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Urzu 7 · 2011-02-03, 20:38

So I'll probably go with a Radeon 6950 or 6970 or a Geforce 560 Ti or a new card released later this year that is very comparable to them.

I have 4 GB of 1600 DDR 3 RAM. I plan to upgrade someday, but maybe not for Skyrim. I'm suspecting that for recommended specs, it'll call for 4 GB RAM. Does more RAM always equal better for games? Or can a game only benefit from so much RAM before it doesn't do much with more of it?

Also, I posted this and will post it again because I'm curious about it.

Quote:

Another question: My motherboard might only have PCI-Express 2.0. Will these PCI-Express 2.1 cards still run great on my motherboard?

Okay, thanks to everyone who gave helpful info!

triskelion · 2011-02-03, 22:51

4 GB of RAM is enough to run almost all applications, unless you have 5000 things running while you are also playing the game. No need to upgrade the RAM.

2.1 is basically technology for PCI-e 3.0, but it runs at 2.0 speed. Using a 2.1 card on a 2.0 slot doesn't make any difference, since 2.1 is backwards compatible to 2.0

sneaker · 2011-02-04, 01:27

Most games still run in 32bit, which means they can't use more than 2 GB anyways.

synaesthetic · 2011-02-05, 19:50

Most games need VRAM more than system RAM, anyway. And yeah, very few games actually take the x86-64 instruction sets and do anything with them at all.

Random32 · 2011-02-05, 20:53

RAM is something that will cause a severe drop in performance if you don't have enough, but very little to zero improvements if you have even a little bit more than required. Games generally don't use much RAM, I survived with only 2GB for a long time before upgrading my gaming box to 4GB. I don't really see the reason for more than 4GB for normal users. Another thing to remember if you upgrade RAM, more but slower RAM will decrease performance if less but faster RAM is enough RAM for an application.

0utf0xZer0 · 2011-02-06, 00:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Most games need VRAM more than system RAM, anyway. And yeah, very few games actually take the x86-64 instruction sets and do anything with them at all.

Remember that Windows can allocate system memory to the video card. Tom's Hardware wrote an article about RAM in games a while back, in which they found that Windows gave their 1GB HD5800 series card access to 1407MB of system RAM with 4GB installed, but 3059MB with 8GB installed. This actually fixed a texture pop in issue they were having with Grand Theft Auto IV and gave a significant performance boost to a user made graphics mode for Half Life 2. That being said, the vast majority of games do not benefit from more than 4GB, in fact, many run well with just 2GB.

(Edit: and for reference, the GTAIV test was run after hacking the executable to be large address aware (actually not too difficult to do) which may have been part of the issue. The Half Life 2 test was conducted using a 64 bit version, I think.)

Urzu 7 · 2011-02-07, 19:06

Maybe Skyrim, a game set for nearly a year from now, will make use of 64 bit Windows and allocating system RAM. And I would guess that it'll have 4 GB of RAM as the recommended spec for RAM.

I don't get these resolutions: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...6970-review/21

Are the 1st and 3rd resolutions 16:9 and the 2nd and 4th 4:3?

Is 1280x1024 roughly equal to 1080p? I think that 1080p is 1280x1080. Is that correct? Is 1280x1024 a good resolution for PC games? Does that look plenty good? Are the higher resolutions really worth the performance drop in most games? I'm getting more into PC gaming, but I still don't know much about it.

Random32 · 2011-02-07, 21:23

Generally you will play games at your monitor(s) native resolution or the number of pixels physically in the screen if you can. 1080p is 1920x1080 1920x1200 (WUXGA) is a fairly common resolution to see in many higher end gaming setups. 2560x1600 (WQXGA) is the highest single monitor resolution you will see. Moving on, there are Eyefinity setups with several screens.
additional reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic...ay_resolutions

Resolutions beyond your native resolution don't really help much. Higher settings for textures/etc generally make the game look better than just pumping up resolution.

Urzu 7 · 2011-02-07, 22:38

My monitor goes up to 1920x1080. Good to know.

2011-02-05, 19:50	Link #64
synaesthetic blinded by blood Author Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oakland, CA Age: 39	Most games need VRAM more than system RAM, anyway. And yeah, very few games actually take the x86-64 instruction sets and do anything with them at all. __________________ Indie science fiction author and all-around weirdo: Check out my original fiction here! Read an excerpt from my sci-fi novel Binary System!

2011-02-07, 19:06	Link #67
Urzu 7 Juanita/Kiteless Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: New England Age: 40	Maybe Skyrim, a game set for nearly a year from now, will make use of 64 bit Windows and allocating system RAM. And I would guess that it'll have 4 GB of RAM as the recommended spec for RAM. I don't get these resolutions: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...6970-review/21 Are the 1st and 3rd resolutions 16:9 and the 2nd and 4th 4:3? Is 1280x1024 roughly equal to 1080p? I think that 1080p is 1280x1080. Is that correct? Is 1280x1024 a good resolution for PC games? Does that look plenty good? Are the higher resolutions really worth the performance drop in most games? I'm getting more into PC gaming, but I still don't know much about it. __________________ Last edited by Urzu 7; 2011-02-07 at 20:14.

2011-02-07, 22:38	Link #69
Urzu 7 Juanita/Kiteless Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: New England Age: 40	My monitor goes up to 1920x1080. Good to know. __________________

2011-02-03, 22:51	Link #62
triskelion Senior Member Fansubber Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Canada Age: 32	4 GB of RAM is enough to run almost all applications, unless you have 5000 things running while you are also playing the game. No need to upgrade the RAM. 2.1 is basically technology for PCI-e 3.0, but it runs at 2.0 speed. Using a 2.1 card on a 2.0 slot doesn't make any difference, since 2.1 is backwards compatible to 2.0

2011-02-04, 01:27	Link #63
sneaker Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008	Most games still run in 32bit, which means they can't use more than 2 GB anyways.

2011-02-05, 20:53	Link #65
Random32 Also a Lolicon Join Date: Apr 2010	RAM is something that will cause a severe drop in performance if you don't have enough, but very little to zero improvements if you have even a little bit more than required. Games generally don't use much RAM, I survived with only 2GB for a long time before upgrading my gaming box to 4GB. I don't really see the reason for more than 4GB for normal users. Another thing to remember if you upgrade RAM, more but slower RAM will decrease performance if less but faster RAM is enough RAM for an application.

2011-02-07, 21:23	Link #68
Random32 Also a Lolicon Join Date: Apr 2010	Generally you will play games at your monitor(s) native resolution or the number of pixels physically in the screen if you can. 1080p is 1920x1080 1920x1200 (WUXGA) is a fairly common resolution to see in many higher end gaming setups. 2560x1600 (WQXGA) is the highest single monitor resolution you will see. Moving on, there are Eyefinity setups with several screens. additional reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic...ay_resolutions Resolutions beyond your native resolution don't really help much. Higher settings for textures/etc generally make the game look better than just pumping up resolution.