How much RAM does the typical ArmA player got?

[pauliesss 2]

Kingston 4GB DDR3@1600Mhz - I don´t need more.

[Saint Warrior 10]

I have 4GB RAM and 2GB memory on my HD 4870 X2 graphics card. I play on all normal settings with Vsync disabled and on 1680x1050 resolutions and with 1.57 patch CO uses up to 2.2 GB RAM sometimes.

But I don't think that huge amounts of RAM will improve performance in this game. It starts lagging when CPU has to calculate multiple AI actions so everything depends on CPU here.

[Baff1 0]

I'm certainly intrested in getting myself enough RAM to load the whole ARMA directory into at some point.

I run off an SSD currently but I think there is still room for improvement.

This upgrade is on my list.

I think there is some RAM drive software already out there. There used to a be a thread about configuring it here. That's what gave me the idea.

[TheForumTroll 10]

There's lots of software that will create a ramdrive but I haven't found one that would do the rest. I was thinking something along the lines of this:

Start app >> choose files >> app creates ramdisk, copy files and create symbolic links >> ready to game

If an app that does this already exists I would love to use it instead of coding one from scratch or doing it manually.

Edited March 5, 2011 by TheForumTroll
spelling

[ffur2007slx2_5 11]

I've installed 4GB RAM but my system is wnidow XP 32bit who can't recognize 4GB RAM but only 3.25GB instead.

[galzohar 31]

Things that cause FPS drops in this game are mostly texture loading from HDD when moving around a lot with a medium-high view distance in an area with a medium-high amount of objects, and from CPU if your computer is handling a lot of AI (aka in SP or when hosting a multiplayer game in an AI-heavy mission).

That is, of course, if your CPU/GPU are good enough to run the game at the settings you're using.

In any case, if your computer is bad already, you'll probably have to run the game at rather low settings, in which case it's very possible more than 2GB of RAM won't do you any good (since even with more RAM you'll still need to run at low settings due to your CPU/GPU and thus won't make use of it). But then again I'm not sure exactly how much RAM the game uses with low settings, though you can guess if at max settings people have it using up 2-3GB...

[frogblastvent 10]

My system has 24 gig of DDR3 triple channel ram.

I have created a ramdisk that is used for virtual memory paging file.

It is 8 gig in size and it is the only paging file on this pc.

ArmA2 is installed on a dedicated SSD.

Most of the activity after ArmA2 loads is from the paging file.

I have tried sizes from 1 gig to 8 gig and found that they all work fine.

A ramdisk for ArmA2 is a waste of ram from my tests, except for load times, same as a SSD.

Readyboost is off, and no USB drives.

System Specs:

Win 7 64 bit, i7 930 overclocked to 4.0 ghz (watercooled) GTX460 1 gig

Hyperthreading turned off in bios.

[-Puma- 2]

could somebody explain me how to create ramdisk???

[CameronMcDonald 146]

12GB yayuh.

[.kju 3245]

@ -Puma-

http://pvpscene.net/wiki/doku.php?id=english:configure_your_game#ram_drive

[ScareCroweb 10]

8 GB on Win 7 64 bit makes my Arma2 OA run smooth for me. I highly recommend it. with the new patch 1.58(beta) with Anti Aliasing it will be the most stable and beautiful performance so far.

[-Puma- 2]

@ -Puma-

http://pvpscene.net/wiki/doku.php?id=english:configure_your_game#ram_drive

thnx. it all seems complicated :eek::eek::eek:

i just decided to disable paging file and see if it would help me with texture loading (the trick did wonders for me in arma)

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

6Gb of black sexiness- Mushkin Ridgeback 1600 :cool:

[TheForumTroll 10]

A ramdisk for ArmA2 is a waste of ram from my tests, except for load times, same as a SSD.

Well, most people doesn't have SSDs yet. Compared to my hard drives it runs a lot better from RAM. Also how can it be a waste of RAM if the RAM is unused? I'd say no ramdisk is a waste of ram. As it is now, for gaming only, more than 4gb of ram without a ramdisk is only an e-peen to put in signatures on forums. I'd like to use my RAM instead of just looking at the pretty numbers ;)

[frogblastvent 10]

Well, most people doesn't have SSDs yet. Compared to my hard drives it runs a lot better from RAM. Also how can it be a waste of RAM if the RAM is unused? I'd say no ramdisk is a waste of ram. As it is now, for gaming only, more than 4gb of ram without a ramdisk is only an e-peen to put in signatures on forums. I'd like to use my RAM instead of just looking at the pretty numbers ;)

You are right, exactly what i said. Use the extra ram as a ramdisk if you don't have an ssd. But it still is better to use it for paging. A ramdisk for data will load faster into ram, just like a harddrive, but faster. The real activity happens after the data is loaded into ram (from a HD, SSD, or ramdisk) and that activity takes place in the paging file. After ArmA2 uses its limit in ram (around 2gig) there is about 10x amount of data transfer (write and read) from the paging file.

[bwc153 10]

I run with 2GB, i'd prefer more... runs fine, except when there is a lot of AI.

also when I say 'fine' I have a high tolerance for low FPS, game being somewhat playable at 10-15FPS on the other PC (4GB RAM, 1.8ghz quad core, 256mb integrated graphics card) in comparison to this one (2GB RAM, 3ghz dual core, 1GB Geforce 460 GTX)

[TheForumTroll 10]

frogblastvent:

I'm aware that the maximum virtual address space for each 32-bit process is at 2 GB but I'm not trying to fix 32 bit Windows memory problems here. If that's the problem someone has when playing ArmA then they should look into other tools than what I'm messing around with or use a combination. Or get BI to release a 64 bit version :D

The game feels a lot smoother when loading files from RAMDISK so I'd say that the problem (in my case) is the hard drives and not access to too little memory.

[andersson 285]

Only X58 motherboard have triplechannel. For am3, s1156 and s1155 dualchannel (so 4 or 8GB) is best.

I stand corrected!

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

I have 6gb in triple channel on a X58 motherboard, but I only have access to about 3-4gb because I use a 32bit OS. Never really had any issues with Arma 2 after they fixed the memory leak like issues a long time ago.

[Baff1 0]

You are right, exactly what i said. Use the extra ram as a ramdisk if you don't have an ssd. But it still is better to use it for paging. A ramdisk for data will load faster into ram, just like a harddrive, but faster. The real activity happens after the data is loaded into ram (from a HD, SSD, or ramdisk) and that activity takes place in the paging file. After ArmA2 uses its limit in ram (around 2gig) there is about 10x amount of data transfer (write and read) from the paging file.

SSD is el cheapo slow RAM.

A little extra speed makes a lot of difference to frame rates in my opinion when we are discussing GFX.

It's all about killing the LOD pops.

[Dropper 10]

3 Gigs of DDR2 800.

Quite enough.For now.

[DZGuymed 10]

I currently have 8GB of DDR3 RAM on my main PC, but I am hoping to expand it to 12GB. But I run Windows 7 so it only lets me use 7.3GBs of it. Not exactly sure why it does that.

[wraith_v 11]

currently 4 GB DDR2 1066 mHz but i'll will go for more ram when I upgrade my system later this year

[flattermann 12]

I currently have 8GB of DDR3 RAM on my main PC, but I am hoping to expand it to 12GB. But I run Windows 7 so it only lets me use 7.3GBs of it. Not exactly sure why it does that.

Hmm are you running windows 7 home basic?

[frogblastvent 10]

SSD is el cheapo slow RAM.

A little extra speed makes a lot of difference to frame rates in my opinion when we are discussing GFX.

It's all about killing the LOD pops.

I created a 16gig ramdisk and put the whole CO on it and there was zero difference in gameplay, loading time, fps and lod as an SSD.

The key item is that an ramdisk is still a disk and still loads into system ram and then into the paging file.

If you have a 2nd disk you can test this by making a paging file on it and turning off all other paging files. This 2nd drive should be unused by the system or applications for this test.

After playing for some time you will see the paging file activity.