X1800XT + BF2 = 2GB of Ram a Necessity????

[bob4432]

i recently switched over to an asus pci-e board and picked up a x1800xt 256MB card to replace a nf3 gigabyte agp board with a x800xtpe. with the agp/x800xtpe setup i could easily keep total ram usage under 1GB if the machine idled at ~240MB, i was very serious about this and even created the site in my sig. a lot of my friends took my advice as to not buy an extra GB of ram because at the time i created the site, 2GB was pretty expensive.

NOW, i get this new setup, the machine still idles at ~240MB but when gaming using the exact same settings, including resolutions (1280x960 or 1280x1024) and having everything in the ccc set to performance and a lot of enhancing features turned off, i am hitting 1.2-1.4GB all the time now watching my hdd led stay lit up for some time, to the point of frame stuttering. i can hit over 9000 in 3dmark05, but stutter in bf2......( i know it is hitting the pagefile...)

what does the x1800xt or newer gen cards do to make this game require so much more ram? also another 2 friends just upgraded to a 7900gt and 7900gtx (even running at 1280x720), and their ram usage went through the roof using the settings i had researched and suggested that kept us all under 1GB with the x800xtpe, 6600gts in sli and 6800gts and ultras.

 

[Gbaby1008]

It seems with this game, if you wana run it on high (graphics) you have to have atleast 2 gigs

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Gbaby1008
It seems with this game, if you wana run it on high (graphics) you have to have atleast 2 gigs

i know this, but if i am running the same settings with a x800xtpe and staying under 1GB total usage and the only item i change is the gpu, why does my ram usage go up 2-400MB?

 

[Makaveli]

the only thing I could see causing that might be the Ati drivers possibly. I know on high it will use more than a GB cause I have a X800XTPE in my current rig, but I also have 2GB. maybe some kinda driver leak or something. Or possibly its CCC.

Try installing the drivers without CCC just driver and Ati tray tools and try it again bob.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Makaveli
the only thing I could see causing that might be the Ati drivers possibly. I know on high it will use more than a GB cause I have a X800XTPE in my current rig, but I also have 2GB. maybe some kinda driver leak or something. Or possibly its CCC.

Try installing the drivers without CCC just driver and Ati tray tools and try it again bob.

just out of curiosity, what version of the catalysts are you running, what resolution and how much ram do you peak at?

these are the 6.5cats i am running, that throttle the card....maybe that is doing something else like you said, and would make sense if there is some type of memory leak.

thanks for the thoughts 😉

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Makaveli
the only thing I could see causing that might be the Ati drivers possibly. I know on high it will use more than a GB cause I have a X800XTPE in my current rig, but I also have 2GB. maybe some kinda driver leak or something. Or possibly its CCC.

Try installing the drivers without CCC just driver and Ati tray tools and try it again bob.

QFT. I never use the CCC. Tray Tools FTW.

 

[Makaveli]

I use 6.3 Cats and Tray tools. I won't touch CCC. I play at 1280x1024 2x AA, everything on high On 64 player servers peek at 1.4GB.

I've tried both 6.4 and 6.5 and it always gives me some unknown device in my device manager. Which isn't really a big deal cause the drivers seem to be fine. But went back to 6.3 which doesn't give me that device manager issue. and Performance seems the same with my current card.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: Makaveli
the only thing I could see causing that might be the Ati drivers possibly. I know on high it will use more than a GB cause I have a X800XTPE in my current rig, but I also have 2GB. maybe some kinda driver leak or something. Or possibly its CCC.

Try installing the drivers without CCC just driver and Ati tray tools and try it again bob.

QFT. I never use the CCC. Tray Tools FTW.

does tray tools offer the 2d/3d settings? i like the fact that the card will throttle down, thus create less heat. the heat generated is well within the thermal design of the gpu, but 75C while gaming is hot no matter what, pushing the heat into my computer room. when it throttles down, it goes down to ~56C or so. i have right mark cpu clock on also to throttle down my cpu to .8-.9V and a 4x multiplier (it seems to work better than c n q), so i can get the cpu down to 34C while @ 1GHz (250FSB atm) and it goes up to 52C in my ambient room temp of ~83F.

 

[Makaveli]

Yes Tray tools offers fan control settings and clock speed throttling. for my desktop my card will downclock to 400/800 and for 3d back to 520/560

 

[SparkyJJO]

I don't have BF2 so I can't check to see what mine does, but I have a X1900XT + 2GB RAM and cat 6.3 with CCC. I have no trouble with anything in any game that I've run.

What is bad about CCC? I don't have a problem with it at all. Now I don't really use it for anything but it installed with the drivers and such so I just left it.

Currently 2 instances of CLI.exe running, each using around 4-6 MB of RAM and 17-18MB of VM. Heh AIM pulls more than that, so what's the big deal about it?

 

[Makaveli]

First thing I don't like about CCC is it requires .net to be installed. With .net installed it slows down your bootup and consumes more memory. Secondly Tray tools offers all the features CCC does without the bloat. I'm aware CCC has improved alot since its first incarnation. But I just don't need it, As far as i'm concerned its for nubs.