Metron
Golden Member
- Oct 16, 2003
- 1,163
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Poppyq,
While it may be semantically true that most home users don't need 1 Gigabyte of RAM, the quality of many large multi-user online games with high end graphics (and maybe others) suffer dramatically if sufficient RAM isn't available. Making sweeping generalizations that home users don't actually "need" that much is technically true, but false when viewed from the perspective of enjoyable playability and competitive advantage.
I need at least 700 Mb of RAM to play my favorite game, Anarchy Online/Shadowlands, and I actually run 1.5 Gigabytes with no disk swap. I bought 512 Mb, found it to be lacking, so I bought another 1 Gb. The entry/exit times from all games markedly improved.
Bear in mind the 700 Mb is just for the game executable itself, not any other applications I usually run in order to "play" the game. I typically have a web brower playing Rubi-Ka GridStream Radio running (www.gridstream.com... live "broadcasts" from DJ players from in-game nightclubs and parties). I'll have ClickSaver running (an application used to find missions in game). I'll also be running NanoNanny, which is another application used to configure implants. When I was running with only 512 Mb, I was unable to task switch (Alt - Tab) among those applications in real time. Oh sure... I could press Alt-Tab and have my system hang while I wait countless seconds for my AO game image to write out from RAM memory to disk, and then load the desired application. However, in the middle of a game with people on my team waiting for me to pull a mission while I try to use ClickSaver, this was totally unacceptable.
I also play PlanetSide, another online multi-user game. I'm also always running Ventrilo, in order to voice chat with other members in my sqaud/platoon. In summary, the additional RAM makes the game more enjoyable by eliminating frustrating delays and crashes caused by a lack of sufficient RAM.
To BlindBartimaeus,
I would suggest that it depends upon what applications you use for your system, and to some extent the operating system under which you're running. If you're running Word, Excel and Quicken under Windows 98SE, you're probably just fine with 512 Mb of RAM. However, if you're a gamer trying to gain every advantage by utilizing your hardware for the fullest competitive advantage, I would suggest you get as much RAM as you need.
Metron
While it may be semantically true that most home users don't need 1 Gigabyte of RAM, the quality of many large multi-user online games with high end graphics (and maybe others) suffer dramatically if sufficient RAM isn't available. Making sweeping generalizations that home users don't actually "need" that much is technically true, but false when viewed from the perspective of enjoyable playability and competitive advantage.
I need at least 700 Mb of RAM to play my favorite game, Anarchy Online/Shadowlands, and I actually run 1.5 Gigabytes with no disk swap. I bought 512 Mb, found it to be lacking, so I bought another 1 Gb. The entry/exit times from all games markedly improved.
Bear in mind the 700 Mb is just for the game executable itself, not any other applications I usually run in order to "play" the game. I typically have a web brower playing Rubi-Ka GridStream Radio running (www.gridstream.com... live "broadcasts" from DJ players from in-game nightclubs and parties). I'll have ClickSaver running (an application used to find missions in game). I'll also be running NanoNanny, which is another application used to configure implants. When I was running with only 512 Mb, I was unable to task switch (Alt - Tab) among those applications in real time. Oh sure... I could press Alt-Tab and have my system hang while I wait countless seconds for my AO game image to write out from RAM memory to disk, and then load the desired application. However, in the middle of a game with people on my team waiting for me to pull a mission while I try to use ClickSaver, this was totally unacceptable.
I also play PlanetSide, another online multi-user game. I'm also always running Ventrilo, in order to voice chat with other members in my sqaud/platoon. In summary, the additional RAM makes the game more enjoyable by eliminating frustrating delays and crashes caused by a lack of sufficient RAM.
To BlindBartimaeus,
I would suggest that it depends upon what applications you use for your system, and to some extent the operating system under which you're running. If you're running Word, Excel and Quicken under Windows 98SE, you're probably just fine with 512 Mb of RAM. However, if you're a gamer trying to gain every advantage by utilizing your hardware for the fullest competitive advantage, I would suggest you get as much RAM as you need.
Metron
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