Amount of RAM and game performance

[bustr]

Having spent the last month removing bottle necks in my system and gaining game performance, I'm at a quandry.

The last performance boost I gained was using a command line defragger that I could target all files in the HTC directory. My frame rates held 50-60 on TTuesday in big furballs. Last night it dropped to 18. I checked my fragmentation and found some game files fragmented. I fixed that again...so yes that could be a problem.

But ......

I have 1G of PC 1066 RDRAM on an Intel 850E mother board. Max of PC1066 would be 1.5G. My cpu is a Northwood 3.06 P4 with HT enabled. XP sp3. Raedon x1650 Pro..GPU 400mhz.

I know Skuzzy has said the in game memory display is inaccurate. But I show 650 used for system and 124 used for textures. During TTuseday I can watch the 650 activly fluctuate up and down by 50 sitting in a tower of a feild under attack with fps 13-20. But on other nights in capped arenas I have 50-60 in the tower of a feild under attack.

Will I reduce the bottleneck I perceive on TTuesday by upgrading to 1.5G of PC1066 RDRAM?<---$400 for 2 512 modules. PC800 RDRAM<----$200 for 2 512 modules.

If I install the PC800 my remaining PC1066 will run at PC800. For the price of 1G PC1066 I can get 2G PC800.

How much will PC800 slow down my game performance? Would 2G of PC800 nullify the performance loss?

[Skuzzy]

650MB is too high.  Reduce the "Maximum Texture Size" to 256 and it should drop to about 480MB.

The system memory usage is a pretty good number.  The video card RAM value is highly quesionable.

I may be wrong, but RDRAM is not DDR2 RAM.  It is RAMBUS RAM.

[Krusty]

Sitting in a tower will drain different FPS based on what map, which custom objects, how many trees at the end of the field tile in the direction you're looking, and the presence/absence of airplanes that are being rendered but aren't visible (like planes just behind your tower's roof, but if you adjust view they're still there. They are still impacting the system a bit.


AH is a CPU intensive game. I've upgraded a few times while playing it. By far the best change I ever made was getting off the old clunker P4 and moving to a Conroe C2D. See if your motherboard can support the newer CPUs. Even the lowest-end dual core is going to outrun your older P4 3.06 with EASE, and that translates into better FPS. As for other possible issues: Your video card is more than adequate, and wouldn't be the problem. Your RAM is better than adequate. I ran on 512MB for a while, then 1.5GB for a while, then down to 1GB and now have 2 GB. Moving frmo 512 to 1GB or more will DEFINITELY help AH, but you already have that much. I don't notice much improvement going from 1 GB to 2 GB (inside AH, that is. I notice some improvements on other programs in my system).


Your main bottleneck is your CPU and/or possibly your motherboard at this point in time. My $0.02

[Krusty]

I may be wrong, but RDRAM is not DDR2 RAM.  It is RAMBUS RAM.

I don't know much about RAMBUS RAM, but RDRAM is a dead end. It is not DDR2. I know because I had to upgrade my sister's PC and she had RDRAM. It's an older format of RAM that must be run in matched pairs, and if you have empty slots you have to have "blanks" in those slots to complete the circuits.

Looking up your mobo chipset specs, it tops out at 533MHz FSB and with RDRAM, which is rare and costly because it's obsolete and nobody makes it anymore. You only have an AGP 4x vid card slot, limiting the performance and compatibility of any card you can put in there, and you're also limited to Ultra ATA/100, which is at least Ultra Ata/133 in more modern systems (I may be wrong on this, though).

Overall your motherboard and CPU combination is holding you way back. A 1.8GHz 800MHz FSB Core 2 Duo chip will leave it light years behind. Only problem with that is you have to ditch the old RAM and get some new DDR2 (which is about $30 for a GB nowadays). On top of that you need a better power supply to run the newer system. You're pretty much in a dead end setup. Need too many components to really upgrade, better to save up and get a new system.

[bustr]

Yes RDRAM is RAMBUS at 533 fcb.

When I purchased the box it was the fastest thing going 2002-2003.

I have another PC with a Intel P4 550 processor 3.4Ghz HT and 1G PC3200 DDR ram 400mhz Intel 915 G chipset. It has an X300 ATI PCIexpress card that runs at 400mhz. Got it 2005. I needed a backup PC and did not like the heat problems with dual core but wanted Intel cpu. For about $40 I can drop another G of ram in it. But it's not DDR2.

[Fulmar]

My last system prior to this one (built circa 2003) had me at a stand still.  When I was planning the build, I was torn between an Intel mobo with RDRAM or another with DDR.   RDRAM had the better benchmarks and looked very attractive (especially with my graphics and video production).  But availability and price drove me to DDR back then.

And I'm sorry to hear the prices of RDRAM.  Reminds me when EDO ram was becoming hard to find for those old system, you could make some good bucks on ebay then.

[bustr]

Skuzzy,

256 for texture reduced it to memory used 550-615 and preloaded textures down to 45-50. I can fly in furballs again and hit things. My network connection has flattened out. Bet some of my lag was due to my cpu. Also I seem to be able to fire a 5inch while looking into the sun and dont get aceshigh.exe drwatsons.

My cpu was being over worked.

I have not looked at systems in a few years. What is an average gaming machine now that can run Aces High and not experience cpu overload while keeping the FPS high with 512 or 1024 textures loaded?

[drdeathx]

make sure you match the ram if you add more. Same manufacturer same model

[Speed55]

 What is an average gaming machine now that can run Aces High and not experience cpu overload while keeping the FPS high with 512 or 1024 textures loaded?

I'm running :

 C2D E6400 @ 2.13 GHz  (Low end compared to the new stuff)
 
 Ati X850 pro AGP video card (almost 4 years old, not even using PCI-E)

 2 Gigs DDRII667

1024 Hi res pack, Preload textures, not allowing other visible skins, or skin downloads in the background.

I get between 40-60 FPS  all the time in any situation.

Before, i was at 512, and allowed other skins, and got the same result.

Money's tight or i would upgrade to the 3850 and probably stay pinned at 60, my monitors refresh rate.

With Trackir and Aces High  running i'm at 19 processes.   

[Krusty]

C2D Conroe E6420 2.13GHz
2GB DDR2 800MHz
GeForce Ge7600GTS 256MB (PCIe)
1024 hi-res installed and can run fine, but mostly play 512
1280x1024, all sliders maxed, all goodies enabled, FSAAx2 or x4, can't remember which.

Get 60 FPS most of the time, dips down to 40s-50s sometimes.

Cheap system nowadays, not very high end. LIGHT YEARS ahead of my old P4 2.66 GHz system. The very architecture of the Intel chips themselves has changed to the point the newere slower chips are so much more efficient and effective than older, faster MHz chips. You might see the MHz and think "that's not an improvement" but you'd be way wrong. Core 2 Duo is the way to go (or, also some Quad cores, but C2D cheaper)

[BaldEagl]

I have not looked at systems in a few years. What is an average gaming machine now that can run Aces High and not experience cpu overload while keeping the FPS high with 512 or 1024 textures loaded?

I just posted this in another thread:  http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,244173.0.html

Plan on something similar to that as a minimum.

[drdeathx]

with the 3850 you should get 75 fps. Spend a few more $ and get 3870 if you prefer ati. The 4850 and 4870 just came out 2 months ago check it out but... I had nothing but problems with ati along with  most of the gaming community. Check amd or ati forums you will see. I suggest nvidea 9600($139) which outperforms ati 3870 or gtx 280 1g($400) which is expensive. This is 5th nvidea card ive owned and never had a problem . I returned a ati 3870 and 4860 x 2 had nothing but problems and eexc for nvidea.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I've been running the 4870 for a couple months now and I haven't had problems with it. That of course means nothing really - but just to say they aren't all bad.

[Chalenge]

I just bought a 4870 X2 that easily outperforms any graphics card out there but it doesnt do anything for AHII that an 8800 GT (or two) cant also do.

[drdeathx]

There is a good possiblity 1 gpu is working on your card. The card benchmarked poorly in 3dmark and other video benchmarking utilities. I bought the 4870 x 2 and had manufacturer on the phone for hours and they couldn't figure it out why 1 gpu was working. I then did research on it and whoa... there were hundreds of people having problems(hope your not) Benchmark it and see. Read these forums and see the hundreds of problems ati is having with these cards from heat, drivers to bios problems. ATI rushed the 4870 out.

Run 3dmark


http://forums.amd.com/game/categories.cfm?catid=260&forumid=11