How much difference has 2GB of ram vs. 1GB made to your gaming/other apps?

[bcoupland]

As the above states, i'm not sure on 2 vs. 1 GB. For gaming, especially BF2, has anyone who upgraded from 1 to 2 GB noticed differences? Thanks.

 

[swatX]

i did. i upgrade to 2gb OCZ high performence plat from 1gb ram and first thing i noticed is no sttutering. not even in the highest resolution. i would definately recommend 2gb for anyone who can afford it.

 

[munchow2]

2 gigs of ram on BF2 makes a significant difference just because of the resources it takes up (nearly 1 gig hence those with 1 gig ram run into stuttering since your computer uses like 500 megs already if you are like me and have winamp, BC, MSN etc... on all the time). IMHO that game could have been more efficiently coded to take up less resources. I can't think of anything else where having 2 gigs of ram would justify the performance boost vs. price. Perhaps all future games will need 2 gigs of ram? I have no idea, but I don't think it is urgent. It certainly won't hurt though if you have spare cash.

 

[nombrecinq]

I just ordered stuff for my new computer and it includes 1GB (512MB x2) of Corsair Value RAM. A lot of the motivation to build a new computer was BF2 so now I'm really considering putting in 2 gigs instead. Is there any RAM that's a good deal right now for 2GB?

 

[aatf510]

I think it would be fine with 1GB unless the settings are on high.

 

[nombrecinq]

Could I put 4 sticks of 512MB in there or should I have 2 instead?

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: nombrecinq
Could I put 4 sticks of 512MB in there or should I have 2 instead?

Populating 4 RAM slots on a AMD Venice CPU would increase the command timing to 2T, which translates to about 2-3% performance degrade.
However for games the FPS degrade is just 1-3 usually. Not a big deal

If you have Winchester CPU, the Memory frequency also drops to 333Mhz DDR. If you have Winchester, don't populate 4 slots

 

[mOeeOm]

Hmm has 2GB also increased your frames per seconds? Not just in BF2 but in other games as well?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: bcoupland
As the above states, i'm not sure on 2 vs. 1 GB. For gaming, especially BF2, has anyone who upgraded from 1 to 2 GB noticed differences? Thanks.

what video card? from what i have read, you get the most benefit if you are able to run at high resolutions with eye candy on, probably won't benefit much w/ 800x600.

 

[Ike0069]

If you want to play BF2 smoothly at anything but low settings, you want to get 2x1 GB RAM.
With the system in my sig below, I get plenty of stuttering at 1280x960 and all settings at medium.
I should probably back down my resolution and/or some settings to reduce the stuttering, but I refuse to give in to EA. I am looking at getting 2x1 GB sticks though, as this seems to help alot from everything I've read.
Every other game I play runs at max (up to 16x12) resolutions/settings just fine.

 

[Xentri]

I recently upgraded my machine and increased the ram up to 2 gigs. There is no benefit as far as fps goes but games run alot smoother,you wont get any stuttering, and you load a bit faster it seems. This is with 2x1gb sticks @ 2.5 3 3 6

 

[CrimsonCutie]

I love this... we are debateing... 1, 2, 4 gigs of ram.... Its soo wierd... I've been building computers since i was 9 (that was 15yrs ago) and i remember one year... my whole christmas was 1 sick of 4MB ram for a p75, so i'd have 8mb total (w00t) and it cost 380 bucks LOL... now i am putting 2 gig in my new system for like 250 LOL

To your question:
2gig is better.. no more.. and in 2 x 1GB sticks is BEST... if you have more ram you page less (so windows will work a lil faster--yeah oximoroniic i know windows and fast) With the current memory control on the winnies and veince, as mentioned a few post back... useing all 4 DIMM slots is bad... it will lower the memory performance...

I'd recommend OCZ 2 x 1GB @ $269 its what i ordered for my system.

 

[CreativeTom]

Originally posted by: CrimsonCutie
I love this... we are debateing... 1, 2, 4 gigs of ram.... Its soo wierd... I've been building computers since i was 9 (that was 15yrs ago) and i remember one year... my whole christmas was 1 sick of 4MB ram for a p75, so i'd have 8mb total (w00t) and it cost 380 bucks LOL... now i am putting 2 gig in my new system for like 250 LOL

To your question:
2gig is better.. no more.. and in 2 x 1GB sticks is BEST... if you have more ram you page less (so windows will work a lil faster--yeah oximoroniic i know windows and fast) With the current memory control on the winnies and veince, as mentioned a few post back... useing all 4 DIMM slots is bad... it will lower the memory performance...

I'd recommend OCZ 2 x 1GB @ $269 its what i ordered for my system.

Yep I second that, I just bought the same stuff for my new rig as well. Hey don't forget the memory controller in the Sandy too.

 

[nombrecinq]

Ouch that's almost $300 for RAM. Is there anything similar but a little cheaper?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Didn't really do testing in gaming, but I noticed a slight difference in Windows. Photoshop and 3D Studio Max demonstrated the most impressive changes though. I'm also doing PC2100 though, so... Eh. Oh well.
Tas.

 

[mOeeOm]

Does 2GB only increase frames per second in BF2 or all other games?

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: mOeeOm
Does 2GB only increase frames per second in BF2 or all other games?

Saying that increases fps isn't entirely accurate. A better way to put it is that it prevents fps from becoming worse when memory runs out.

So, if a game, plus windows, plus services, plus whatever else you might be running, is using less than 1GB, then there will be no difference between 1 and 2, and in fact 2 will often be slower all things being equal.

If that combination uses more than 1GB, then 2GB will be drastically faster.

An easy way to check, is alt-tab out of stuff you use and check memory usage for the process in task manager.

 

[midnight growler]

I plan on getting 1 gig of ram right now with my system, but adding an extra gig when I can afford it (this may take 2 or 3 months for me). If I start out with 2x512, I can run dual-channel. But adding another 2x512 will mess things up a bit. Whats the better way to do this?

A) 2x512 now + 2x512 later: at least I'll have dual channel
B) 1 gig now + 1 gig later: no dual channel for now, but timing won't get messed up
C) 2x512 now + 1 gig later: (will this work?)

 

[ViRGE]

Between BF2, Fear, WoW, and EQ2, 2GB is the new standard in high-end gaming. You are going to bottleneck from time to time on 1GB or less(especially with background apps), so 2GB is an inevitability. Things are going to get interesting on the next jump though, since that will put us at 4GB being the new standard in the later part of 2007, but it also runs in to RAM limitations of 32bit architectures, and the 2GB process limit for Win32.

PS Midnight: Go with A

 

[djnsmith7]

I see these RAM questions asked all the time...and for good reason...because until you really upgrade to a high level of RAM...especially if you've been at 256 or 512 for a while...it really is difficult to justify the extra $$$.

So, I'm going to say this...those of you who disagree, that's ok, because I'm speaking from Real World experience, not just what I've heard or read. RAM is like HP in a vehicle. Typically, the more you have, the better. It's late & I'm tired, so that's the best analogy I can come up with. For those of you who are into fast cars & bikes, I'm sure that it would be difficult to say..."You know, my car just has way too much HP. I really don't know what I'm going to do with all of it."

Not gonna happen. Well, IMHO, RAM is the same thing. Buy what you can afford to buy.

Now that I got that out of the way, I'll answer your question. Yes, I saw a BIG jump in performance when I recently upgraded from 512 to 1 GB. Yes, I saw another BIG jump in performance when I upgraded to 1.75 GB. Especially in BF2. I don't care what others say about RAM. I don't believe you are ever wasting your $$$ when you add RAM to your system. Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm about to go up to 2.75 GB & then 4 GB in the near future.

Remember, your system is only as fast as your weakest link. It's either going to be your CPU, Video Card or your RAM. I do however, recommend you upgrade your RAM in increments, so that you don't put yourself in a position where you can't afford a fast CPU or a good Video Card. RAM is the one component you can upgrade incrementally whenever you can afford to...a GB here, a GB there...& so on.

 

[bob4432]

for ram usage example, my machine is running pretty lean, i just have antivir, zonealarm, dumeter, mbm, daemon tools and antiblaxx running along with the services windows needs. my ram usage is ~250MB at idle and while surfing, checking the email, etc.

when i game bf2 at only 800x600 4AA (since my video card won't let me go any higher) my ram usage total goes up to 970MB, so i am sure that when i get my new video card (x800xtpe) and want to game @ 1280x960(or whatever that 1280 resolution is) 4AA w/ all high settings i will probably need to get another GB since, from what i have read, when you go up in resolution/settings in bf2 it uses much more ram.

since i have a p4 i won't have any problems by using all 4 slots (that i am aware of) so i will get another 2x512 of OCZ Performance Rev 3 w/ 2-3-3 timings for ~$110.

from there i will not buy any more ddr ram as ddr2 will be the next thing, even though my next machine will be a amd (but they are adopting it soon), just don't know when, as this p4 is still doing fine for me.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: munchow2
2 gigs of ram on BF2 makes a significant difference just because of the resources it takes up (nearly 1 gig hence those with 1 gig ram run into stuttering since your computer uses like 500 megs already if you are like me and have winamp, BC, MSN etc... on all the time). IMHO that game could have been more efficiently coded to take up less resources. I can't think of anything else where having 2 gigs of ram would justify the performance boost vs. price. Perhaps all future games will need 2 gigs of ram? I have no idea, but I don't think it is urgent. It certainly won't hurt though if you have spare cash.

Yeah or you could quit downloading pr0n while chatting with your ex on MSN. 2gb is not a bad thing, but BF2 runs fine on 1gb if you're not running a ton of other stuff in the background...including Xfire.

 

[imported_hopeless]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: nombrecinq
Could I put 4 sticks of 512MB in there or should I have 2 instead?

Populating 4 RAM slots on a AMD Venice CPU would increase the command timing to 2T, which translates to about 2-3% performance degrade.
However for games the FPS degrade is just 1-3 usually. Not a big deal

If you have Winchester CPU, the Memory frequency also drops to 333Mhz DDR. If you have Winchester, don't populate 4 slots

Not to thread jack but, does anyone know if anything like this happens with the P4?