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Dual Core & RAM

J

jnick

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
2,888
With the obvious hype for the Dual core processors, I eagerly jumped on board, recieving an Opty 170 for Christmas. However, I started thinking (Uh Oh!!).

Everyone explains how it's so great that they can backup a DVD and play BF2 at the same time without any hitches. However, what role does ram play? Just playing BF2 ALONE takes up 66% of my system memory (2GB). Just because I have the processing power to do MULTIPLE things at once, how will memory affect this. I would imagine doing something like a movie backup, or a data backup would take a sufficient amount of RAM.

.: sigh :. just when I thought 2GB was PLENTY . . .
 
jnick said:
With the obvious hype for the Dual core processors, I eagerly jumped on board, recieving an Opty 170 for Christmas. However, I started thinking (Uh Oh!!).

Everyone explains how it's so great that they can backup a DVD and play BF2 at the same time without any hitches. However, what role does ram play? Just playing BF2 ALONE takes up 66% of my system memory (2GB). Just because I have the processing power to do MULTIPLE things at once, how will memory affect this. I would imagine doing something like a movie backup, or a data backup would take a sufficient amount of RAM.

.: sigh :. just when I thought 2GB was PLENTY . . .
Click to expand...

The memory is just as important as dual core, if not more.

Just think: While it is true you can run BF2 and compress video content at the same time with 2GB ram on a dual core system; You can't even play BF2 with 512 MB ram on a dual core system without massive hesitations caused by disk paging. (This is my current situation, I have to suffer until I get my 2GB memory in).

Of course, you cant even play BF2 on a single core system while compressing video...no matter how much ram you have. (Well...maybe you can, but you won't be winning any matches at 1-2 FPS)

Personally, I wanted dual core for the smooth responsiveness multiple processors give, not really any other reason.
 
well, i am considering to get another 2GBs for a full 4GB of ram.. then again, i do run some VM's at times...
 
Battlefield 2 doesn't count. It defies the laws of memory usage. Most other games should be able to run with 1GB. I'm thinking of upgrading to 2GB as well, as everyone's been saying how much of a difference it makes in BF2.
 
BF2 doesn't count? LOL

I wonder how Quakewars or Unreal 3 will like memory?
 
2 gigs of ram should pretty much be good enough for anything. Yes BF2 uses a lot of ram, but I dont think you'll see a lot of performance increase but added another 2 gigs...at least for now
 
I'm simply stating, I'm using 66% of my RAM for playing BF2, with other minor programs running (AVG, Incredimail, etc). I just don't understand how people have stated they play BF2 and do some other [H] Multitasking, when BF2 uses 2/3 (thanks Eclipse, rofl) of 2GB of ram. I guess I'll have to test it and see :p.
 
66% = 2/3? :D:D

one option is to get 4x1gb, but that's kinda costly, and has the same issues 4x512mb has. another is to just deal and set the mem usage on whatever background stuff low :p
 
Lol Eclipse. It's been a long night :p.

4x1GB is definitely not a viable option for myslef, haha. Christmas wiped my account out good this year.

I understand the actions I could take, I was just wondering if me going dual core is actually going to hinder performance if I plan on gaming BF2 (my main game) and do other multitasking, such as ripping CDs, or encoding home movies, etc.
 
no, it'll help a lot, having two cores to work in things at the same time instead of one :p
 
Does WindowsXP Pro detect 4gb of RAM..i thought it only detected like 2.5Gb or something and you needed XP-64?
 
jnick said:
With the obvious hype for the Dual core processors, I eagerly jumped on board, recieving an Opty 170 for Christmas. However, I started thinking (Uh Oh!!).

Everyone explains how it's so great that they can backup a DVD and play BF2 at the same time without any hitches. However, what role does ram play? Just playing BF2 ALONE takes up 66% of my system memory (2GB). Just because I have the processing power to do MULTIPLE things at once, how will memory affect this. I would imagine doing something like a movie backup, or a data backup would take a sufficient amount of RAM.

.: sigh :. just when I thought 2GB was PLENTY . . .
Click to expand...

Backing up a DVD doesn't use a ton of ram FYI.
my average session of DVD shrink is using less than 200Mb of ram.
 
{NcsO}ReichstaG said:
Does WindowsXP Pro detect 4gb of RAM..i thought it only detected like 2.5Gb or something and you needed XP-64?
Click to expand...

Xp detects and uses up to 4GB ram, doesn't matter if it's XP-Pro 32 bit or XP-64 bit.
Your confusing 64 bit with terrabytes of memory support...yes 64 bit OS's can access greater than 4 GB of memory (so can 32 bit with a boot.ini switch /pae).

All XP versions (32 bit OR 64 bit) are capable of terrabytes of memory addressing, but they are limited to 4 GB memory use (due to marketing reasons only, MS wants you to buy a server installation for >4GB).
 
I wouldn't be supprised to see games running better with 4GB of ram versus 2GB before 2007 is over. The transition from 512M to 1GB was slow, 1GB to 2GB was a little faster, I think that the transition to 4GB will start in 2007.
 
BF2 doesn't count? LOL! Care to talk about Quake 4? FEAR? Quake Wars, UT2007, or Unreal 3? 2GB is quickly becoming a necessity. I had the same views as you when I bought this PC, "why do I need 2GB of RAM to play one game?" Instead of buying 2GB, I bought 1GB of overclocking RAM. While this RAM overclocks great, I now wish I had bought 2GB of value RAM instead of 1GB of high-end RAM. Ah well, some people learn the hard way.
 
I recently built my new computer with a AMD 64 3800 X2 with 1 gb of Dual channel pc 3200 and Battlefield 2 studdered and was not the least bit impressed with the dual core processor. I upgraded to 2 gb of memory and I am amazed, I play battlefield 2 with all settings maxed out, in the middle of fighting, can alt + tab out, and burn a cd, and surf the internet with no hesitation what so ever. It rox
 
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