Vista Gaming: 2GB vs 4GB of RAM

[Twisted_Firestarter]

Since I am getting an extra 2GB of RAM for Vista (mostly to take advantage of SuperFetch), I thought I'd look for what improvements in gaming, if any, I could expect with the extra memory. I found this review, which shows an 18% increase in framerate for battlefield 2142 and a 19% increase in Call of Duty 2.

[xTYBALTx]

Very interesting. Nice find.

[jonan_]

Originally Posted by Twisted_Firestarter

Since I am getting an extra 2GB of RAM for Vista (mostly to take advantage of SuperFetch), I thought I'd look for what improvements in gaming, if any, I could expect with the extra memory. I found this review, which shows an 18% increase in framerate for battlefield 2142 and a 19% increase in Call of Duty 2.

Wouldn't you expect to see the same increases on xp by adding that much ram?

[Black_V!per]

Originally Posted by jonan_

Wouldn't you expect to see the same increases on xp by adding that much ram?

Not unless he was using x64-bit, 32-bit windows doesn't support 4GB i don't think.

[jepzilla]

Originally Posted by Black_V!per

Not unless he was using x64-bit, 32-bit windows doesn't support 4GB i don't think.

It does, but normally 32-bit windows only exposes 2gb of virtual memory (3gb with a boot option) to each process- to use more than that in 32-bit mode a program has to use AWE (address windowing extensions), which most programs don't.

[Sgt.Weber]

I've got 2.5 gigs of ram and BF2142 loads insanely fast. Although i have heard that 4 gigs will slow you down. Not sure if its true.

[Twisted_Firestarter]

I've heard about 4GB of RAM slowing down XP systems too, but this is not the case for Vista systems.

[=Sarc=]

That review is a bit misguided about Vista being a resource hog. The reviewer fails to notice that Vista gives apps memory when apps need memory. For the 2GB system, Vista uses 784MB when doing nothing. When a game is run, the memory in use by the game plus what Vista is using goes above 2GB. The reviewer needs to explain this. Either the page file usage is being included or Vista is giving the game the memory required to run.

[Twisted_Firestarter]

Originally Posted by =Sarc=

That review is a bit misguided about Vista being a resource hog. The reviewer fails to notice that Vista gives apps memory when apps need memory[...] The reviewer needs to explain this

Yes, I noticed that too. But, I've seen that in many, many posts about Vista. Reviewers and testers just aren't familiar enough with the caching technologies behind the new OS yet. Shame on them for not doing their research first, but it doesn't really affect this review, which is pretty basic anyway. I'm sure we'll start seeing more in-depth technical coverage of the OS as it becomes more prevalent.