- Sep 2, 2004
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XBOX 360 has 512MB of ram. My computer has twice that amount. I run Vista, the newest operating system on the market. Thus, you would expect it to have the most intelligent memory management. However, as most of you know, this is far from the case. Any new game on Vista takes at least 2GB of ram. Playing with 1GB is unbearable: games stutter for full seconds, continuously.
Why is memory management on PC's so miserable when it comes to gaming? XBOX 360 runs dashboard in the background, keeps track of ethernet and other peripherals. Sounds quite a bit like what a PC does, yet for some reason each byte of memory goes a lot farther on the 360. Yes I realize its easy for developers to optimize for consoles, but I'm fairly sure this isn't the problem, as you will see.
When analyzing what is using the memory and slowing down the system so much, the situation only gets more confusing. Often the games aren't using more than 400MB, and there is still 20% (200MB) free. So Vista is using 400MB while running a full screen game, while leaving 20% unused as my hard-drive weeps silently as it is murdered by the swap: Come on Microsoft. The only reason I dont use linux full time is because game developers are all leaning towards DX10. So put a little effort into making it a smooth experience please.
To answer the inevitable question as to why I dont use XP, the answer is two-fold. One: I dont own it, and got Vista through MSDNAA. Two: Crysis is coming.
I also stuck in my readyboost-capable 4gb usb pen drive, set readyboost to use the whole 4gb, and prayed it would help with the swapping speed. No change to my eye.
Microsoft, its simple: all I want is for you to let my games use my memory.
[/rant]
Why is memory management on PC's so miserable when it comes to gaming? XBOX 360 runs dashboard in the background, keeps track of ethernet and other peripherals. Sounds quite a bit like what a PC does, yet for some reason each byte of memory goes a lot farther on the 360. Yes I realize its easy for developers to optimize for consoles, but I'm fairly sure this isn't the problem, as you will see.
When analyzing what is using the memory and slowing down the system so much, the situation only gets more confusing. Often the games aren't using more than 400MB, and there is still 20% (200MB) free. So Vista is using 400MB while running a full screen game, while leaving 20% unused as my hard-drive weeps silently as it is murdered by the swap: Come on Microsoft. The only reason I dont use linux full time is because game developers are all leaning towards DX10. So put a little effort into making it a smooth experience please.
To answer the inevitable question as to why I dont use XP, the answer is two-fold. One: I dont own it, and got Vista through MSDNAA. Two: Crysis is coming.
I also stuck in my readyboost-capable 4gb usb pen drive, set readyboost to use the whole 4gb, and prayed it would help with the swapping speed. No change to my eye.
Microsoft, its simple: all I want is for you to let my games use my memory.
[/rant]