Added RAM - no change?

[Guest bfindlay]

Ok, I went from 256M to 512+256 in my Gateway P4 2.0 Windows XP machine. Booted up FS2k2 and - no noticeable difference. PRetty much the same frame rate as before. Nothing - apparently $250 down the toilet. I thought that 'XP was a RAM hog' and that this would releive the bottleneck, and allow better performance (Read FPS).Is there something I should do to 'tweak' FS to USE the RAM??? What am I missing??

[Guest]

Adding ram is not going to increase your framerates. It will however; increase the overall smoothness of your computer. Did you're machine recognize the additional ram??? Right click on My Computer and click performance to see what says.

[Guest bfindlay]

Yup it recognized it. Again, I don't see much different about the computer at all. Either in or out of FS.

[Guest]

What frame rate are you after ? I run a considerably slower machine, xp 1800 with 512 ddr in ram and the GT 4200 64 mb. The frames are locked at 30. A motion picture runs at 24 frames per second enough for the eye to see motion instead of the still pictures. I have all sliders set to max and get 30 in at Chicago, the default airport when u run 2002. Somewere I read that if you set the frames above 30 it will only put extra workload on your cpu and u end up with poor results.Regard

[Guest flightpro08]

You can try bumping up your RAM timings. I've got mine at 2-2-2-5, and everything is stable. These settigns can be found in your BIOS.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com|Taxiwaysigns.com] Scenery Designer-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 30.30 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click [link:ftp.avsim.com/library/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=&Author=Ryan+Fretwell&CatID=Root]Here to Download my New American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

[Guest]

RAM is NOT going to make any difference - what will is a faster processor - the more powerful the processor, the quicker it can compute.CheersShelton.

[michal 44]

Like some said here, you wouldn't get any increase in FPS but the overall smoothness and less stutter. However there is little doubt there is a point of diminishing returns and I suspect this maybe around 256 MB. Anything above it will improve situation specially when you switch views, use complex cockpits, etc but whether the effect is going to be worth the price of upgrade - probably not.Michael J.

[Arklight1 140]

Don't forget to re-adjust your VM settings to allow for the increase in RAM. VM settings can effect your system performnce quite a bit, especially when you get into the larger amounts of RAM.Shane

[Guest]

How much fps do you want? 25, 50, 12,457? Between 15 and 25 your brain probably will not make any difference or will compensate for it anyways. No human being is able to detect any difference above 25/26.

[Guest]

$250 ?? for 512 megs? hmm, i hope that was rambus coz otherwise u made a pretty expensive buy there m8!Anyways, hope u get ur performance boost.

[Guest WorkingStiff]

That's the price you pay for proprietary systems. You can only use Gateway RAM on Gateway machines and it is priced extremely high.

[Guest]

Gateway got removed from my possible buy list years ago. The only proprietary machine still on my buy list is DELL. And I bought an Alienware cause I wanted it strickly for gaming. I'm typing on a Dell right now as it's my business machine. My Wife has a Dell for her internet and digital photography. So, what's bought all depends on what the intended use would be. I just bought a 128mb stick of ram for $30 bucks. 512mb should have only cost about $120 max. If that. For what was paid, it must have been 512mb of Rdram PC1066 cause that's what mine just cost last month.

[Guest bfindlay]

Hi folks - thanks for the many responses. First though:1) The $250 was Canadian Dollarettes - not USD, so divide by 1.5 or so to get the US equivalent.2) Yes it is a Gateway machine - I never heard about any 'proprietary RAM' though - I bought a generic RAM card and it seems to work fine. (Ie XP does indeed recognize it, and I have to admit there is at least one definite improvement - quitting FS, or switching to IE is much, much faster now)However, some of the advice here on 'RAM timing' or the 'VM settings' I don't get. What are these please, and how do I access em?I have the sim set to 20 fps as a target. On most planes it runs fine, but with Geof's Debonair, it achieves between 12 and 15 - sometimes slowing to 8. A noticeable 'stutter' when looking out the window.

[Guest]

I wouldn't mess with the ram speeds. I assume he was referring to overclocking the ram. Not a good idea unless you're an expert and not even then. When he referred to VM, I assume he was referring to virtual memory settings. Just let Windows manage the memory as it does this automatically and does a very good job of it. You should notice quite an improvement in the time it takes to load the sim with that extra ram. Also, shutting the sim down to the desktop should be instantaneous now. You'll also notice that all the windows open much faster and also notice that you no longer have to wait for the computer to calculate various things. All the windows should open much faster. Overall more ram will make everything seem faster and many things actually much faster as your entire machine will run smoother and no longer have to wait for that slow harddrive to transfer data. I noticed a hugh improvement just going from 256 mb ram to 384mb ram. Especially in load time and exit back to desktop time. The sim won't run any faster framerate wise, but you'll notice subtle things that are much improved.Also, if you pay attention, you'll notice that your framerate counter doesn't jump around as much and the sim is overall much smoother. Especially when you bank left or right in the turns with scenery in view. Stutters are gone or about gone, correct? Switching from inside to outside views may also improve somewhat. Over the next view days, you'll notice lots of things behaving much better with that extra ram.