Quote:
Originally Posted by shadow9d9
Why would 1g be any issue for these games? Should be plenty.
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As I said, 1 gig is not what you're giving the game when you factor in the entirety of you system needs. Whereas a gig
SHOULD be enough for the most part in ideal situations,
IF it isn't, and you want a cheap upgrade path that doesn't involve a new motherboard, cpu and videocard, more memory is the way to go.
My point was simply that a cheap memory boost can see surprising gains as Windows then has more room, so to speak, to work with. Virtual memory access for example can slow Windows dramatically, and thats what Windows does when it needs more memory than it physically has and hence why you have a virtual memory setting period.
Now, you can't assume everyones computers are 'ideally' optimized and tweaked where technically
meeting the min requirements is enough. Remember how your computer felt when you first installed Windows fresh. It was crisp and fast and without hitch. Months of usage slows down the inner workings. My suggestion is just a cheap, easy fix versus the only other alternatives which involve reinstalls of the OS or a real system upgrade.
So, assuming you have the minimum requirments (which you must realise represents the bare minimum the developers feel will
run a game, regardless of fluidity, load times or whatnot, so it doesn't guarantee a flawless experience), the very least you can do without touching the machines innards is to make sure that you have no extraneous Windows resources running when playing the game. Shut down any instant messengers and any quick access residents like QuickTime, desktop managers(videocard), file backup apps, weather checkers or perhaps those support apps for your machine(Dell, Gateway). If you're not going to be on the internet, turn off your antivirus program. You'd be surprised how much mem you can free up. Secondly, make sure you have enough harddrive space left(at least 15%), as again, virtual mem depends on it and Windows likes to have it around in emergencies. Double check your vidcard and sound drivers.
Proper computer maintainance can be just as important as getting oil and air filter changes for your car. To be honest, I've never run into a majority of these problems I read from all sorts of users about all sorts of games on all sorts of forums, and my machines are never bleeding edge simply because having the lastest and greatest tech isn't worth the cost of performance. I'm still running a 6800GT for example, and I've played though most newer games without a problem, albeit perhaps with lower settings such as in the case of NWN2. Dark Messiah was the worst offender being a stuttering nightmare, and bumping my mem up from 1 to 2 gigs made an unbelievable and startling difference; it was like a whole different game.
Cheers
