efs2 Posted April 9, 2006 Posted April 9, 2006 A thread in the general discussion forum on RAM usage in the game touched upon some technical questions I have been pondering awhile. So here goes. I generally fly the A-10 and take big FPS hits when I fly through smoke, or sometimes when I take an F2 look while flying over a battlefield. So which would help more, an increase in the amount of RAM on the video card, an increase in the the amount of system RAM, or more rendering power - i.e., a better video card? When I check RAM usage with the Task Manager while in the game, it is never more than 600MB. I never check while flying through smoke or during the intense action that produces the slideshow FPS because that would almost certainly be fatal, and I don't like to die. So that raises the question of whether smoke and/or battlefield textures can eat up another 400MB so that the RAM is overwhelmed, and the game slows down while it visits the pagefile? Or is the problem more likely to be that the video card can't keep up? If the problem is a lack of onboard video RAM, is the slowdown caused by the game going to the system RAM? the pagefile? or what? And if the problem is that the rendering speed can't keep up - i.e., not enough pixel pipelines - then what? The images get there when they get there? My main system specs are: Intel P4 @ 3.0GHz Abit IC7 Motherboard @ 1GHz FSB Speed 1024MB PC3200 RAM @ 800MHz eVGA GeForce 6600GT w/128MB Onboard RAM) Thanks. Ed
Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN Posted April 9, 2006 Posted April 9, 2006 cpu and ram is what you need, a decent video card is also needed, but not as much as a good cpu and at least 1.5 gig of ram...
efs2 Posted April 10, 2006 Author Posted April 10, 2006 Thanks. I'm sure you're right. And since RAM is so cheap now, I will double up to 2048MB and see if that helps. However, I had hoped to spark a broader discussion around the question of how to diagnose what is causing a slowdown. - i.e., what are the symptoms of not enough system RAM versus not enough video RAM versus not enough rendering power? But I am so barely here that I don't draw much attention. So I think I will start personally insulting others. That always draws attention! You there, you suck! You, the other guy, you're stupid! And you, you stink! I bet I'll get some action now! :D Ed
Andrew_McP Posted April 10, 2006 Posted April 10, 2006 But I am so barely here that I don't draw much attention. No, it's just that this is the kind of question that pops up regularly and there's plenty of discussion on it already if you search around. :-) To test whether the weakness is in your vid card or CPU/RAM/motherboard, change to 800x600 and see if performance increases when you see bad FPS (eg your smoke situation). If it does then chances are your vid card is struggling more than your CPU. If it's still bad, then it's more likely to be a CPU/motherboard issue. 1Gb is plenty of RAM for LOMAC. I see no evidence of pagefiling or RAM shortages during LOMAC sessions. However RAM is cheap, so it's easy to buy more and remove that from the equation. I saw a fairly big jump moving from 32-bit AMD architecture to 64-bit. LOMAC still chokes on busy scenes, but then that's the nature of this sim. However smoke is no longer much of a problem.... though IIRC I did see a fairly significant improvement in smoke-related FPS drop when I shifted from a 9700Pro to an X800Pro. Whether that's because the newer card has twice the onboard RAM or simply because it's a lot faster, I've no idea. I still get nasty FPS dips when LOMAC decides to go hunting for new data on the HD though. Being able to cache that in an extra 1Gb of RAM would be nice, but it's not an option. Good luck solving your problem. Andrew McP PS. http://img67.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mcpbench22ko.jpg
Guest Mer1in Posted April 11, 2006 Posted April 11, 2006 Hi gents, I'm new here and just wanted to share my experience. I don't know if the topic of memory leaks has been addressed by others but I experience a slow down in game performance dependant on time. I can fly with two friends only in a MP session where our 3 jets are the only objects in the mission, I take off with FPS @ mid to high 20's, then over time it gradually degrades, say 30-40 minutes later I respawn on the same runway as I started and I get 7 FPS. Other than maybe a couple of burning wrecks within viewing distance there is nothing that has changed in the mission over that amount of time. My system is far from optimal but I dont see this kind of performance reduction over time in anything else I play, just FC. The guys I fly with all see the same thing and the only thing our systems have in common is that they all have 1Gig of RAM. If this is a known issue then please excuse my ignorance, but is it going to be fixed??? I also experience long mission loading times compared to 102, sometimes up to five times as long......is that normal to?? Thanks for any advice/help anyone may provide.
efs2 Posted April 11, 2006 Author Posted April 11, 2006 Hmm, not exactly what I had in mind. Oh, well, slinking away .... edit: Oh, the colorful post has been deleted. Okay, slinking back ....
emenance Posted April 23, 2006 Posted April 23, 2006 Well im still against 2 gig of ram too , I have a gig and i never see 800 mb being used, i have virtual ram space too......I dont see how having 2 gigs of ram is going to make lock on use more ram!! Yes you need cpu mhz and pipe lines , a high bit bus 256mb card will have a 256 bit bus unless its a LE or se or something like that. Putting 256 mb video mem on a 9800 pro doesnt do so good cause 256 wants a 16 pipe line card or close to it. 8 pipe lines on a 9800pro aint going to cut it and barley cuts it on a 6600 gt. Asus P8Z68-V GEN3/ 2500k 4.4ghz / Corsair 64gb SSD Cache / Corsair 8g 1600 ddr3 / 2 x 320gb RE3 Raid 0 /Corsair 950w/ Zotac 560TI AMP 1gb / Zalman GS1200 case /G940/
Mustang Posted May 5, 2006 Posted May 5, 2006 Well im still against 2 gig of ram too , I have a gig and i never see 800 mb being used, i have virtual ram space too......I dont see how having 2 gigs of ram is going to make lock on use more ram Against 2GB RAM? i've been using 2x1024 Crucial Ballistix Tracer DC for a while now, just for kicks i removed 1 stick to see how it performed, damn, i won't go into details but it sucked :P
diveplane Posted May 5, 2006 Posted May 5, 2006 yummy 3 here..more the better imo https://www.youtube.com/user/diveplane11 DCS Audio Modding.
qrazi Posted May 28, 2006 Posted May 28, 2006 well, the slow downs occur when going through smoke. then the obvious question is; what the smoke? is it a shader being rendered by the videocard, or is it an effect being rendered by the cpu. if you put the resolution one notch down, it means that weight is being shifted from the videocard to the cpu. that is also why cpu reviews ussually dont run game benchmarks at high resolution. if i understand the rendering part of lockon sufficient, the TS will benefit mostly from upgrading his videocard. The pentium4 3GHz isnt the most powerfull cpu out there anymore, but i think that the slow downs are mostly caused by the videocard which doesnt have enough power to render the close up effects. when i went from my athlon xp 1600+ to my athlon xp-m 3200+, i saw a big increase in maximum FPS. However. i'm still running 800x600 at low to medium details, because else the minimum Fps gets to low. So basicly, my 9800se@pro/XT speeds/pipelines still isnt powerfull enough. best buys: geforce 6800gs/gt agp version radeon x800xl best performance: geforce 7800GS agp. MSI 870A-G54, AMD Phenom II X2 555 @Phenom II X4 B55 BE, 3.2 GHz quad-core, Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/512MD5, OCZ Gold Edition DDR3 1333MHz 4GB Kit Low-Voltage. Budget = Cheap = Good :D
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