1gig of ram what difference can I expect?

[tecy]

Iv ordered another 512 of DDR3200 and currently have 512 already.

Some people say 1 gig makes a huge difference others say there is only a small difference in gaming.

I want to avoid my pc having to use virtual memory while games such as farcry are playing. Another confusion still in my mind how on earth with I benifit from running memory in dule mode if its limited by the FSB which is 400 when my memory is already 400 per 512 module.

[kjg]

I am interested in this as well as I also have 512 and am considering this upgrade. Alot of games now consider 256 to be the min and 512 to be required this would make me think that 1gig is needed for full settings but I have not seen any benchmarks to back this up.

As far as dual channel memory goes the advantage is that the dual gives you increased memory bandwidth over 2 single channel but Im not sutre about the exact values.

[elroy]

Try disabling the virtual memory to see how it runs with just the ram. If it needs the virtual memory, set it to a constant size instead of letting Windows manage it. Ex: minimum size 512mb and maximum size 512mb. This prevents Windows from resizing the file all the time or it getting fragmented.

[tecy]

Iv already set min and max of virtual memory the same to avoid fraging up. I also turned off VM and farcry didnt run at all saying it needs VM to run it, this says to me 512mb isnt enougth?

As for Dule DDR iv read that only Pentiums can benifit from it as the band width is at 800mhz on new system as aposed to AMD systems thats only 400mhz. My CPU is 400mhz so is my memory sa where the extra bandwidth?

[PresterJohn]

>I also turned off VM and farcry didnt run at all saying it needs VM to run it, this says to me 512mb isnt enougth?

nope, your conclusions are wrong.

the fact of the matter is even if you had a gb of ram, the OS & certain apps (IE is one), still insists on swaping some pages to the hard disk. yes, you could disable swapping altogether in the registry but i don't recommend it because it really won't benefit you to any appreciable amount.

in a nutshell, if you use your machine for gaming and net surfing, 1gb of ram is unnecessary.

[tecy]

Originally posted by PresterJohn
>I also turned off VM and farcry didnt run at all saying it needs VM to run it, this says to me 512mb isnt enougth?

nope, your conclusions are wrong.

the fact of the matter is even if you had a gb of ram, the OS & certain apps (IE is one), still insists on swaping some pages to the hard disk. yes, you could disable swapping altogether in the registry but i don't recommend it because it really won't benefit you to any appreciable amount.

in a nutshell, if you use your machine for gaming and net surfing, 1gb of ram is unnecessary.

I wasnt intended on running my pc with no VM I know its needed for the best performance and some programs will not run without it but thought that games only need VM when there is no physical memory avalible

I dont want to use my slow compared HD as memory when I can get more physical memory to do the job just faster.

The thing that made me think was in the farcry manual it says:

High:
Windows Xp
Pentium 4 3gig/ amd 64
1024 meg of ram.

Now never Have I taken notice of what is recomended on the game as normaly you always need more than its recomendation and at the res you wish to play it normaly justifies this.

[HeadBand]

some games are starting to use more than 512 (if there are some basic tasks running in the background) but you certanly wont use up a whole gig on it 768 would be fine but with pricing its not that much more for a 512 stick than a 256 stick and this enables you to run dual channel and also has room for expanding into the future....untill you need ddrII

[tecy]

I dont intend on using a whole gig I want some slack a pc that dont get fully taxed so there is some future good use out of my pc before upgrading, Again

[VHockey86]

Ya, 1 gig helps if you do alot of multitasking. And certainly a little extra over the 512 barrier will help with running some intensive games.

Generally speaking its not a good idea to turn virtual memory off. Many many applications still use virtual memory for storing certain stuff regardless of whether or not memory is available. Often times this is to help minimuze the amount of real ram takes. Programmers still have to consider that people with 256mb mutlitask as well.

[F/A-18 MechDood]

From what I have been reading in the case of a game like Farcry....

People that are running ATI 9xxx directx 9.0 cards and the equiv. in the other manufacturer (*cough* Nvidia), they say they are getting a very good increase in performance by upgrading to 1gig of ram from the 512 mb ram they were running.