irrelevant
(almost).

Oh and I don't know what you mean by "256MB or above" - there is no such
thing as "above" - 256MB is the most you're going to get. nVidia claim that
the GeForce 7 series (with 512MB) will be released third quarter, but I
wouldn't hold them to it... I'd expect a Christmas release.
 
R

Ron Martell

Ryan said:
I'm looking to do some modest gaming and was wondering if 1 gig of RAM will
make a difference from 512.
Click to expand...

Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging
file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Unfortunately there is no ready way of determing actual paging file
usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the
'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System
Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and
you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP"
 
M

Miss Perspicacia Tick

G

Galen

In
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
You are an idiot. Graphics is dependant on far more than just the
graphics card.Try sticking an X800XT Pro PE in a machine with a P2
and a 1x/2x AGP slot and and identical card in another system with an
Athlon FX-55. Then try running 3DMark. If a high FPS was purely down
to the graphics card, then the scores should be more or less
identical.
Oh and there's more to what makes a good graphics card than just VRAM.
You're probably one of those people who, if faced with two graphics
cards - say a 9800 Pro with 128MB and a 9600 with 256 would choose
the 9600 "because it has more RAM". Well you'd be a complete moron
for doing so - a 9800 Pro will beat the pants off a 9600 in 3DMark -
the amount of RAM is irrelevant (almost).

Oh and I don't know what you mean by "256MB or above" - there is no
such thing as "above" - 256MB is the most you're going to get. nVidia
claim that the GeForce 7 series (with 512MB) will be released third
quarter, but I wouldn't hold them to it... I'd expect a Christmas
release.
Click to expand...

Yay. A flame from the lady with a her panties in a knot. Actually, when
faced with two choices for cards I buy the one that's most recommended by my
peers and fits my budget. While this makes me no less an idiot it does make
me happy with the hardware that I get. As for their not being anything in a
higher range than 256 MB you're sorely mistaken as has been pointed out to
you already. I, it seem, tend to look in search engines prior to posting. I
do, however, feel honored to be flamed by you.

Tick eh? Isn't that from a Terry Pratchett novel? Namely a kids novel? In
the juvenile fantasy genre? Need I say more?

*plonk*

Galen
 
C

Charlie

Nicely said Galen.
Galen said:
In

Yay. A flame from the lady with a her panties in a knot. Actually, when
faced with two choices for cards I buy the one that's most recommended by
my peers and fits my budget. While this makes me no less an idiot it does
make me happy with the hardware that I get. As for their not being
anything in a higher range than 256 MB you're sorely mistaken as has been
pointed out to you already. I, it seem, tend to look in search engines
prior to posting. I do, however, feel honored to be flamed by you.

Tick eh? Isn't that from a Terry Pratchett novel? Namely a kids novel? In
the juvenile fantasy genre? Need I say more?

*plonk*

Galen
Click to expand...
 
G

Galen

In Charlie <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Nicely said Galen.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I try to not feed the trolls but once in a while I just can't
help myself. Fortunately there's killfiles and ignore methods that are
fairly effective. It's sad because I've seen them give good answers in the
past. Gainward has a 512 MB card that's soon out or even already out just
for the record. Also, at no point in my post did I infer that the FPS was
totaly dependant on the VRAM... I believe my response clearly said "in some
aspects..." but that must have been ignored. No worries I suppose. I'm not
bothered by it, I was actually honored by it. It's nice to get a good flame
once in a while and to have someone remind me that I'm an idiot. After all
I've never denied being one. :)

Galen
 

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