It seems that games like BF2 and FEAR are requiring 2 GBs of ram for smooth gameplay with most of the bells and whistles turned on..

I'm wondering, how many of you out there have made the transition from 1 GB to 2 GB?
And Is it really an eye-opener considering the cost you paid for it?

mod edit: topic merged with another "2/4gb-ram" thread

This post has been edited by lucifah: Aug 4 2006, 09:50 PM

Wow... 2GB... Alot of money will be used too.. =\

Yes i have 2gb and yes it makes a big difference in the newer games especially loading times and the lack of skipping and disk access during gameplay

not only memory and hdd.. graphic cards too..
these games developer are crazy..

but this wat we call development for better quality games.....getting nearer to reality

Two GB is currently still high end, one GB is standard for a gamer, and 512 is standard for a normal pc. It's still gonna take sometime till 2 GB becomes the standard.

Wait!!!!!!!! why not lower the quality if you are not complaining about the video quality and enjoying the same game play..

For me, game play is much important then graphic.. for some reasons.. starcraft still rocks

yes, I've tried 2GB before, and it really makes a difference in loading time, have also tried 4GBs of Corsair XMS memory, and its super fast.

have u guys ever imagine one day when peoples especially hardcore gamer..play PC games wif heliois display (almost 2 hologram)..at that time wat kind of GC will be manufactured..cant imagine..

yup i wan go for 2GB soon
1GB not enuf now
sheeeezz those games eat alot of RAM

i think it goes down on what system u'r running on

a high end system definetly need that extra 2 gig, with all eye candy and physics to the max

But my pretty old P4 2.8 and yesteryear 6800 i don't think it'll utilize it alot....ok, maybe aroung 1.2GIG, but thats as far as it goes...anything more and my system won't take it anyway

yes 2 gig is d way to future...but IMO, for benchmarking purposes, quite many ppl still uses 2 x 256 or 2 x 512MB ...coz u cant really run High Mhz on the memory with tight timings with 2 x 1GB sticks...

i do agree it is a shame dat 2GB is d way to go....i for one has only 2 x 256MB of memory, and will be upgrading to 1GB soon....which takes quite a lot of money for hi performance memory.....

as hornet says, it is system dependant too...usually a high end PC needs 2GB to get max performance, IF i were to put 2GB or memory into my PC now, i dont think there will be any significant diffrences in performances coz of most prob dat my proc and graphics card is limiting the 2GB...

@mowgli
signs that its time to change ur rig to FX57 baby.....

i still 512mb. so laggy nowadays. like CS S loading so long one. hiaz. i wish i am rich. wads the average amount of ram ppl have now? 512? or 1024?

Do you really need 2GB?

[ Conclusion ]
This certainly is a debatable topic that can be looked at in several ways, though the question at hand is "Does 2GB of memory improve gaming performance". While a simple yes or no answer cannot be used to answer this question I do agree with Corsair, 2GB of memory is becoming beneficial. As Corsair put it, 1GB of memory is ideal for the majority of games out there. Nevertheless, there are now a few games that play better with 2GB of system memory. Although Battlefield 2 fails to demonstrate this with a 256MB graphics card, I still believe the game runs much better with 2GB of memory. Clearly games such as UT2004, Far Cry and even Doom 3 will play just as well with 1GB of memory, even the new FEAR Multiplayer Demo is just as happy to use 1GB of memory.

When building the latest and greatest gaming system it just makes sense to go with 2GB's of system memory. However, a mid-range to low-end gaming systems certainly do not require the additional gigabyte. Furthermore there is absolutely no point arguing that 2GB of RAM is beneficial for systems with a 128MB graphics card. For the simple fact that is cheaper and far more valuable to purchase a more powerful graphics card than it is to add another gigabyte of memory. Therefore, when it comes down to what gives you the best bang for your buck; 2GB of system memory is just not a viable option.

Alternatively, what Corsair is doing for end-users by pushing 1GB capacity modules (2GB kits) is future-proofing their systems. Evidently, by this time next year 1GB of memory is most likely going to be a minimum specification for gaming systems. The most important part of building a gaming system is to maintain balance. There is no point in out weighing one component with another. For example a powerful CPU will not compensate for a slow graphics card. When building a race car it is important that the package is well balanced. There are no successful race cars that have overly powerful engines without the correct level of handling to match the power. Well balanced machines win races and it is the same with computers. Spending all your money on a single hardware component is not the least bit helpful.

Therefore high-end games will benefit from 2GB of memory if they have an accompanying top of the range processor and graphics card. For mid-range gaming systems or anything less, 1GB of memory is going to be ample. Although memory is significantly cheaper than it use to be, a decent 1GB DDR2 dual-channel memory kit will cost around $100 US. Spending another $100 US to receive 2GB of memory is just not worth it for gamers on a budget. Given $100 US can be the difference between a GeForce 6600 GT and a GeForce 6800 GT, I know what will be of more use when it comes to gaming. Bottom-line is when it comes down to what will give a gamer the best bang for their buck, 2GB's of system memory looses out.

Reviewed By Steven Walton

This post has been edited by greyPJ: Oct 16 2005, 10:53 PM

read dat article b4....it juz a suggestion in terms of bang for buck...but IF u hav d cash, it is still worthwhile to use 2GB of memory...

Actually, 2 X 512MB high performance RAM is still good enough.. =]

yup, if its high performance rams than it will be faster

If you got 2GB of RAM now,i think your spec can tahan for quite a long time in gaming rite?A step earlier from others moving to 2GB RAM.Wao smart man.I wish i can have 2GB RAM now.Ahaha,can save loading time in game.

donno, but i'm starting to think that those without 2GB ram are merely living in self denial.
They know they want 2GB, but they're being sour grapes.

- -nuts- -

This post has been edited by pizzaboy: Oct 17 2005, 01:11 AM

I'm using 1.5GB, I assume no or little diff with 2GB.
Maybe 4GB would be about right.

Mainly photochop use.

well , now i have 512mb ,

and it sucks

I'm running on 512 + 256 ...

My notebook has 256 and I just add on an extra 512 ram inside...haha

Okay for me since I'm not a gamer....

gonna spent from now on for 2gb...1gb is not enough...

2GG ram?

i'll say games require this high ram are un-optimized program

from the screenshots i see.... doesnt impress me a bit

anyone here tried 4GB full before, I've tried it before, and it was sweet, I've got a rich friend, 4GB's of Corsair XMS, If I'm not mistaken, he was kinda enough to borrow it to me.

planning and ZOMGLY HUMONGOUS 256 mb x 2 for my new rig! BOW DOWN IN SHADOW OF IT'S 1337-NESS!


Anyways, less banks and less memory put less stress on the memory controller, making Ocing easier.

More RAM will benefit the pc in gaming.Faster loading time.But how much percentage will higher capacity RAM limit the o/cing?Just wish to know.Never experience b4.

i don't think it makes loading time any faster
u just have more memory for u'r system, the loading time is still pretty much limited to how fast u'r HDD can transfere data, and u'r memory bandwidth for that mater, not its size.

more ram alone doesn't make a system any faster, its the system as a whole, not just a component.....it'll be pretty silly for a low end user to get 2Gig, because at the end of the day, the application he runs will be tone down so low that he barely need anything more than 1gig...u have to be running the currently greatest system which can handle a situation where the program will take more than 1 gig, then u'll be utilizing it.

This post has been edited by Hornet: Oct 17 2005, 09:39 AM

From my own experience,256MB to 512MB of RAM makes alot of different in game loading time.But i dunno how the 2GB.So i assumed that more RAM will benefit in loading time and of course will make game run smoother.


And i agree with you that low end pc no need to use up to 2GB RAM la.Imagine a P3 with 2GB SDRAM(Just am example la,P3 cant support so much RAM),definately wont benefit the user but only 1 thing for sure he/she can open up many ie at the same time witout lacking of RAM.

True, there are very few programs (and even fewer games) that can take advantage of 2GB of RAM. But they are out there. I believe the 2GB will help when there's too much data/textures being shifted about and the GPU framebuffer is exhausted.

I do agree with your point for the moment now.A program that make use more RAM is no good.
For now still very few program will use up to 2GB RAM.In future sure will have.Since we can see from the earlier computer with little of RAM 1MB untill now we have 1000MB or some with 2000MB.You can see the evolution from there.

sigh... those PC Game developers are just too pampered... imagine those console developers who needs to squeeze out every bit of juice from a 3-4 year old technology. Thats the real way to go, not relying on ever-increasing technology, but to leverage on current technology and push them to the limit. Efficiency and optimization is the correct way.

Nah, when the frame buffer is full it gets flushed, unless you're using turbo cache, don't expect it to share memory. Games normally utilize the main memory for storing things like maps, locations, and other non graphic centric data, no really important in most games, but for games with huge maps and tons of AI controlled characters like Boiling point, Battlefield 2, Rome Total War, a b**** arse huge memory is obviously needed.

Actually, it's more a problem of compatibility, true, the X86 standard works well for all, but as we know some processors excell in some areas and lag behind, you can't really expect a game programmer to program for 1 brand of processor can you, the Pentium 4 really lags behind when it comes to cache access and has long-ish 31 stage pipeline, with optimization, i'm sure it could work better, but with numerous features out there, HT, Dual Core, SSE3, most programmers have to just stick with the middle ground and hope for the best.

yeah.. sure its is. can easily overclocked

Those who wish to make the transition, kindly consider this bulk http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=208219

and when was it that i said more ram makes it faster?
that statement was never in my sentence and it's pretty obvious that there are other determinants on the system smoothness and quickness such as the hardisk speed, processor speeds and whatnot.

oh yeah, and those who can't stand the lagginess of the hardisk (ain't that always the headache?), there's I-RAM and i think babyelf is going to test them soon. Let's see what he says.

i'm already on 2gb since last year, but so far i never seen my free ram drop below 1gig most of the time unless i open two high end game at once.
When boot up windows and normal surffing is left 1.3gig free, and when play AOE3 with high detail without fsaa only took 180mb.
Mostly 1.5gb is enuf for game, a single windows application/game cant consume more than 1gb in windows. That's why when i memtest my ram, i have to run two instances instead of 1.

I havent actually played AOE but I can say that RTS games are less demanding than FPS.

Back to the topic, 4X512MB(2 modules of dual channel 1GB@ 2X512MB) or 2X1GB, which configurations do most people use nowadays ?? Thinking of selling off my cheapo 2X512MB and get a 2X 1GB but is it more practical to get an extra 2X512MB since 2X1GB pricing is not at its best.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by Computer^freak: Oct 17 2005, 11:57 AM

well, my mistake then, but from u'r post, it does seems like u'r suggesting there is somesort of improvement in 2Gig over 1Gig (or at least u'r suggesting that all ppl, both who can and cannot afford it, do believe that there is peformance inprovement)...else no one's gonna want want 2Gig, being sour grape or whatever

So, basically i'm just giving my opinion that 2 gig isn't nessarily improve peformance, just in case there's anyone who have the misconcept that more ram always means better...

i'm on 4 x 512 bcoz it still manage to go 250mhz. I heard that 1gb ram module is not that OC compare to 512mb.

Actually it does, it's the ability of the operating system to utilize and address that ram. OSX is a good example of this, Windows XP hits a wall at 2 gb. Literally.

hmm? i don't quite get what u mean there...
anyway i was talking about performance, specifically gaming

The ability to scale performance with RAM actually comes down to the operating system and not the ram when we hit the 2 gigabyte brick wall. And yes, loads of games these days love hewg loads of rams, try Rome total war with 20000 individual soldiers and you'll thank god for that extra gig.

Eeer..just spent 600 bucks on twinmos 512 x2,now feeling like saving some $$ for another 512 x2

wow you sure got it at a high price
definitely didn't buy frm garage sale didja
try 1GBx2 instead la....
it doesn't stress the mem controller as empire had said earlier that much and probably gives u higher overclocks

Mem controller it does not stress but the limitation of XP will indicate that anything around there is overkill. vista is another story as 64 bit computing's max mem usage is about 12Gb if I'm not mistaken

actually x86-64 CPUs support a 48bit virtual address space and 40bit physical address space. Which means about 1TeraByte of memory. And of course it adds extra load on the memory controller.

Get a console , no need to worry about upgrading stuff ...

aiya..better saves for future rig..dual core..SLI.. DDR2...if you want to upgrade now(your old p4/A64) with 2GB ram ,,i think it will waste your money only..well, this is just my 2 cents..

future?? i tot it's the IN thing nowadays 4 gb would be the future

that's just an example..................!<>

Of course. Noob error there. I must have mixed things up.

So, any specific issues with 512x4 on an AI7 I should know about ? I'm running 512x2 now.

No problem so far, 512 x 4 DT-D43 on AI7

Put it this way:

4 x 512MB for P4 doesn't have much impact as A64. Most A64 would run at 2T timings if all 4 banks are populated. This is because P4 runs at 1T only.

That's why it might be advisable that A64 runs with 2 x 1GB. Even the timings of 1Gb sticks are not so tight compared to 512 modules, at least it runs at 1T.

But if you already have 2 x 512MB sticks, it might be more feasible to get another 2 sticks so that you dun need to sell off your existing RAM. I'd rather run on slower timings or even at 2T as it is definitely much faster than in the case of insufficient memory (and hence, page file swapping).

Some sharing that I've encountered on my rig:

BF2 uses about 1.4GB of RAM
FEAR uses about 1.2-1.3GB
Doom3 uses 1.1-1.2GB
Half Life 2 uses 800MB-1.1GB
Ridd*** uses roughly 700-1.1GB

So all of these games will definitely cause page file swapping (that's why my games are stuttering all the time but the frame rates are still averagely high). I'd rather run at slower timings and have elimation of stuttering.

P4 chipsets don't always run at 1T cmd rate AFAIK. Depending on the memory used, sometimes it drops to 2T, although i suspect that the performance drop from this is not as great as it is for an A64.

Hey a simple question,If i wanted to run dual channel mode..do i need to buy a kit? or can have 1 gig of ram and later on add an additional stick of 1 gig??

~ yes

yes i have to buy a kit??

For dual channel, get 2 X 1GB or else u can't run dual channel...

You can actually buy one now if you're tight on cash and buy another similar stick/specs later if you can find it. The onus here is that you might not be able to get another one that is compatible to enable dual channel.

It's not necessary to buy the "kit" types if you're pretty sure you can get two pieces of similar spec'ed value ram.

if u do have like 2 GB's of ram now, ur quite futurproof with a good system

when vista come out 2gb will become standard for gaming pc.

What u mean by high price?Twinmos speed premium BH5 600bucs mahal ah?

some times i really dun undestand, we keep upgrading ram and gc to play the most decent game, look at playstation, buy once, and u can play all the games u wan....damn this pc industry is really sickening...

well it's goin for 450 bucks here in garage sale
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...2355&hl=twinmos

how much would a good pair of 2 gig Kit cost??

In my study to get a fast performance its not depend on how much a pc have in memory,theres other effect too besides then memory..i guess u guys noe this rite...I think for a middle ranged pc at 1GB is enough..no point adding too much..save up & get a new rig...hehe

Erm..im using P4 531 hmm...izzit a middle ranged or high ranged proc?I think its a middle rite?

My Desktop is using Corsair XMS Pro with LED 2 GB Dual Channel 512Mb X 4 pIece

My Laptop is using 1 GB DDR 2 x 1 piece = Will upgraded lepas hari raya to 2 GB Soon

Running all games like charms

This post has been edited by MX510: Oct 18 2005, 12:51 AM

those are CADT chips which barely overclock

Whats a good brand of Dual channel kit? and how much would they cost?

yeh, i think ur spec same wit me... dothan 1.73, 1gb*1 ram. wat gc they using?? mine is
nv6600 128mb

You don't need to buy a kit. You can just buy 2 similar spec 1 gig RAM and then install it together. Not neccessary to buy a Kit of 2 because kits just package 2 similar RAM and sell it as one. You can expect to pay about RM 760 for 2gig RAM.

Btw, I am using 2.5 gb of ram now and gone are the days of hard disk thrashing and zero lagged which makes me feel good knowing that I have made the right decisions. Previously, I could be real pissed just waiting for the load time.

I basically think an upgrade should be in 2x1 gb ram. 1 gig per slot is the max so at least you don't have to trash your 2x256mb ram (assuming your system only have 512mb ram atm) in the near future when 1.5 gb ram becomes insufficient especially when games like BF2 is already using 1.4 gb.

This post has been edited by lilzany: Oct 18 2005, 03:45 PM

Nah i'm thinking to purcahse a new pc.. so was just wondering should i save up and go with 2 gigs or just 1 gig first....

Quite a number of people I know are running 2GB for BF2... That game just sucks the juice out of many-a-system (yours truly included).

Corsair Shows Benefits of 2GB RAM

This post has been edited by Razzd: Oct 18 2005, 09:46 PM

1.5 user here,,, OVERKILL ler!

BTW: 1.5 pun dunno how to use to max!

What kind of games do you play and what resolution and graphics setting are you playing them in?

From the Corsair PDF, 2GB will help tremendously in a few newer games. If you do not play them or still play Starcraft, even 512MB is sufficient.



Attached thumbnail(s)

might as well spend more on faster CPU an GC. RAM can be added later, if u compromise u'r CPU for more ram, then u won't be able to use the benefits of it anyway.

Thats the fastest and greatest system i believe....not everyone can get such improvement, heck some even not at all...

Some time ago...when doom3 was first released, I was on 512mb ram and despite the system (cpu & graphic card) being totally adequate for the resolution....fps all stable and all... there's those irritating once a while jerks (PAGEFILE)... so that's what 2GB's all about.

Pagefiles....bad

actually 1.5gig is already sufficent for you to play all games with pagefile turn off.
none of the single program/games in windows can utlize more than 1gb

so 1gb max for game+512 for window program.

lol

2 giggers are for the people who want to spend on it, it doenst matter if they are really required or not

if u feel like u want to have a bigger dong, why not?

2 gigs are really smooth when ur doing lots of software spamming, abusing etc.

for gaming? nah, i dun buy 2 gigs for gaming, its for my own personal "feel"

and ychwang i see ur having DT-D43 2048mbs (2 giggers) , u lucky boy, i got micron and infineon chips both....sigh

Putting things into perspective....

2GB today?
- If don't play BF2, then ya don't need it today. Not too long ago, when o/c'er with their magic 256MB BH5's argues that 512MB is more than enough but now almost everyone's on 1GB.

2GB way of the future? (Thread title)
- Of course.
- Even in notebooks.. when my wife bought her carmel, it was 128MB standard. Then when Dothan was launched, everyone bundles 256MB, Nowadays.. almost nothing has less with 512MB. And in the recent couple months, even the entry level models in some countries have 1GB standard.

Actually even far cry benefits somewhat with 2gb. Level load times are so much faster. Boiling point also benefits a lot. I'm sure practically all upcoming games with eye candy will benefit from 2gb.

For BF2, just that game alone takes more than 1.3GB already

Moreover, you can't really get 1.5GB unless you run 3 sticks, which kills off dual channel.

1.5gig can be done with 512x2 + 256 x 2.

when i match dt-d43+btj(256), still manage to go 250mhz, oclockablity is not much affected.

i read in FM, people are saying even with 2 gigs there's still some hitching in FEAR

Yup, you are right. That's assuming you have 2 x 256MB, as what I have all the while is 2 x 512MB only.

If we put it this way, it might be successful to enable dual channel.

512MB (Channel A)
256MB (Channel

512MB (Channel A)
256MB (Channel

Yup, I am getting a lot of stuttering even though my frame rates are okay.

2GB for games which uses lots of AI too...

care to explain?

if you able to turn off windows xp page file, and still encounter hitching, adding more ram doesnt help at all, bcoz it still have to load sound/graphic from ur hdd during game play.

I think the hitching in fear bcoz of slow gpu/cpu or slow hardisk.

Not sure if you meant me, coz I am getting stuttering and I noticed that my hdd led is on during those times. I dunno about you, when I set too low of Page file, even not to the extend of disabling it, my system would hang when it needs more RAM.

I dun think my hardware is really that slow since I use A64 @ 2.6ghz, 7800GTX in SLI and 10K Raptor 73GB hdd.

the hitching issues is at what kinda settings ?

coz i plan to get fear to work on my weaker than weak pc

u should try to add 2gb ram and completely turn off the pagefile when play FEAR.

btw, r u running any background program in window desktop? When i open my abit EQ in background, playing NFS:underground also got hitch.

dun expect it can run on weak pc.

with 9800p+3.0c+2g ram also quite lag in medium detail+1024x768+no FSAA+no AF