RAM size increase

[DOXXP29 5]

I currently have a RAM size of 768mb. (2 GB Gateway, nvidea 6200 vid w/256mb) Would increasing it be worth it in terms of increased game speed? Playing large tiles can be frustratingly slow. I ask because I use RAMBUS which can be ridiculously expensive and must be purchased in pairs. I currently have 571mb in my plug-ins folder (no read-mes or photos) VM is set per the directions from N_O_Body to max. I keep everything defragged, etc. Just wondering if I increase RAM to a gig if it would help appreciably, or if I'd need a lot more to show any real improvement. Thanks.

[prince_of_sims 0]

Oh yes, definitely! SC4 is very RAM intensive, as all the plugins need to be loaded into memory before the game starts. In fact, the more plugins you have, the more RAM you will do good with. Increasing your RAM to 1GB will definitely help, but I don't know if it will show a lot of marked improvement. The more RAM you have, the less SC4 needs to write to the Paging file, thus actually improving game performance.

But probably one of the most overlooked facts about SC4 is that it's a processor intensive game as well. The processor is what's carrying out all the hundreds of calculations, from population growth to pollution to pathfinding routes. If your processor is weak, adding more RAM won't necessary help as the processor will act as a bottleneck, slowing down the performance of the rest of the system. But hey, RAM is the cheapest way to improve your performance in SC4.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you can afford it go to 2GB.  If not, get 256MB more to take you to 1GB.  Are you sure you need all those plugins?

Getting more RAM definitely cuts down paging, which can be a pretty serious overhead because of all the processor faults involved.  Depending on your O/S a missing page fault can cause a segment fault, with massive paging of the page table, then messing about getting the right page which has only one reference on it, and here we go again.  So more RAM not only gives you better access to the game data, it cuts paging I/O thus saving all the processor cycles for that, too!

[DOXXP29 5]

Thank you both, prince of sims and N_O_Body! You guys are always so very helpful and your info is always right on! With RAMBUS, it actually MAY be cheaper to but a new processor than to upgrade to 2 gb, so I may try to up it to 1 gb in the meantime. N_O_Body, how would I determine if I have a "missing page fault", or something that was causing it? I have a lot of stuff on my comp (I use Windows XP home), both busibess and otherwise. Have 3 internal HDs, and run AV and Spybot & defrag faithfully. I'm sure there are things such as this that may very well be slowing down my system, but I have no idea about...page faults being one I have no knowledge on. (and no, I probably don't need all the plug-ins, but so many things have dependencies, etc, that there probably isn't a whole lot that I could actually remove and still keep my existing cities intact) Again, thank you very much! (Sorry...I WISH I could get these posts to recognize my paragraphs!)

[tungston 19]

I have an older computer that uses Rambus, and the only place I know of to get memory is Dell. And, the only thing they have is 512MB modules, at $295 each. I didn't check Gateway. More memory will help, but not all that much. Moniter how often the game is writing to the swap file, if it is alot, there may be something you can do to fix that. Saving the game often will also help to limit the swap file writes.

I am guessing when you say "2 GB Gateway" that you mean 2GHz. That will do a fair job, but even with my 3.6GHz, and a large city, saving, and going to underground view can be exasperatingly slow. Or, maybe I am just too impatient.

[coolotter88 2]

No you're just too impatient...lol jk but, how exasperatingly slow is it? did you time how many seconds (or minutes) it took to switch ever? I guess its something to keep you busy while waiting.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

N_O_Body, how would I determine if I have a "missing page fault", or something that was causing it?quote>

You would have to run XP in debug mode, and have the debugging tools.  You might be able to see it through the system events monitor, but since missing page faults are a standard mechanism used to start a program in XP, I suspect they are not logged unless they caused a crash.  At that point you would have to be able to unwind a stack trace.

Let me give you an example of the use of the missing page fault.

When a new job is starting up, the executable file(s) are examined and a (virtual) memory space is assigned to it.  The system builds a (segment and a) page table that point to all the pages of the program on the disk media.  In the case of XP, I believe these are on the prefetch area (a stupid concept, but that is another story).  To actually start the job, the system does a user mode branch to the starting address of the program.  This location is not in memory, so a page fault occurs, the page table is accessed, and the page brought into memory.  The branch is re-executed, and away you go.

[DOXXP29 5]

Thanks, N_O_Body! I learn quite a lot from you. I appreciate you taking the time to enlighten a semi-literate user like myself on these types of issues. It's a bit deep for me, but I'm gonna pull out my microsoft XP books, manuals and CDs and check into it. I've found that the advice you've provided in the past helps not only for SC4 play, but affects the computer globally in a good way, which makes my life happier when using other applications and programs. Again, I thank you! And thanx for the price info on RAMBUS memory. That's waht I've been finding...512 stcks for just under $300 apiece. Since I need two, I could get a bare bones computer just for SC4 for less.

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: coolotter88 No you're just too impatient...lol jk but, how exasperatingly slow is it? did you time how many seconds (or minutes) it took to switch ever? I guess its something to keep you busy while waiting.quote>

 

Gee, thanks, Coolotter, just what I wanted to do, sit and watch a stop watch run. 

It's seconds , not minutes, but when I want to play the game, it seems like a very long time.  I have always thought about timing it, but just have not got around to it.  And it is a large city [62MB file], a million pop, 48,000 HT, and 500,000 commercial jobs.  It is loaded with dozens of landmarks, and all of the rewards.

[antipat 0]

$295 for ONLY 512MB!!!!! That is outrageous. Try tigerdirect.com or newegg.com to buy more memory.

[prince_of_sims 0]

I'm pretty sure RAMBUS memory is a specific type of memory that only Dell sells. So their prices will probably be the only and the best you will find.

[tungston 19]

---

All of the early Pentium 4's used Rambus memory, it's a really fast memory, but expensive. That's why Intel changed the processor to accomodate other memory types. The reason it is so expensive, other than the architecture, is that it is patented.

There are several retailers that handle it, and some are cheaper than Dell. 

[prince_of_sims 0]

Ok, I don't claim to know everything.

Just out of curiousity, is Rambus Memory the same as RDRAM?

[tungston 19]

I believe so..

I wasn't directing my post toward you Prince.

Just providing information on the history.

I think Sony intends to use it in one of their games.

Edit:  Another interesting point, it is 10 times faster [bandwidth] than DDR 400

[prince_of_sims 0]

I remember reading up on RDRAM. I have an Intel Compaq PC that uses RDRAM. I decided to go ahead and build a new computer when it turned out that adding more RAM to the PC was going to be really expensive.

Anyways, I'm getting really off topic, so I will not continue this discussion here.