RAM and XWAU Query

[Kettch]

Does anyone know whether XWA with the XWAU installed runs smoother with 384 or 512 Mb of RAM rather than 256? <P>I'd read in a hardware review that installing more than 256 Mb of RAM was pointless as more than that made no difference to the frame rate in games. But if it does make a difference, I'll go and buy another DIMM.

[Roccer]

Upgrading past 256 might make a little bit of a difference. Although, if you have no other programs running in the backround you might end up just having all that extra memory laying around doing nothing at all for the XWAUP or your system. I run my system with 128mb and I don't see any MAJOR performance hits on my system.

[John Banks]

I played XWA with XWAUP and i can say that with 256 Ram the game runs slower compared to 384MB or 512MB Ram. When u fly a mission with many fighters on the screen at the same time (Join The Rebels-Mission2) u dont have so much delay in transfering data to the memory cause u have enough wich makes the gameflow smoother. To load a mission dosnt take so long and the FPS is higher although i never saw my actual FPS rate in game cause u cant display your FPS rate like in CFS2. But u can see that the game is faster. I still know how it was after i have upgraded from 128 to 256. It was much faster even in the windows. About the same improved speed rate was noticible after i have upgraded to 384MB Ram. And i think 384Mb is very good for all games right now and u dont need to add more ram but with 512 its a little faster again. Its not such an improvment wich i had with 384 from 256 but in some games u saw a difference. Hope i could help you.<P>------------------<BR>

[Sergione]

Well, as far as I know, it is not the quantity of the memory that you need, because everything over 256 would be something like unnoticeable for windows awesome memory manger... I think that the problem is the speed of the memory. I have 256 of DDRAM PC 2100, and it works really good... I am telling you this because I just changed my 392 mb of 133 for the DDRAM, and it works much better right now, even though I am using the same porocessor and my old matrox g400..A 32 mb ghraphic cad will help also...

[Mickk Emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kettch:<BR><B>Does anyone know whether XWA with the XWAU installed runs smoother with 384 or 512 Mb of RAM rather than 256? <P>I'd read in a hardware review that installing more than 256 Mb of RAM was pointless as more than that made no difference to the frame rate in games. But if it does make a difference, I'll go and buy another DIMM. </B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, personally speaking, I'm running XWA with 256MB of RAM and a 32MB video card and it's fast and smooth as well. I'm currently running at 800 X 600 and despite the fact that the ships don't look as nice as if I was running at a higher res, I can have the max amount of ships in game at one time and it doesn't miss a beat, even with the XWAUP ships on board.<P>The only thing I can say is that if the RAM is cheap (it's dirt cheap over here right now $36 buck (aussie) for 128MB!) and you have the space to take it, go for it, it won't hurt and it might actually help!<P><P>------------------<BR>MAJ Michael Emrys<BR>CMDR/MAJ Michael Emrys/Theta/Wing II/SSSD Sovereign<BR>"Thou shalt SMILE and have a good day, for this will thwart thine enemies who plan against thee"

[Kettch]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll order another stick ASAP - anything which helps my framerate has got to be worthwhile.

[John Banks]

Hey Sergione. As far as i know is it noticeable in windows when u updated from 256 to 384mb ram. The max ram windows can support is about 650mb ram. Some guys have motherboards wich support 1000 mb ram. This is useless cause windows cant use 1000mb. And its a matter of fact that 384mb ram are faster than 256 cause more data can be loaded into the ram wich makes the whole system faster. Many games will run faster cause they have a great appetite for ram. The more data can be loaded into ram the faster the game will run and u dont have so many loadings to the harddrive.<P>------------------<BR>

[Sergione]

Well, could be.....<BR>I could tell you that with the same processor (Athlon 1.33 ghz) and the same graphic card (Matrox G400), the difference between 256 of DDram and 384 RAM 133 was really huge...Well Alliance loads much faster right now....Could it be because the processor and memory have the same bus? .<BR>

[Smeg]

We got a gig of RAM, and Windows was giving us trouble, so one of my dad's friends told him about a program called "Cacheman", which helps Windows to manage larger amounts of RAM than possible before. Now Windows doesn't seem to have any trouble, and everything runs FAST! <p>[This message has been edited by Smeg (edited 22 July 2001).]

[rogue518]

Ummm Smeg? Is there a website for this program??? And where can <B> we </B> find it? That's OK Smeg... I found the website... Thanks for the info though.. I have 512mb SDRAM <P>Sincerly, rogue518<p>[This message has been edited by rogue518 (edited 22 July 2001).]

[Ace Antilles]

This is being moved to the Hardware section.<BR>The XWAU topics are not for long PC + RAM discussions.