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Is 512mb RAM enough for gaming?

post #1 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:03pm
Thread Starter 
I'm looking at the ASUS Z71V, and I'd like to know, given the 128mb 6600 GPU, 60GB 5400rpm HD, and 2Ghz Sonoma processor, would 512mb of RAM do for most current games? Would I be better served by putting the CPU at 1.8Ghz and the RAM at 1Gb instead?

I figure if it can run Doom III and Far Cry well at good settings, then it should last me a while.
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post #2 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:06pm
512 used to be good for gaming a couple years ago. I'd say you need a little more than that, so 1 gb would be cool.
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post #3 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:07pm
no get 1 gig significant iincrease in performance 30% or so
2 gig is a bit much
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post #4 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:12pm
I agree. 1gb should be more than adequate . . . No less.
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post #5 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:16pm
512 is good for something like UT... and HL, maybe battlefield

any new games 1GB is min, with 1GB you can turn your swap off so it doesn't thrash the hell out of your HDD
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post #6 of 22
3/7/05 at 11:20pm
Thread Starter 
So losing 200Mhz on the processor won't hurt as much as twice the RAM will help? Cool.

I just ran the specs again, and the notebook actually comes a little cheaper, even with Windows XP
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post #7 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:00am
IF your game goes into virtual mem (your HD), then you will see a difference. People stop generating and spouting BS. Most games (99% do NOT). Even Half Life 2 does not.

But there are a few that does, namely many MMORPS, and Farcry (which will run like crap unless you ahve 768 ram minimum).
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post #8 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:04am
They only go "into virtual mem" when there is not room left in the RAM. The games just don't decide they want to use virtual mem, all memory mangament is done at the OS level. So no, they aren't spouting BS.
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post #9 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:04am
512 MB is pretty good, 1 GB is pretty much the current sweet point right now
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post #10 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:29am
Thread Starter 
Well, thanks to all of your highly appreciated advice, I now have my configuration:
1.86Ghz Pentium M with 533Mhz FSB
1Gb Infineon DDR2-4200 RAM (2x512)
PCIe nVidia 6600 w/128Mb
60Gb Seagate 5400RPM HD

with a CD-RW/DVD drive, a/b/g wifi, 2 year warranty, it comes to $1787. Which beats out Gateway's M460, Dell's 9300 and IBM at similar specs Tell ya what: Acer or somebody better get a good system really cheap for me to change my mind now.

And Gwen from ISTNC was an amazingly good service rep. Very courteous, not pushy in the least, and very forthcoming with any information I asked about!
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post #11 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:34am
Eh!!! Welcome to the Asus Z71v group!

Wait... have you bought it?
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post #12 of 22
3/8/05 at 12:36am
Thread Starter 
Not yet. I have yet to show it to the parents. They're busy and hard to distract, though I'll buy it soon as they give me the go-ahead. I'm tempted to wait a month to see what comes out, but I have a feeling that the waiting game can go one forever with things like these. Also, the impending/alleged LCD shortage from ASUS is kinda pushing my hand.
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post #13 of 22
3/8/05 at 1:55am
Thread Starter 
Argh. I hate waiting. And it's made worse by the likely fact that any increase in performance between now and June/July will be incremental at best. All I can hope for by waiting is a cheaper price.

I have to keep reminding myself that a computer's only as good as the software it can run. Maybe by then they'll have a Sonoma platform running a PCIe X700 for what I'd pay for the Z71V right now.

Argh. Argh, I say!
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post #14 of 22
3/8/05 at 2:03am
Do they sell the Z71V in New Zealand?

Or do you know of anysites which can ship to NZ?
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post #15 of 22
3/8/05 at 2:19am
you guys are also forgetting the OS. On windows 2000, 512 mb will be enough for hl2...on windows xp you will gain significant performance from going to 1 GB. Winxp is resources hungry.
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post #16 of 22
3/8/05 at 9:13am
Thread Starter 
This is an interesting development. It just so happens that I have a copy of Windows 2000 already. If I can get better resource efficiency, I can forgoe buying Windows XP and get the 2Ghz CPU.

I'd like more info on this, please.
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post #17 of 22
3/8/05 at 1:26pm
I'd definitely get 1GB. 512MB may be sufficient right now, but you'll still be playing the newest games on your Z71V for the next couple years. Those will definitely need 1GB if Far Cry is any example of the games to come.
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post #18 of 22
3/9/05 at 12:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ForceCalibur
But there are a few that does, namely many MMORPS, and Farcry (which will run like crap unless you ahve 768 ram minimum).
That's a good description. Many newer MMOGs require minimum of 768MB of memory to be pleasant (except World of Warcraft which doesn't, but will still benefit greatly in some situations). Most other genres don't have huge outside areas, and may be better optimized, too. I'd certainly buy 1G. In fact it never even occurred to me to get any less when I got my last 2 setups (desktop + laptop).

It is not the OS that matters here. WinXP itself runs fine with 512MB, it's only the games that don't. However nothing wrong with Win2k if you wanna use that instead.
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post #19 of 22
3/9/05 at 1:14am
w2k works but its going to be phased out soon, might as well just use XP since it will be phased later than 2k
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post #20 of 22
3/9/05 at 11:48am
The difference in performance from the extra memory is more than it is from the extra cpu speed. It's also a question of what's more cost-effective. At the moment it seems like 1.8GHz (or 1.86 for sonoma) is the sweet spot for CPU power. This is of course defining the sweet spot as the place where the cost to upgrade the cpu another notch increases dramatically. Hmm, having looked at the cost of CPUs that might not be quite true. It's definitely the case for Dothans, where there's about $50 difference between the 1.6 and 1.7 and between the 1.7 and the 1.8. But with the sonoma the increase seems to kick in one step below (between 1.73 and 1.86).

I guess it all depends on your budget, but I would definitely recommend 1GB RAM before spending more on CPU upgrades.
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