Adding RAM

2007-04-26 22:07:07

#1

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6752|Pennsyltucky

I've had my system about 15 months and for some reason I thought I had a Gig of RAM. Just noticed I only have 512 megs.

I just ordered http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6820231098 2 Gigs of RAM and it should be here tomorrow.

Two questions:

Since the 512 RAM in there is 15 months old should I pull it and just run the new RAM in the interests of speed?

What kind of performance increase can I expect? Processor is a Pentium 4 Duo-Core @ 3Ghz. My Video is an ATI X600. I currently run most settings at Medium for Bf2 and it runs well.

Thanks.

T.Pike

2007-04-26 22:09:36

#2

LT.Victim: Member; +1,175|7033|British Columbia, Canada

Dump the old ram, and run the new 2 gigs in Dual Channel..

If you keep the old ram in, its just going to slow down your new ram, and 2 Gigs is plenty for playing BF2..

You can expect shorter loading times and maybe a boost in the over-all laggyness of the game..

2007-04-26 22:09:46

#3

[TUF]Whiskey_Oktober: mmmm...Toasty!; +91|7192|Oregon

ditch the 512 and throw in the 2gigs..forget the 512.

you wont notice much improvement in fps, but your maps should load in 1/3 the time...

2007-04-26 22:45:05

#4

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6752|Pennsyltucky

OK, thanks for the replies. From reading other threads I thought I would have to dump the old stuff.

Right now the only time I lag is the first 1 - 2 mins after I load a new map.

I ping my favorite servers ~ 30 ms and I always wondered why I lagged in the beginning of a round.

Hopefully this will put an end to that.

2007-04-26 22:49:10

#5

CoronadoSEAL: pics or it didn't happen; +207|6988|USA

*jealous*
expect HUGE increase in performance.
imo lost of ram is better than lots of processor or graphics card at the expense of ram. <-confusing sentence.
i should upgrade with another stick, but i can't justify it with only a 1.6 processor...

2007-04-26 22:58:07

#6

tthf: Member 5307; +210|7228|06-01

sell the 512...
2G of ram is sweet.
used to play on 1G, now on 2G like mentioned above, loading time is much faster, plus loads of little stuff..

2007-04-26 23:05:40

#7

maniacmattie: Karma Whore.. LOL; +27|6771

What? You ran BF2 with only 512mb RAM?

I thought my 1gig was bad..

2007-04-26 23:10:26

#8

FrenziedAU: Member; +6|6917|Australia

Yup - getting 2 gigs of RAM will completely cure those 1-2 minutes of lagginess. I went from 1 gig to 2 gig, and stuttering went from 20 ish seconds at the start of a map, to nothing.
Enjoy.
BTw- ditching the 512 will be the right thing to do.

2007-04-27 00:53:46

#9

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6752|Pennsyltucky

maniacmattie wrote:
What? You ran BF2 with only 512mb RAM?

I thought my 1gig was bad..

I couldn't believe it myself. I really haven't had performance issues either. System is a Dell e510, Pentium 4 Duo-Core @ 3Ghz, ATI X600 video. Internet services provided by Comcast cable-modem.

I just keep lighting, shawdows and something else to low with most other settings such as textures etc as medium. Geometries on High & draw distamce 100 %.

I can't wait. They had 3 day shipping free but this is my weekend off coming up so I spent an extra $19 for overnight shipping.

Thanks for all the Replies, have some Karma.

T.Pike

Last edited by T.Pike (2007-04-27 00:57:55)

2007-04-27 07:43:49

#10

[TUF]Whiskey_Oktober: mmmm...Toasty!; +91|7192|Oregon

T.Pike wrote:
Right now the only time I lag is the first 1 - 2 mins after I load a new map.

I ping my favorite servers ~ 30 ms and I always wondered why I lagged in the beginning of a round.

Hopefully this will put an end to that.

It will. because BF2 (and 2142 for that matter) load the levels through the memory, when the map is finished loading, it has to clear out that ram (not sure why it cant just flag it as "over-write", but it cant). before it will play the game properly. i know exactly the lag you speak of when i still had just 1gb.

2007-04-27 10:37:24

#11

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6752|Pennsyltucky

Popped it in & Booted. First Time!

ONE PROBLEM : I guess the speed of the memory is limited by the Front Side Bus?

Reason I say that is set-up is telling me the memory speed is 533 Mhz when it should be 800.

Does that mean I might as well add the other 512 meg I started with (that speed is 533) ?

EDIT: I ended up with 3 Gig of memory after all this. One of the original 512 meg sticks wasn't properly seated. That's why it was reading only 512 and not the Gig I knew I had. Anyway since the bus speed limits the new memory I put the old stuff back in. So now I have two One Gig strips & two 512 meg strips.

The speed difference is already VERY noticable. Start up is lightning fast & menus etc are almost automatic now. I tried loading one map & load time & verify time were significantly reduced. I'm happy

Last edited by T.Pike (2007-04-27 11:26:34)

2007-04-27 12:16:53

#12

Stormscythe: Aiming for the head; +88|7019|EUtopia | Austria

Sell the 512mb @ eBay, probably you'll still get ~10$ for them

2007-04-27 12:52:04

#13

[TUF]Whiskey_Oktober: mmmm...Toasty!; +91|7192|Oregon

no, keep them...if your mobo cannot support pas 533, you will be happyer with holding onto it all.

BF2S Forums Adding RAM

maniacmattie wrote:

T.Pike wrote:

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