About 128MB cards playing BF2...

[rmed64]

Ok. So i have 1GB RAM, Geforce 6600GT 128 AGP and Sempron 2200+ @ 1.78GHz 396MHz FSB

I play on medium settings, 1024 res and get around 40fps average, which i dont mind at all, tho it would be nice to get some more fps. I set my AGP Aperture to 128MB, so now the game takes even more system memory than it would normally cuz its sending more memory from system RAM to card now. Now I go into game, play first 2 maps, then once i get to the thirdish map i start getting terrible hitches ( i mean like 2-4 second pauses). after about 2 hours of playing I MUST restart my PC cuz BF2 goes up to 1020MB RAM in task manager.

Now I was thinking of selling off my current hardware then doing an overhaul to A64 3000+ and 256MB 6800GS. But i was wondering if I should just get more RAM (would have to sell off my 2 sticks of 512 and get 2 1GB sticks for a difference of ~110 bux) or do the overhaul now.

these are my options:

1. Get Asrock PCIe/AGP mobo and A643000+ and 2GB RAM
2. Get Asrock PCIe/AGP mobo and A643000+ and 6800GS
or
3. stick with my current system but upgrade to 2GB and ride the pine till socket M2 or Conroe and Vista comes out.

option 3 cost less than the others, option 1 cost less than option 2.

yes very confusing. Damn technology moving so fast, decisions decisions

EDIT: Also I heard about gaing more fps with 6600GT just by adding 2GB RAM when playing BF2. Is this true?

 

[sisq0kidd]

2GB will make your experience a little more "smoother," but I don't know about gaining more frames.

I went to 2gigs from 1gig, and I can't go back. I also went from a 6600gt to an unlocked 6800nu and can't go back.

If I were you, I'd go with the second option, but that's almost a toss up for me.

 

[Auric]

Increasing RAM capacity with that system would be a waste. Find out what is wrong and then consider replacing the viddy card if the CPU is not a significant limitation (not familiar with its performance) otherwise replace the CPU if it can be done without a new mobo (in any case, after doing one, consider the other too where possible). If no hardware sound card, then consider that as well since it will unburden the CPU and improve quality. I would be hesistant to bother with the trouble of a complete rebuild only to base it upon an oddball Frankenstein mobo.

For reference, I had no such issues at Medium settings and 1280x960 with 1GB RAM, P2900, Radeon 9700 128MB (with AGP Aperature 128) and Audigy. Even since upgrading to P3600 and X800XL on the same system (and increasing a few settings to High in addition to more AA & AF), the 1GB is not a limitation unless Textures are set to High. I even tried adding another 1GB and found no difference except the ability to enable that.

If your Windows memory usage is or can be made to be less than 240MB or so then BF2 should not peak beyond capacity -or if it does, only in rare instances by 10 or 20MB in which case a defragmented drive will smooth out any potential paging effect. If your system is already process svelte, then perhaps there is a memory leak in some other app or driver.

 

[the Chase]

Above poster has good insights- try turning your texture setting to LOW. I have the 6600GT AGP and read an article on settings for different cards-www.tweakguides.com - and it helped a lot - I have 1 gig of ram and very little hitching after game smooths out initially. I thought about buying more memory two but since AMD is going DDR2 soon I'm gonna wait until I change platforms.