2gb required?

uforia · 17th August 2006, 10:37 AM

I currently have a 3200+ XP AMD CPU and planning on getting a 7800gs AGP card, but just have 1gb of RAM. Is 2GB ram required now for gaming?

Liquid-69 · 17th August 2006, 2:06 PM

It's not *required* as such, and many games will run fine with 1gig of ram, but many of the newer games such as oblivion and graw will make use of 2gig of ram. Also such things as video editing etc will make use of the 2g

brycer · 17th August 2006, 3:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uforia

I currently have a 3200+ XP AMD CPU and planning on getting a 7800gs AGP card, but just have 1gb of RAM. Is 2GB ram required now for gaming?

No and why would you be throwing money at DDR-1 which has been obseleted. Similarly your 7800GS. Save your cash and refit with Conroe/DDR2 and PCIe graphics.

darknight84 · 17th August 2006, 3:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquid-69

It's not *required* as such, and many games will run fine with 1gig of ram, but many of the newer games such as oblivion and graw will make use of 2gig of ram. Also such things as video editing etc will make use of the 2g

I dont think it makes any difference with oblivion unless you change the .ini file. Even then its slightly noticeable with loading certain areas for a smoother gaming experience. I would just go 1Gb unless you have BF2, thats a game that will have faster load times with 2Gb.

thetron · 17th August 2006, 4:11 PM

Vista will be as fast as a XP machine. Even with 1Gb of ram as standard

But i haven't got into gaming on my development testing box

uforia · 17th August 2006, 4:49 PM

thinking of a 7800gs as thats $450 as opposed to about $1400 if i was to get a whole new system...bit of a difference

=XTG= · 17th August 2006, 5:31 PM

sorry to butt in, but what .INI file are you referring to?
is this the little tweak that is meant to improve bootup times or something like that?

julz

Jedi Jezz · 17th August 2006, 6:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uforia

I currently have a 3200+ XP AMD CPU and planning on getting a 7800gs AGP card, but just have 1gb of RAM. Is 2GB ram required now for gaming?

I mainly play BF2 and the 2g's makes a difference in loading times and if you have a resonable amount of services running stops HDD caching and the in game lag created by it.

[HJ]-RedRaven · 17th August 2006, 6:38 PM

Uforia - it depends on how long you think you'll go before doing a motherboard upgrade.

If you're thinking of keeping your current AGP motherboard for a year or more and squeezing all the life you can out of it, I'd get a second gig of ram if you use games that need it, like Oblivion, BF2 etc.

I'd recommend a look about in the for sale forum and maybe pick up a PCIE motherboard such as the A8N-SLI like I'm using, and a 2nd-hand 7800GTX or similar...that way you can move to PCIE graphics and still use your existing DDR1 ram.

Blah72 · 17th August 2006, 6:50 PM

Oblivion WILL NOT benifit from 2gb of ram imo, it is not needed at all whatsoever either. I play with 1gb and it is flawless at max settings as far as loading etc goes. I checked the memory usage and it was only using about 350mb of ram, 2gb wouldnt do anything...it just isnt a very memory hungry game, which is good =)

BF2 will see a benifit with 2gb of ram though and there may be some other games that would benifit also, but realy as of right now there is no need for 2gb of ram in games other than for future proofing.

power · 17th August 2006, 6:51 PM

before i got 2 gig i would have said no - but now... well lets just say 2gb has made a huge difference (play bf2 alot)

pendu1um · 17th August 2006, 7:29 PM

I also agree, I noticed a dramatic difference between 1 and 2gb in BF2. My house mate and I have similarly spec'd computers his with an X1800XT and 1GB ram and mine with a 7900GT 2GB ram and I get heaps fewer frame drops in bf2 with everything max'd than he does, this with the computers side by side.

For the sake of future games I'd go 2GB if you can.

P.S. We also swapped video cards to test the theory and sure enough my computer cleaned his up.

xosfear · 17th August 2006, 8:11 PM

+ 1 for the 2gb vote. i picked up an extra 1gb stick yesterday and noticed the difference straight away. bf2 runs seemless with everything maxed and even general pc use ie. net etc runs alot smoother.

darknight84 · 18th August 2006, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by =XTG=

sorry to butt in, but what .INI file are you referring to?
is this the little tweak that is meant to improve bootup times or something like that?

julz

Yes that is correct, changing some numbers in the .ini (for Oblivion) such as increasing ram size or enabling dual core cpu's will usually make the game much smoother to play. By default even if you have 2gb it will still only use 256mb, so increasing that to use 1gb is sufficient. Although Im not sure if the new update fixes that and detects your system configuration or not.

Its a known fact also that 2gb does not make your fps any better either, so if your not playing a game that requires huge level loads then dont bother with 2gb.

brycer · 18th August 2006, 9:48 AM

I have 2GB and yes BF2 levels load faster and I can leave Google desktop and all my other bling running while I play games. You would need to get a matched pair to get decent performance in dual channel and it will still cost you >$200 so why bother.

On the upgrade issue I agree with the comment posted earlier that if you want to stay on 939 and thus wring some life out of your RAM/CPU then you should snag a second hand PCIe board and invest in a PCIe graphics card.

If you get that AGP card you will need to upgrade the lot in one go.

On my rig I decided that since my Opteron is still very competitive with the new AM2/Conroe - because there are bugger all games/apps that exploit dual core and I have 2GB of good DDR that I would spend my $ on a high end PCIe gfx card (7950GX2

) and after Xmas when the price of Conroe cpus and boards settles down make the move across.

In 3DMark06 my setup gets a score of 6,607 (about 30fps across all the tests). http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=420378

17th August 2006, 10:37 AM	#1
uforia Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 630	2gb required? I currently have a 3200+ XP AMD CPU and planning on getting a 7800gs AGP card, but just have 1gb of RAM. Is 2GB ram required now for gaming?

17th August 2006, 2:06 PM	#2
Liquid-69 Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Melbourne Posts: 325	It's not required as such, and many games will run fine with 1gig of ram, but many of the newer games such as oblivion and graw will make use of 2gig of ram. Also such things as video editing etc will make use of the 2g __________________ PC: i7 930 @ 4GHz \| 6GB G.Skill PI \| Gigabyte GTX 570 SO @ 970/2200 \| Gigabyte X58A UD3R \| Crucial C300 SSD Trades: melbnut, InFerNo, Kebob, [D]ark[A]cid, PÿRÓ, abel, BuzzPuppy, skootyloops, Bion1c, -Rancor-, jeffblaz, R3d Baron, RAtSAcK, MaD oVeRcLoCkEr, Gaiden, Dale-C, hello_goodbye, rbdirty, Mikey_D, boofy, Datsun 1600, AB89, BuuBox, andy_biteme, aalu, El1m1nate, Tazor, 2sick, aTa, Smegger

17th August 2006, 4:11 PM	#5
thetron Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Caboolture, BNE QLD Posts: 7,957	Vista will be as fast as a XP machine. Even with 1Gb of ram as standard But i haven't got into gaming on my development testing box __________________ Comments about other people's English Report poor post directly to the poster via PM (Never an admin). Please be helpful by including your advice and comments

17th August 2006, 5:31 PM	#7
=XTG= Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: two-one-five-three Posts: 625	sorry to butt in, but what .INI file are you referring to? is this the little tweak that is meant to improve bootup times or something like that? julz __________________ Camera club member #199

17th August 2006, 6:38 PM	#9
[HJ]-RedRaven Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Kalamunda, Perth Posts: 346	Uforia - it depends on how long you think you'll go before doing a motherboard upgrade. If you're thinking of keeping your current AGP motherboard for a year or more and squeezing all the life you can out of it, I'd get a second gig of ram if you use games that need it, like Oblivion, BF2 etc. I'd recommend a look about in the for sale forum and maybe pick up a PCIE motherboard such as the A8N-SLI like I'm using, and a 2nd-hand 7800GTX or similar...that way you can move to PCIE graphics and still use your existing DDR1 ram. __________________ Rick 'RedRaven' Burlow Gaming Rig: Asus A8N-SLI + FX-57 @ 279x11=3072 \| Zalman 9700LED \| eVGA GTX285 \| 2Gb Corsair TwinX Pro @ 555 3-4-4-8 \| Antec TruePower 550W PSU \| Asus VK266H 26" LCD \| Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm \| CDRW + DVD \| Logitech Z-680 5.1 Wheels: Birkin S3 Clubman - "Tiger" 4A-GE 20v - www.birkin.com.au Last edited by [HJ]-RedRaven; 17th August 2006 at 6:50 PM.

17th August 2006, 4:49 PM	#6
uforia Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 630	thinking of a 7800gs as thats $450 as opposed to about $1400 if i was to get a whole new system...bit of a difference

17th August 2006, 6:50 PM	#10
Blah72 Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2,449	Oblivion WILL NOT benifit from 2gb of ram imo, it is not needed at all whatsoever either. I play with 1gb and it is flawless at max settings as far as loading etc goes. I checked the memory usage and it was only using about 350mb of ram, 2gb wouldnt do anything...it just isnt a very memory hungry game, which is good =) BF2 will see a benifit with 2gb of ram though and there may be some other games that would benifit also, but realy as of right now there is no need for 2gb of ram in games other than for future proofing.

17th August 2006, 6:51 PM	#11
power Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: brisbane Posts: 27,286	before i got 2 gig i would have said no - but now... well lets just say 2gb has made a huge difference (play bf2 alot) __________________ this is who we are.

17th August 2006, 7:29 PM	#12
pendu1um Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Brunswick Posts: 145	I also agree, I noticed a dramatic difference between 1 and 2gb in BF2. My house mate and I have similarly spec'd computers his with an X1800XT and 1GB ram and mine with a 7900GT 2GB ram and I get heaps fewer frame drops in bf2 with everything max'd than he does, this with the computers side by side. For the sake of future games I'd go 2GB if you can. P.S. We also swapped video cards to test the theory and sure enough my computer cleaned his up. __________________ \| i5 2500k \| Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 \| G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB \| Gigabyte 7950 WF3 \| Patriot TorqX 2 120 SSD \| Hitachi 2tb Sata \| Samsung 24" LED \| Logitech G19 & G5 V2 \| Trades - Zzapped, protecon, obmit, Slimmy, red_marine, missingo95, noobinator_666, Jm3, Megido_Flame, daehenoc, SCopE, zer02, Vija, Demonic2005, MAXKNOTT, Dynamite Dave, BuzzPuppy, Cornflake, Runey, gibbz, karsa, gkr, Calais_S2, Mad 4 Air, kaimon, fudge_316, High-Fidelity, schmuppet

17th August 2006, 8:11 PM	#13
xosfear Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Sydney Posts: 827	+ 1 for the 2gb vote. i picked up an extra 1gb stick yesterday and noticed the difference straight away. bf2 runs seemless with everything maxed and even general pc use ie. net etc runs alot smoother. __________________ Nunc est bibendum

18th August 2006, 9:48 AM	#15
brycer Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Melbourne Aust Posts: 2,404	I have 2GB and yes BF2 levels load faster and I can leave Google desktop and all my other bling running while I play games. You would need to get a matched pair to get decent performance in dual channel and it will still cost you >$200 so why bother. On the upgrade issue I agree with the comment posted earlier that if you want to stay on 939 and thus wring some life out of your RAM/CPU then you should snag a second hand PCIe board and invest in a PCIe graphics card. If you get that AGP card you will need to upgrade the lot in one go. On my rig I decided that since my Opteron is still very competitive with the new AM2/Conroe - because there are bugger all games/apps that exploit dual core and I have 2GB of good DDR that I would spend my $ on a high end PCIe gfx card (7950GX2 ) and after Xmas when the price of Conroe cpus and boards settles down make the move across. In 3DMark06 my setup gets a score of 6,607 (about 30fps across all the tests). http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=420378 __________________ q9400 @ Stock\|Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 \|4GB Crucial DDR2 800\| Gigabyte GTX275\| X-Fi Ext Music\| Seagate 320gb 7900.10 SATA \| 2x WD 120Gb SATA RAID0\| OCZ 700W PSU \| Antec Sonata Case \| SyncMaster 2333