Star Wars Galaxies - Lag - RAM - Timings - Questions

[ZtyX]

I have been researching a lot the last couple of weeks, but I am getting confused. I decided to come to the best place I know and get some valuable feedback directed directly at me.

I am building a system for a game called Star Wars Galaxies. The game engine is not poorly built and yet it is. The problem is that this game makes everybody lag when entering huge PvP combat with a lot of people. A part of the problem is server side delay/lag, but when playing with high quality details it is also client side. I want to play at 30 FPS even when there are a lot of character models running around and shooting specials, a lot of detailed buildings and/or highly detailed plants with shadows and antialiasing. Or for instance if I am using a vehicle to drive quickly and thus render new details all the time, which is very demanding. That is my goal.


This game is extremely heavy on RAM. Everyone who plays SWG has seen the difference between 1gb ram and 2gb ram. The game will utilize a maximum of 2GB RAM. If a person doesn't have enough RAM the game uses a page file, which is 1.5x the physical memory. Reports say that using the page file makes the game run slower, so it is best to have enough RAM.

I want to get 4GB ram, so that background applications get the necessary memory as well as my game. Especially my game. I do NOT want to lag.

So.. The question is what kind of a difference will I see in this RAM abusive game between the best 4 GB ram and the worst 4 GB of ram?

What are the best RAM I can get for this game so that it runs fluently?

How is OCZ Gold?

Is it good to have 5-5-5-18 or 8-8-8-24 or 4-4-4-12 or something else? I want the best performance for my SWG.

Is it better to run with 2x2GB sticks or 4x1GB sticks for the performance?

Will I benefit from overclocking the RAM?

Please mention some of the bottlenecks I might have even with the best performance ram. What can I do to eliminate them?
- Motherboard, VGA card, CPU??? And what sort of performance decrease will I see from these bottlenecks.


Here is my plan for a setup if it helps you:

Chassis: NZXT Lexa Redline
PSU: OCZ Gamexstream 700W
Motherboard: n750i
CPU: E8400
Ram:
HD: Raptor 76.4GB 10k RPM 16mb cache
Screen: Asus vw222u 22" TFT
VGA: XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition or a 8800 gts 512.

 

[n7]

I love tweaking RAM speeds/timings more than 99.9% pf people out there, but the fact is, the performance gain in games at higher resolutions/settings from value RAM to the highest end overclocking RAM is very small.

The key for good gaming performance w/ any game is a strong GPU setup, a strong CPU, & enough RAM.

Don't get 4x1 GB; get 2x2 GB.

It's not only easier to work with in terms of maintaining stability, etc, it's better for future upgrades to 8 GB

DDR2-800 4-4-4 or DDR2-1000 5-5-5 would be the best performance in their categories w/o spending a ton, but really, even DDR-800 5-5-5 will be just fine.

For heavy OCing w/ an E8400 look at DDR2-1000 to be safe.

 

[taltamir]

the difference in FPS between the FASTEST DDR2-1066 ram to the sloest DDR2-667 ram is about 6%...

The main reasons people get DDR2-1000 /1066 ram is to better overclock their CPU, not to have faster ram... Unless you are an extreme CPU overclocker, you don't need anything above DDR2-800.

The real issue with ram is, if you run out of it your system gets crippled. Quantity comes FIRST, then speed.
2x2GB sticks make way more sense.

 

[DSF]

And since you're running a single graphics card, I would recommend changing out that 750i board for a P35 chipset board.

 

[ZtyX]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm relieved that the RAM difference is that small. That saves me a lot of headache.
I guess I will overclock the CPU a little bit just to try it. I'll get a P35 board then. But, what is the difference between the 750i and a p35 board? Is the p35 a lot better?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

750i is a nvidia chipset, doesn't OC as well, gets hotter, less stable. A P35 is an Intel chipset, probably the best-liked by enthusiasts because it's stable, cheap, and OCs well.