1gb or 2gb display memory?

[Warloch]

Any benefits from getting more display adapter memory?. I now have 1gb. Does texture mods benefit from more vram?

[phil stanbridge]

I don't think CM will make any use of the extra texture memory. 1GB is perfectly fine. If you are running with Windows 7 you can use as much RAM as you want even though the games still only use 3-4gb mostly. I've definitely noticed the difference with 8GB over 4. And one of the best upgrades for me was the SSD. Absolutely fantastic that is.

[Wodin]

Phil i think he means graphic card memory...

I juts upgraded from a 4870 1gig to a 6850 1 gig and was debating whether I should hold off and get a 2 gig card when they went cheaper..the reason being to make it more future proof. To be honest i haven't noticed much of an improvement since upgrading..that old ATI 4870 had some punch for it's age. I think maybe I should have waited abit for the 2 gig cards to go abit cheaper.

As for ram I went from 2 gig on Win 7 64bit to 8 gig and I can tell you it made a huge difference...2 gig with Win 7 just isn't enough.

[phil stanbridge]

I realise that Wodin. But unless you intend to play games like Crysis 23 whenever that comes out there isn't a good reason to invest in 2gb of texture memory at the moment. You won't notice it.

But you WILL notice the difference generally speaking with a RAM upgrade (system RAM, not Graphics card RAM) unless you are already running at 8 or 16GB.

[Wodin]

Ok mate gotcha..I re read what you said after posting my reply and it dawned on me what you meant..sorry mate.

[phil stanbridge]

hehe I re-read it over as well But the SSD - what an upgrade that has been. Revolutionary in terms of the PC. Photoshop loads in a matter of seconds, Windows 7 boots in less than 10 seconds now. Games are more responsive. The downside - ANY other HD for the pc or laptop seems impossibly slooooooow.

[Txema]

Are you sure that going from 4 GB of RAM to 8 GB of RAM can be noticed at all when playing Combat Mission?? (using Windows 7 64 bits, of course).

Which is the maximum amount of RAM that Combat Mission can handle? (or that CM needs to use?)

Thanks for your help !!!

Txema

[Michael Emrys]

Which is the maximum amount of RAM that Combat Mission can handle? (or that CM needs to use?)

I don't have a firm answer to that, but my experience might be suggestive. I'm using an Imac with 4GB installed. Steve in his performance guideline states that FI needs 1.5GB free. FI has a tendency to lock up when loading a map or a saved game. With less than 2GB free memory, that tendency is much more pronounced.

Michael

[Redwolf]

Don't buy by amount of video memory.

Buy the one with the highest memory bandwidth you can or want to afford.

If you don't want to go read benchmarks on websites and want a single number to decide, use the bandwidth. There are way too many video cards out there with lots of memory but they are a scam trying to get people who just buy the card with the most RAM.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Are you sure that going from 4 GB of RAM to 8 GB of RAM can be noticed at all when playing Combat Mission?? (using Windows 7 64 bits, of course).

Which is the maximum amount of RAM that Combat Mission can handle? (or that CM needs to use?)

Thanks for your help !!!

For Windows, CM it is limited to 4 GB on 64 bit OS or 2 GB on 32 bit OS without the Large Address Aware switch set (the Mac version of CM is a 64 bit executable so this does not apply to it). If you have 4 GB of system RAM your OS will be using some of that so having at least 6 GB of RAM would be beneficial.

As for VRAM, I don't know if going from 1 GB to 2 GB will make any difference. Phil would be the guy to ask. It may if the 2 GB card has enough memory bandwidth. Strangely enough you can buy video cards with 4 GB of VRAM that run slower than the same card w/2 GB because they are bandwidth starved.

[Wodin]

Phil...I've heard SSD drives make a huge difference...something I will consider in the future.

[Schrullenhaft]

CM on Windows is a 32-bit application that is capable of using up to 3GB of 'virtual address space'. If you're using a 64-bit OS then this is 'automatic'. If you're using a 32-bit OS, then you will have to set the 'switches' for your 32-bit OS for to allow programs to use the 3GB virtual address space.

'Virtual address space' doesn't exactly translate neatly into a set amount of physical RAM, but a number of customers have seen over 1.5GB of memory in use by the program.

On the Mac CM is a 64-bit application and I don't know if it has any hard set limits on memory usage (I assume it may, but don't know what they are).

Though CM may not be able to utilize more memory itself; additional memory can make things speedier for the OS or other programs that may be loaded up. Windows often uses the extra memory for 'caching' or other features to speed up perceived performance. Of course your OS has to be able to use this additional memory. A 32-bit OS is not really going to see much beyond 3.5GB (so 4GB of physical RAM is the max you would want). For a 64-bit OS, Windows will have some hard coded limitations on the amount of RAM recognized based on the specific version you're running, but outside of a server the limitations aren't anything most of us would worry about.

Regarding the original question of additional 'video memory', I don't know what CM has been optimized for. With CM, typically a 256MB video card probably handles textures just as well as a 1GB video card. My impression at this point is that extra VRAM will not make a noticeable difference to CM unless you're loading up on A LOT of high-res textures. Typically you hear people complaining about a 1GB video card when they're running Ultra high-res mod packs for Skyrim or some other game where there is a huge amount of textures.

One thing to be careful when picking between video cards with different amounts of memory. Sometimes the cards with more memory may be using an older/slower memory technology that WILL affect your game performance (more memory - slower memory). This isn't always the case, but if you're seeing video cards with 1GB and 2GB options, look closely at the specs to make sure that the memory is the same type and running the same speed or very close to it. You can also see different 'memory interface bit depths', such as 64, 128, 256, 320, etc. Among mid-range and lower cards you can see the same chip utilize memory interfaces of 64 and 128 bit, etc. So pay close attention to the specs.

[Macisle]

As others have said, there are many variables like card bandwidth, age of memory, etc.

But just as an FYI, I had a recent forced downgrade and was pleasantly surprised.

My old card, an ASUS GTX470 1280MB died (3 months past warranty) and I went with an EVGA GTX550 TI 2GB as a much cheaper replacement.

My research showed that the GTX470 has significantly more horsepower, but the GTX550 Ti runs CMBN just as well--if not slightly better (I always run with all settings maxed-out).

I've no idea if the extra card memory helps. The GTX550 Ti has a 192-bit interface vs 320-bit for the GTX470, but that does not seem to make a difference with CMBN. They both have GDDR5 memory.

My rig is an I7-950 with 6 gigs under Win7-64 Ult.

[herr_oberst]

I don't have a firm answer to that, but my experience might be suggestive. I'm using an Imac with 4GB installed. Steve in his performance guideline states that FI needs 1.5GB free. FI has a tendency to lock up when loading a map or a saved game. With less than 2GB free memory, that tendency is much more pronounced.

Michael

Dang Emrys, march yourself right to the OWC site and get some more RAM for that iMac. Depending on the vintage, a pair of 4GB RAM chips will do you a wonder of good overall, and IIRC, it's a simple "open the memory panel, and push in the 2 new chips".

Or go the Hackintosh route and build a i7 3770k, Terabyte HDD, 16 Gig, GeForce GTX 660 Ti Mountain Lion machine for ~ 1,000.

[Michael Emrys]

...it's a simple "open the memory panel, and push in the 2 new chips".

Not quite in this case. A couple of months ago I bought an 8 GB chip to add, which would have brought my total up to 12 GB, enough to run CM and almost everything else on my HD. I very carefully followed the instructions in the manual, which seemed clear enough. And BTW, I do have some experience with this, having installed RAM on virtually every Mac I have owned. Alas, the new chip would not slide in. Not feeling up to using a hammer on it, I turned to plan B. "Well," thinks I, "maybe somehow I ordered the wrong chip and that's why it won't fit." So I check the specs once more and order a different brand. It arrives, and it looks exactly like the first chip. And like the first chip, it (no big surprise here, but I felt obliged to at least give it a try) it didn't fit.

Now willing to try almost anything, I attempted to extract the existing 4 GB chip just to see how that went. It wouldn't budge. And again, not willing to pry it out with a screwdriver, I was once more stalemated. I want to stress that I have been carefully gentle with the device. Whatever the problem is, it is not of my making. Something got bollixed up at the plant. And of course the warranty is long gone.

All my other apps run fine, and CM runs well enough that I can play it as long as I don't attempt too large a battle, and that is sort of a non-problem since I don't care for big battles anyway. I would like for it to not lock up, but maybe it would even if I had more RAM. I would also like to not have to quit all the apps I usually have running all the time and restart the computer every time I want to play CM in order to free up enough RAM to make it go. But that is perhaps a luxury I am not vouchsafed this time around.

Michael

[Destraex1]

GPU memory is a marketing farce.

I have a z77 chipset and use my intel 120gig (64of it) as cache and my 2tb mechanical as actual storage.

Still boots in under 10 seconds and caches all games i use regularly.

[Childress]

. But that is perhaps a luxury I am not vouchsafed this time around.

Michael

Michael you've always struck me as an Old Testament kind of guy. With a literary bent:

'And we worship thy Name : ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without sin.'

[Michael Emrys]

I'd make a pretty good wrathful deity, do you think?

Michael

[ss11955]

My God !!!! I don't know what the hell you pros are talking about !--- I have $1500 to buy new Desktop PC--- XPS 8500 ,Alienware 51 budget versions (ie cheap) ?? NON TECH SAVVY senior citizen --- I play single player only Strategy games (CM and Total War )--No MOD ,EDITING,ON-LINE ETC. Thank you.

[Redwolf]

My God !!!! I don't know what the hell you pros are talking about !--- I have $1500 to buy new Desktop PC--- XPS 8500 ,Alienware 51 budget versions (ie cheap) ?? NON TECH SAVVY senior citizen --- I play single player only Strategy games (CM and Total War )--No MOD ,EDITING,ON-LINE ETC. Thank you.

If you play games like that... well first of all you don't need a $1500 PC.

In general you want:

• The CPU with the fastest per-core speed, no matter number of cores
  
• A video card with as much memory bandwidth as you can get. Not much else matters to older or simpler games. What you want with older games is run them in really high resolution and with lots of AA and AF and you need bandwith for that.
  
• Dual-boot win7 64 bit and XP 32 bit
  
• Good amount of memory but don't go overboard. More memory is a good way to not wait for the HD too much, better than going SSD.
  

[ss11955]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to help me out !!!

[cool breeze]

you Micheal I was stuck with a computer that wouldnt work no matter what I did. turned out I didnt push the ram in HARD enough. and I had installed ram several times. just try HARDER.

[c3k]

Dammit man, if you're not using a ball-peen hammer, yer jus' nae tryin'!!!

[Michael Emrys]

@ cool breeze and c3k,

Tell what guys, you get together and wire me $1700 for a new Mac and that should take care of the problem straight away.

Michael

[cool breeze]

just quit being a sissy and push it harder its not in yet