Article: how much System memory do games need?

[saaya]

http://www.3dcenter.de/artikel/2005/06-17_a.php

nice article! i never thougt increasing the system memory size from 512mb to 2048mb would reduce loading times of games by over 50%!
theres still a def boost in loading times from 1024 to 2048mb... very interesting!

[Cooper]

Too bad no info about HDD they were using. Maybe some SATAII RAID 0 is as good as 2 GB of RAM :rolleyes:

[forey]

Too bad no info about HDD they were using. Maybe some SATAII RAID 0 is as good as 2 GB of RAM :rolleyes:
amagine both together? :slobber:

[Fairydust]

Performance is pretty much the same though with 1024 vs 2048 Mb on the tested games, 0.1 Percent seems more like normal test fluctuations.

Wonder how Battlefield 2 would perform. With 1 GB, it takes ages loading back data from the page file after you quit the game, while with 2 GB it can still keep em in normal memory and you are back to windows instantaniously. So does it have to load during normal gameplay and thus decrease performance?

[clayton]

I have 4GB, mwuahaha :toast: soon to get more

[krille]

So, how will having to either A) lower reduce fsb/lossen timings (for 2x1024) or B) run everything at 2T (4*512) affect FPS/performance/etc. on an AMD64 system?

I'd be more than happy to pay for an extra set of 1024mb DC memory, if it wasn't for the crappy memory controller. Anyone know anything about this?

[STEvil]

2x1024 runs 1T ok

1T vs 2T seems to be very little performance hit on A64... there are a couple threads in the AMD section

[Tulatin]

1T to 2T at the same clock speed has a huge implication in bandwidth from what i've seen so far... not sure on game performance quite yet

[shadowing]

I would think that 1GB and 2GB doesn't make a difference unless the game takes a ridiculous amount of RAM like MMORPGs.

[STEvil]

1T to 2T shows 5% performance difference, if that.

Sisoft shows huge drops, but thats it.

Those threads were in the Xtreme Bandwidth section, not the AMD section. my bad.

[Tulatin]

Hmm - and with that drop from 1T to 2T, you gain 20 or so MHz, which pretty much brings you back to where you were. If i remember correctly, SuperPi also exhibits a drop from this change.

[krille]

So, 4x512MB 2T > 2x1024MB 1T at the moment?

Wonder if it'd be worth it... how does 2T affect performance on tight timings and fsb 2-2-2-5@250 compared to loose timings and high fsb 2.5-3-3-7@325?

[Afterburner]

I have 2GB of Patriot UTTs......... :toast:

[R.Rabbit]

man 512mb of ram sucks!!

[Esmein]

If 512 does suck, then what does 256 mb do ?

[STEvil]

suck as much or more

[$a1Ty]

actually the difference between 256 and 512 isnt huge because 512 still isnt enough and so pagefile is used still a lot, but the difference between 512 and 1gb is bigger, but now 1gb isnt even enough wth getting rediculous

[STEvil]

which is why I said "as much or more".

[Kjaks]

This RAM drive from Gigabyte seems pretty tempting

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050601_115506.htmlhttp://images.planetamd64.com/skorp/gbramdisk/gbramdisk.jpg ;)

[krille]

Wonder if it's enough (4GB) for both OS and Page File though. Windows XP is up to 3GB (some stuff is located in program files...while my main Windows directory is 2.23GB) that leaves for a 1GB page file, which might be a little too little for the future's 2GB RAM "demand". I'd like to see at least 2GB (or 1.5GB) for my pagefile.

[Esmein]

This RAM drive from Gigabyte seems pretty tempting

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050601_115506.htmlhttp://images.planetamd64.com/skorp/gbramdisk/gbramdisk.jpg ;)


Too bad its SATA interface, -> 150/300 mbps read vs 3000-3500 mbps single channel ddr read.