Thinking about adding more RAM - will it help?

[Lambtropolis 0]

Okay, so I've been thinking about doubling my PC3200 DDR400 RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB, thinking that this will speed up the game. Even with just 1 GB I only notice severe slowdowns on large maps with medium to large sized cities. Even so, I would like to improve performance - can anyone tell me if doing this will work? I'd rather not spend the money if the added RAM is not going to make a noticeable different in performance.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yes.  Make sure you have maxed your paging file (virtual memory) too.  The additional memory should severely cut into your paging action, so you should run better.

[Lambtropolis 0]

Is it true, though, that the more virtual memory I allocate, the less the game will run off my RAM? Wouldn't that tend to slow things down a bit? Thanks for your response.

[Goldfish4209 9]

That's true, but if you have enough RAM you could disable VRAM completely and force everything to go on the physical RAM.I believe it's possible to do that with 2 GB.

[pnorrell 4]

The added RAM will make a big difference. Trust me.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The game will only page, as will any program, if the page needed is not in memory.  If you have lots of RAM, few pages will be out of memory after they have been selected once.

[Lambtropolis 0]

Well, bottom line is I guess I'll get some more RAM and then do some vram experimentation. I'll see if it runs better with more or less vram and report back.