BF2S Forums 2GB RAM compared to 1GB RAM?

=EKF=xDoctorx wrote:

Bragging around heh...
Alrighty I'll join

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Box
2 X 2.4Ghz
4Mb L2 Cache
.065µ Technology 65W
64bits, SSE1/2/3/4, MMX, NX-Bit
Genuine Intel Cooler (Ask for another one if necessary)
Core 2 E6600 is more powerful than Athlon FX-62 !

Graphic Adapter : ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
PRO Version : Core : 580Mhz, RAM : 1400Mhz
256bits, up to 48 Pixel Processors
256Mb GDDR3
Better Performance than GeForce 7900GT

Memory : 2Gb DDR2-667
MDT Quality CL4 240pin
2 x 1Gb Dual Channel

Mainboard :
AsRock Conroe 945G s775

Conroe Ready
FSB1066
Max 4Gb RAM
4 x DDR2-533/666 Slots
4 x SATA2
1 x IDE / Floppy
10/100/1000 LAN
Realtek ALC888 7.1

HDD : Samsung 250Gb SATA-2
SATA-2 Interface (up to 300Mb/s)
8Mb Cache
7200rpm (Latency 8.9ms)

DVD : Samsung DVD+/-RW DL 16x
IDE Interface
Dual Layer
CD/DVD +/-RW Read and Write up to 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD)

Power Supply : 350W Quiet with P4 features 12cm fan

Case : Aerocool : You pick the model among models shown below
High Quality Models
USB/Audio Front
Quiet

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/ … 9db6c1.jpg

My turn, it's in my sig..lol
Only thing I can think of not in there right now is my board. It's an Asus P-5n32sli deluxe SE

MaRine[M24] wrote:

So what can I do to maintain a consistent FPS? I know FPS will drop, but I hate when it drops so much. 85 >80 would be fine or even 80 > 70, but I cant stand the huge FPS drops.

Any tweaks or little things I can do to maintain a more consistent FPS?

It's easy to get a consistent FPS... Getting a consitant HIGH FPS will be a problem. If you feel that anything less than 60 will be a problem, then you need to focus on getting a high GPU throughput. 2GB of mem will help a lot with certain things. Particularly the surfaces (textures) on large maps will not put as much of a strain on your system. But in my experience, a good GPU is a better investment than more mem if you already have 1 GB... However, it will depend on your specs.

In essence you need to figure out where your bottleneck is. In general, any CPU P4+ CPU will be able to run the game just fine. I've never had CPU issues with any machine I've tried this on (except for an old P3-800).
Mem can be an issue, particularly, if you're using SLOW memory. You'll be amazed at how often a few memory tweaks will help your performance even with only 1 GB of memory. So in general, make sure to use dual channel if your board supports it. Forget about ECC, it's nice to have, but it takes extra space on your memory bandwidth. Make sure your ram timing in the BIOS is set to match the memory you purchased. Do not use the default settings. Get low CAS memory. 1 GB of fast, low CAS memory running in a dual channel setup will give you a higher FPS than 2 GB of slow, single channel high CAS memory. Ofcourse the added memory WILL make loading of textures smoother/faster, so you will still get drops when flying a lot, or in heavy infantry battle or on particular maps like "Iron Gator".

As I've stated earlier, PCI-e is a must for BF2 to achieve high FPS. So ensure that your board has PCI-e and you use a decent PCI-e GPU. Also remember that while some chipsets are a lot CHEAEPER than others, that might mean that some quality has been sacrificed. Very often you will see that the speed of the memory buss will decrease with each module you attach. That there is no southbridge on the chipset (CPU does that bit of work), or you will experience problems getting full speed form other BUS'es. Also notice how the BUS has been designed. For instance if access to the memory buss is through the same chip as the USB or Firewire, then you will get system slowdowns when using these ports/Buses. So it's fairly important that you get a board that will perform well, and generally has individual controllers for the things that matter the most. Paying a lot for a board isn't a guarantee that it's good. And most salesguys have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to board speed. they can tell you if it works, is stable, and what it supports. Nothing more. So do the research before buying. A good board can be reasonably cheap, and make a lot of difference to your gameplay experience.

The GPU, it's generally the same as the board. PCI-e all the way. And do the research. It's important that you get a good chip on your GPU. High price does not equal high performance. And dont be tempted to go for a SLi setup. It may look good on paper, but in reality most board/cards will not SLi at full speed (16x), and only the fabled and not so well functioning chipsets by nvidia fully supports multiple GPUs. Do the research, get a good chip and you will be off to a good start. Also, if you aren't going to play the game in 1600x1200 resolution, you dont NEED a lot of mem. 128MB is enough, and 256 is enough to allow for future needs aswell. Instead of the AMOUNT of memory, look at the SPEED of the memory.

That being said, there are other tweaks that you can try.
For one: If you HAVE 2GB of memory, try disabling the paging file in windows. This will mean less swapping to disk. Ofcourse your system will become more unstable especially if you're overclocking, or have bad memory. But it will also be faster. Dont try this with only 1 GB of mem, you will not have neough mem to load the BF2 maps, and will force the game to swap with the disk anyway.
Also: The FPS cap.... Try LOWERING it to what you "want/need". This way, FPS drops wont be really noticeable untill the FPS drops below the new threshold you just set. So set it to what you expect to be reasonable. Like 60 FPS... It's rare for a high performance rig to go below this anyway.
And: Try fiddling with the normal game settings. Lighting and shadows are not really that required (well, they may be for flying, but not for groundpounding), so they can be lowered, or removed. Terrain is also easy to fiddle with. And if you're flying a lot, you wont notice the landscape ANYWAY, so why spend resources showing a piece of scrub you have no intrest in anyway ? Try out the various settings, you will notice that some of these takes up LOTS of resources, but provides very little in terms of gameplay, and in general only gives you a little more graphical realism. And if THAT was what you wanted, then I'd suggest a walk in the local forrest or beach or whatever.
Additionally: Close down stuff you dont need in windows.
And: Read the thread about tuning for faster load times. Some of that stuff will help remove the resource strain.

And if this still isn't enough, then post again.

MaRine[M24] wrote:

"Also: The FPS cap.... Try LOWERING it to what you "want/need". This way, FPS drops wont be really noticeable untill the FPS drops below the new threshold you just set. So set it to what you expect to be reasonable. Like 60 FPS... It's rare for a high performance rig to go below this anyway."

Whats an FPS cap? And how do I lower or raise it?

The FPS cap is a way to say "show max this FPS on the screen". So if you cap at 80, then anything your GPU COULD handle above this will not be processed/requested.
I dont have BF2 installed on this PC, so I can't give you the exact location of the file. But you have to change the value of the profile parameter: "game.lockFps" It's in one of the config files, and default is I believe 100. Also you can change it in game by pressing the "tilde" key (´) or whatever you use for console commands, and altering the param there. Ingame changing is good for testing,and once you've found the param settings you like, you enter the "permanent" option in the config file.
For more specific info on how to change params, try searching for either the "game.lockFps", or "console command" phrases in these forums.

Last edited by Twist (2006-11-02 23:58:13)

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

the_outsider38 wrote:

Yea, but anything over the monitors supported frequency (Hz) is just a waste. And I still cant get 2142 to run maxed out....BF2 bounces off the 100FPS limiter, but 2142 is at like 30....

But i get 7000+ in 3D mark 06.....

No it's not wasted. You may not see those the whole of those intervening frames and you may get tearing, but the game is running faster - basically the framerate isn't just the rate at which it updates the graphics - it's the rate that the entire game updates.

Oh, and anyone that stills thinks that 2GB is no better than 1GB (particularly those that have 2GB themselves) - get yourself over to the UK, come visit lovely Cambridge, and I'll introduce to the baseball bat that I would really like to bury in your face...

LCD monitor, no tearing here
Also, thats what the V-Sync tickbox is for....

The video card simply throws those frames away when it goes to send them to the screen, THe screen simply cannot process more then its set frequency, so they are in fact wasted...

However such games as GTA2 will run super fast (300FPS) w/o the frame limiter turned on, but will also only put out the monitors set frequency, however gameplay is extremely fast on single player. BF2 will run real time if your on multiplayer.

MaRine[M24] wrote:

"Also: The FPS cap.... Try LOWERING it to what you "want/need". This way, FPS drops wont be really noticeable untill the FPS drops below the new threshold you just set. So set it to what you expect to be reasonable. Like 60 FPS... It's rare for a high performance rig to go below this anyway."

Whats an FPS cap? And how do I lower or raise it?

Plus it will keep your card cooler.

Back on topic:

I have 2Gb of pretty much the higest latency PC3200 RAM I could get (You can call me a cheap ass if you want) But just having the 2Gb is a huge improvment over 1Gb.

My buddy recently pieced together a 939 machine for a couple hundred bucks, hoping he could use his 2x 512 RAM sticks, turns out his mobo doesn't like 2 different sticks, go figure. He scores 5000+ in 3DMark06 but
played BF2142 at 5 FPS, lent him my 2Gb to test and he got 80+ FPS maxed out in 2142.

Last edited by the_outsider38 (2006-11-03 01:50:07)

Ty wrote:

=EKF=xDoctorx wrote:

Bragging around heh...
Alrighty I'll join
...

Wow. Uh, fuck you.

fuck you dude - hes having a laugh

Im one week away from having a:

Core 2 Duo E6600 2.8ghz
2GB DDR2 6400 (800mhz) Dual Channel RAM
120GB Sata2 HDD 7200rpm
Geforce 7600GT
19" LCD monitor
480W PSU

What rates will I roughly achieve on bf2? I would like it on all high settings, but Im not sure how I would be able to go, and to what FPS i would get...

Any ideas?