How will an extra 1gb of ram increase my performance in oblivion?

[platinumike]

I really just wanna increase my fps. Right now I run the game at 1152*864 with hdr and shadows on. The framerate hangs around 25 or so. I was wondering how much an extra 1 gig of ram would do to performance.
My system:
Barton xp oc'd to 2.2ghz
768mb 3200 ram
6800 gt

or should i just go with an extra 512mb? the cheapest 512 i found was 40. Cheapest 1 gig i found was @70 shipped(zzf)

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

get the gig.

 

[apinomus]

I think a new processor/motherboard would benefit you more than a new set of RAM. But if you got a new processor/motherboard, might as well get new RAM too. I would say keep saving.

 

[Bullhonkie]

You're probably more video limited than anything. More memory probably wouldn't help framerate much if at all, but if you get stuttering outdoors when loading new areas it should alleviate that.

 

[AmigaMan]

I think the system memory comes into effect when loading distant landscapes. I recall reading the Oblivion Optimizing guide saying somethign to that effect.
Read the top of this page: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?SCID=27&CIID=36222&p=2

 

[Golgatha]

Get a 2GB (2x1GB) kit and sell the RAM you have in there now. Go for a dual-channel socket 939 in the future and reuse the RAM later or sell it to move to AM2.

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I think the system memory comes into effect when loading distant landscapes. I recall reading the Oblivion Optimizing guide saying somethign to that effect.
Read the top of this page: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?SCID=27&CIID=36222&p=2

I've tried this and it initially seemed to smooth things out. After playing for a while though it seemed to settle back to average performance. I think what it allows for is more grid viewing at the cost of increased load times. The grass tweak helps the most.

I have 1 Gb of RAM and Oblivion doesn't come even close to using all of it, I monitor my memory usage from an LCD panel on my PC. At most I've seen 80% with the memory size tweak. Before the memory tweak it would only use 40% at most.

From everything I've seen the video card is the rosetta stone of Oblivion performance.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: Thera
I have 1 Gb of RAM and Oblivion doesn't come even close to using all of it, I monitor my memory usage from an LCD panel on my PC.

That's odd. I have 2GB and I've seen it use every single bit of it. From a fresh boot, I started the game, played an hour or two, then exited. Task Manager showed a peak of 1.9gb the other day. Other times I've played, it's shown anywhere from 1.2-1.8gb.

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel

Originally posted by: Thera
I have 1 Gb of RAM and Oblivion doesn't come even close to using all of it, I monitor my memory usage from an LCD panel on my PC.

That's odd. I have 2GB and I've seen it use every single bit of it. From a fresh boot, I started the game, played an hour or two, then exited. Task Manager showed a peak of 1.9gb the other day. Other times I've played, it's shown anywhere from 1.2-1.8gb.

The default setting in the .ini file specifies 256 Mb of memory to be used. The tweaked settings allows more (either 512 or 1024). Maybe this is only for textures, and other threads use more RAM. My monitoring has only been during the initial load of the game, I haven't checked it after extend periods of play. I'll be sure to do that now.

BF2 loads my entire RAM, 90% plus, on load. I was surprised when Oblivion didn't.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: Thera

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel

Originally posted by: Thera
I have 1 Gb of RAM and Oblivion doesn't come even close to using all of it, I monitor my memory usage from an LCD panel on my PC.

That's odd. I have 2GB and I've seen it use every single bit of it. From a fresh boot, I started the game, played an hour or two, then exited. Task Manager showed a peak of 1.9gb the other day. Other times I've played, it's shown anywhere from 1.2-1.8gb.

The default setting in the .ini file specifies 256 Mb of memory to be used. The tweaked settings allows more (either 512 or 1024). Maybe this is only for textures, and other threads use more RAM. My monitoring has only been during the initial load of the game, I haven't checked it after extend periods of play. I'll be sure to do that now.

BF2 loads my entire RAM, 90% plus, on load. I was surprised when Oblivion didn't.

do you know where this setting it? i have a gig and oblivion never uses all of it either. i searched the ini but couldnt find it.

thanks.

 

[MustangSVT]

imo Memory wont help fps.

I have same vidcard with faster cpu but getting same result. Most likely you are vidcard limited but I say try to optimize it, I dont think you would get great results from just video or cpu or memory upgrade at this point.

 

[43st]

It's the iPreloadSizeLimit= setting, the default is 2621440. The article says to change it to 104857600. Also try 52428800 if the higher number doesn't work.

 

[Bateluer]

I have 2GB of RAM and I only saw small improvements in GF2 and EQ2 over when I had 1GB.

I let Oblivion auto detect its only settings, which is sets to High Quality. Shadows and HDR are on. However, I do change the resolution to 1600x900 from the autodetects 1024x768. 1024 is too low of a res to play at, especially on a widescreen panel. Usually the game runs at a minimum of 20ish. It will usually choke up in battles when there's magic though.

 

[platinumike]

So ram really wont make much of a difference at all? Only loading distant terrain quicker? Im really trying to save up for another pc which i will build once dx10/vista is set to release. Perhaps im better off selling my 6800gt and using like an extra $80 for a better agp card? I appreciate the responses though. Also, i set my .ini file preload size limit to 1000000000 and it boosted my fps by an extra 8 or so.

 

[LiekOMG]

Originally posted by: platinumike
So ram really wont make much of a difference at all? Only loading distant terrain quicker? Im really trying to save up for another pc which i will build once dx10/vista is set to release. Perhaps im better off selling my 6800gt and using like an extra $80 for a better agp card? I appreciate the responses though. Also, i set my .ini file preload size limit to 1000000000 and it boosted my fps by an extra 8 or so.

The extra ram will speed up some loading times and smooth the game out by loading from ram instead of HDD, but it won't increase the Framerate. Try turning Shadows and grass completely off, and turn water quality to "normal" instead of "high". That should help tons.