BF2 Producer recommends "a couple gigs of ram"

Me too, just ordered mine (CORSAIR XMS). I'm so stoked I already put it in my sig :D. I hope I won't have to upgrade my mobo and proc.
 
lol rgr.
I just ordered (2x1GB) PC4000 Crucial Ballistix.
If I'm gonna double my ram I might as well spend the extra dollars and increase the speed, 1:1 @250 for my Winchester. :D
 
Thanks for the link... I guess he (the producer in the interview) makes official what Far Cry, Half-Life 2, and Doom 3 started: You need the latest stuff to play the hottest games.

Sarcasm aside, what concerns me is that many people will read what he said in the interview the wrong way -- that they need 2GB of RAM before they could play BF2. (I'm not suggesting that anyone here would make that assumption, but what's to say that the average Joe Gamer wouldn't?)

The bigger issue that may come up -- sooner rather than later -- is that a lot of today's games are designed more for showing off what they could with today's computer technology than for being easily playable for everyone. Don't get me wrong... I'm all for having all of the bells and whistles on when I play these games, but (assuming that I was the average Joe Gamer) if I have to turn everything off just to play the game, and the game looks like crap as a result, then chances are that either I find the game for my console and play that, or I stop playing the new games altogether. I know of too many people who often buy a video card or a hard drive just to play the latest game, only to get pissed off when they eventually find out that their computer is too old/underpowered/whatever to even load up the intro screen. And I'm (almost) willing to bet that some of you know some of these people too.

Am I whining about it? No, not yet.... :rolleyes: But I don't want games (and their designers) to get to the point where I have to build a new system for every Doom/Half-Life sequel that comes out on the market.
 
^^^ That may be true for Doom 3 but Far cry ran on my MX 440 and half life 2 was very scalable. Scalablity is very important though, because people like me can't afford a card when every new game comes out, like you said.
 
Okay, I just realized that the above rant should have been in the Games forum (sorry Mods :D ), but it seems that soon RAM will be as much a bottleneck for games as the actual video card itself (and, quite possibly, even more of a bottleneck than hard drive speeds). But I'm probably just paranoid.... (Yeah, that's it.... :p )
 
I'm gunna' laugh when some compony starts selling motherboards with 2GB of GDDR3 sauldered straight to the board! :D
 
no need for 2GB huh?
What about the fact that it uses 1.08 GB of swap file?
I can run the game at 120x960 4xAA no AF everything high except shadows and lighting at med.
I plan on increasing all that.
But moreover to reduce the 1 gig of swap file.
 
JRT said:
no need for 2GB huh?
What about the fact that it uses 1.08 GB of swap file?
I can run the game at 120x960 4xAA no AF everything high except shadows and lighting at med.
I plan on increasing all that.
But moreover to reduce the 1 gig of swap file.
Click to expand...
The 1.08GB used of the windows pagefile won't affect gameplay unless you've actually run out of ram. Having windows page loads of mem into the virtual mem (pagefile) is a GOOD THING and means you get to use the maximum amount of ram possible for the game.
 
uhhhhhhh you do know that he isn't saying that he have 1.08 gig pagefiling waiting to be used....he is saying BF2 is USING those pagefiling......not that they are sitting in windows waiting to be used... pagefile= stutter..

and lets see you run BF2 with pagefiling disabled.... ( unless u got 1.5 gig+ ram)

with high settings on everything including textures.... game will probably crash right when u get in.
 
aZn_plyR said:
uhhhhhhh you do know that he isn't saying that he have 1.08 gig pagefiling waiting to be used....he is saying BF2 is USING those pagefiling......not that they are sitting in windows waiting to be used... pagefile= stutter..

and lets see you run BF2 with pagefiling disabled.... ( unless u got 1.5 gig+ ram)

with high settings on everything including textures.... game will probably crash right when u get in.
Click to expand...
I know what he means. But that pagefile usage doesn't neccessarily indicate that all the ram has been used up. It's only if the ram has been used up that excessive pagefile usage becomes a big problem. I did mention in my post, "unless you've actually run out of ram".

A gig is fine for the default medium settings. If you set it to max then yeah, you will NEED 2 gig, maybe 1.5 if you keep Windows nice and lean.


p.s. With a gig on max settings, it doesn't crash, it just takes forever and the game isn't even a slideshow - it's an art gallery. :p
 
spine said:
The 1.08GB used of the windows pagefile won't affect gameplay unless you've actually run out of ram. Having windows page loads of mem into the virtual mem (pagefile) is a GOOD THING and means you get to use the maximum amount of ram possible for the game.
Click to expand...


Well hell maybe I’m imagining things then,
Here are two print screens from my dual 19” monitors @ 1280x960.
This is right after a cold boot, notice in the “before” image that there is 722MB of ram free and 206MB of page file being used.
Now take a look at the “after” image that was taken in game, there is 12MB free ram and 1 Gig of page being used.
This game is using 700 Megs of ram and 800 Megs of swap file.
I have 1Gig of ram and 2 gigs of set swap file.
Indecently I had to change the location of the swap file to my third HDD to get it away from the game.
My game is installed on my Raptor (drive C), I had then the swap file on drive D with is Sata4 and C: is on Sata3.
It ran badly swapping files so I had to put the swap file on drive F which is a ATA133 controller with a 200GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA133 8MB Cache.

Once I changed the location it ran much better, but as you can see is still using a huge amount of paging.
2GB of ram should cure that.

BTW I am running the game at 1280x960x85Hz Vsync on 4XAA 0AF all settings are high except Shadows and lighting are at medium.
In the ATI control panel i have Texture Performance at and mipmaps at quality instead of high quality.

Peace,
JRT


Before running game froma cold boot.

After entering a game and playing for only a few minutes.
 
I don't feel one game is worth giving up low latency memory for. When a good number of them require more than a gig, then it'll be a different story. All of the BF games have been quite a ways ahead of their time when it comes to memory usage.
 
Jasonx82 said:
But I want my Ram to run at 1T @ 2-2-2 :(
Click to expand...
Then get 2x 1GB like me :) Crucial Balistix ;) Can run at good timings and get a decent OC

Anyway, I have had 1GB of ram already since September 2003. Of course its time for 2GB!
 
Jasonx82 said:
But I want my Ram to run at 1T @ 2-2-2 :(
Click to expand...

Why does it matter?
I'm going from 1Gig @ 208 2-2-2-5 to 2Gigs @ 250 3-3-3-8 or maybe lower timings if i can get them.

There is only so much that low timings can do, but 2Gigs in BF2 atleast will mean alot.
 
I have the system in my sig and I can run BF2 just fine. I minimized it while playing in SP with Vet Bots and it said 513MB was being used by the game. I certainly am not going to waste a fortune on something you do NOT need. It really is pathetic that as soon as a new game DEMO comes out people go on a rampage to buy the best of the so-called best. If you truly have to play at 1280x1024 or 960 with all the AF and AA sh#t then something is wrong with you. But like I always say, its your money.
 
Hmmm well I have two gigs of ram in my system, unfortunatly everything else isn't up to par. I'm only running a P4 2.6C, and a 9700Pro, which in this age of gaming, is getting old. Yeah I know some may say that its still good, which it is for some other games, but for BF2, I can only play in 1024x768 no aa or af, and its definatly playable, but it could look so much better.

At least the game doesn't hitch a single bit, and I love watching the LEDS in the redzone :)
 
XSNiper said:
I have the system in my sig and I can run BF2 just fine. I minimized it while playing in SP with Vet Bots and it said 513MB was being used by the game. I certainly am not going to waste a fortune on something you do NOT need. It really is pathetic that as soon as a new game DEMO comes out people go on a rampage to buy the best of the so-called best. If you truly have to play at 1280x1024 or 960 with all the AF and AA sh#t then something is wrong with you. But like I always say, its your money.
Click to expand...

Why is it pathetic?
How is something wrong with me because I am spending $400 on 2GB of ballistix PC4000?
After all it is MY money and I may choose to do with it how I please.
I never said you NEED 2Gigs but it will damn sure help this game a lot.
You need to look at the screens in my previous post; this game sucks up some resources.
 
XSNiper said:
If you truly have to play at 1280x1024 or 960 with all the AF and AA sh#t then something is wrong with you. But like I always say, its your money.
Click to expand...
Gee, and you didn't bother to think that some people make shitloads of money? Something wrong with them? Yeah, maybe cause they make an insane amount :p
 
JRT said:
Why is it pathetic?
How is something wrong with me because I am spending $400 on 2GB of ballistix PC4000?
After all it is MY money and I may choose to do with it how I please.
I never said you NEED 2Gigs but it will damn sure help this game a lot.
You need to look at the screens in my previous post; this game sucks up some resources.
Click to expand...

No need to get offended. I stated that I knew it was your money, obviously it was IMO.

Edit: Thanks for the screens. :confused:
 
It's all good dude i wasn't really offended.
I realize my post sounded that way but, its no biggy. :)
 
I tested 2 gb last night...

1gb of ram settings was, 2-2-2-5 1t Dual channel @225Mhz, CPU 2700Mhz

2gb of ram settings was, 2-3-3-7 2t Dual channel @200Mhz, CPU stock 2400Mhz

Indeed 2gb of ram works wonders, I was abel to set all setting high, 1280x960 with no lag, where i had lag before. So even with a loss of clock speed and a slight loss in timings and memory speed, it still ran better. Load time were better too...This wasnt on the demo map so i cant compar to the demo map...
 
I don't see what is wrong with people buying 2 gigs, sooner or later people will need to buy it anyways.

Oh, and to the person with the Ballistix DDR500, push some more voltage than stock and get the 3-4-4-8 timings down a bit. 2.5-2-2- is feasable with enough voltage (3.2v I suppose).
 
"If you're stuck on medium reducing texture quality will help to smooth things out."

No thanks, I want the best IQ possible. (With my ATi.)
 
Project_2501 said:
"If you're stuck on medium reducing texture quality will help to smooth things out."

No thanks, I want the best IQ possible. (With my ATi.)
Click to expand...

Read the first page, even with your "ATI" runnign everyhting high might not be posible (current GEN cards) that is a great artical on getting BF2 to run smooth. I left everythign high and jsut set lighting and shadows to med and it improved like 15fps at 1280x960
 
I have only a FX-5200. So i have to run Low settings. 1 gig of DDR2 works fine,

When I tryed to go to Med settings, I could tell that i needed more Ram. ( and a new card ) :p
 
That article just posts frame rates and says increasing RAM won't make a difference, which seems a little misleading to me. True, if you sit in a corner of a room and check the frame rates they aren't going to differ because no cache misses are going to occur in RAM. Once you get moving around, more of the level won't fit into memory with 1GB of RAM due to the size of the page file and you ARE going to experience slowdown. I find those benchmarks to be quite misleading.
 
QFT, lol, when ur moving around and the one gig of ram stutters....it will drop under the ten's lol
 
JayD said:
That article just posts frame rates and says increasing RAM won't make a difference, which seems a little misleading to me. True, if you sit in a corner of a room and check the frame rates they aren't going to differ because no cache misses are going to occur in RAM. Once you get moving around, more of the level won't fit into memory with 1GB of RAM due to the size of the page file and you ARE going to experience slowdown. I find those benchmarks to be quite misleading.
Click to expand...


Exactly, this article is all bogus.
I just installed my 2GB of Ballistix and I can tell for sure the game runs MUCH better.
When you first enter the game, it still uses about 800 Megs in the swap file and only 700MB of ram.
However as you start moving about the map, you load more of it so ram usage goes up.

From a cold boot I have about 1.72 Gigs of free ram, after playing for awhile it has dipped to about 700Megs free and that is on the demo map after playing for 20 minutes.
2GB of ram isn’t needed but it damn sure helps, especially with the retail version I would say.
 
JRT said:
Exactly, this article is all bogus.
I just installed my 2GB of Ballistix and I can tell for sure the game runs MUCH better.
When you first enter the game, it still uses about 800 Megs in the swap file and only 700MB of ram.
However as you start moving about the map, you load more of it so ram usage goes up.

From a cold boot I have about 1.72 Gigs of free ram, after playing for awhile it has dipped to about 700Megs free and that is on the demo map after playing for 20 minutes.
2GB of ram isn’t needed but it damn sure helps, especially with the retail version I would say.
Click to expand...

yea wait untill you get to play the full game... :p The maps are bigger take longer to laod, and use way more memory...
 
Oh yea?
man i can't wait, this game just has fun factor for me. :D
Not to mention it looks pretty damn cool when 30+ people are engaged in all out warfare. :)

The only real problem i have with it is the damn teamkill punishing bullshit.
Its so easy to tk when you are flying at 800 Knots dropping bombs like a madman.
It's damn near impossible to see little people on the ground everywhere and you WILL get some tk's.
Little kiddies allways punish for stupid little things. :rolleyes:

I need to find a cool group of adults, in there 20's and 30's to play with that love teamplay.
 
USMC2Hard4U said:
Then get 2x 1GB like me :) Crucial Balistix ;) Can run at good timings and get a decent OC

Anyway, I have had 1GB of ram already since September 2003. Of course its time for 2GB!
Click to expand...

Uh Ballistix is 2.5-3-3-7
 
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