How much RAM does the typical ArmA player got?

[liquidpinky 11]

24GB DDR3 1600, memory leaks no longer a problem.

[Saint Warrior 10]

Guys, I wanted to ask some question here. Sometimes (though quite rare) my ArmA 2: CO freezes down and stops responding. I switch to task manager and see that arma2oa.exe is using 2.2 GB of RAM (out of 4GB generally available and 2.75 GB actually seen by OS as it's Windows XP 32 Bit) at this point. What is this a freeze because of RAM shortage or something else?

I have 2GB of video RAM GDDR5 on my HD 4870 X2 and Crossfire is enabled. So I don't think that game should be lacking any memory here.

My CPU is Phenom II X4 940 3.0 Ghz Black Edition and I have 1.5 TB HDD. I am running the game on all normal settings (they seem to be most optimal to me) and 1680 x 1050 resolution and 100 percent 3D resolution with Vsync disabled.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[flattermann 12]

could as well be your HDD

[cjph 0]

@LiquidPinky - do yoiu still use a RAMDisk ? I wonder if the improved streaming makes it redundant, ie saves the OP the work he suggests, which might not get used if the impact of more RAM is minimal ?

[Haystack15 10]

4GB has always been a standard to me. Never had any problems with my RAM. And looking at the Results so far it seems to still quite common. Looks like a lot of 32-bit users are still out there in ARMA.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Haystack15

[liquidpinky 11]

@LiquidPinky - do yoiu still use a RAMDisk ? I wonder if the improved streaming makes it redundant, ie saves the OP the work he suggests, which might not get used if the impact of more RAM is minimal ?

Not at the moment, my intention was to put the whole game into RAM but with ARMA's streaming performance these days makes it unnecessary I think.

That and I have way over 24GB in the game folder now with mods anyway.

The performance impact of using RAMdisk for ARMA 2 now is minimal and I probably won't be doing it.

@Saint Warrior:

2GB of your RAM will be allocated to your GFX card as it has 2GB of RAM. So you will only have 2GB that can be accessed by your OS and system.

Like in My case I have 2x 3GB GTX580s so 6GB of my RAM is basically written off to them.

Big memory GFX cards need larger amounts of RAM in your system and ultimatly a 64 bit OS to use it.

[Laqueesha 474]

6GB on a Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS. My PC and OS can technically handle more, but it keeps crashing whenever add any more than 6GB of RAM is added.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Laqueesha

[CarlGustaffa 4]

2GB here on a 32bit XP system.

[bangtail 0]

@Saint Warrior:

2GB of your RAM will be allocated to your GFX card as it has 2GB of RAM. So you will only have 2GB that can be accessed by your OS and system.

Like in My case I have 2x 3GB GTX580s so 6GB of my RAM is basically written off to them.

Big memory GFX cards need larger amounts of RAM in your system and ultimatly a 64 bit OS to use it.

This is complete and utter nonsense. The memory is on the cards and has absolutely nothing to do with the system memory.

By your insane logic, If I had 2 x 3GB cards and only 6GB of system memory, I wouldn't be able to boot my machine.

Please refrain from offering 'advice' when you don't have a clue what you are talking about.

Edited March 18, 2011 by BangTail

[76 0]

Guys, I wanted to ask some question here. Sometimes (though quite rare) my ArmA 2: CO freezes down and stops responding. I switch to task manager and see that arma2oa.exe is using 2.2 GB of RAM (out of 4GB generally available and 2.75 GB actually seen by OS as it's Windows XP 32 Bit) at this point. What is this a freeze because of RAM shortage or something else?

I have 2GB of video RAM GDDR5 on my HD 4870 X2 and Crossfire is enabled. So I don't think that game should be lacking any memory here.

My CPU is Phenom II X4 940 3.0 Ghz Black Edition and I have 1.5 TB HDD. I am running the game on all normal settings (they seem to be most optimal to me) and 1680 x 1050 resolution and 100 percent 3D resolution with Vsync disabled.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

you running a x64 (64bit) OS?

x86 (32bit) will ONLY use 3GB of RAM INCLUDING your video RAM

So if you have 2GB video and 4GB system, a total of 6GB and run a 32bit OS you have 3GB sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

[pooroldspike 129]

..Sometimes (though quite rare) my ArmA 2: CO freezes down and stops responding. I switch to task manager and see that arma2oa.exe is using 2.2 GB of RAM (out of 4GB generally available and 2.75 GB actually seen by OS as it's Windows XP 32 Bit)..

I get the occasional freeze too, but I'm not as lucky as you because the freeze won't allow Task Manager to open, so I have to switch off the power and reboot from a cold start, plus I've lost any game progress I was in the middle of.

I dunno what causes the freezes so I just have to live with them (sniffle)

My system-

Intel Core2 Duo E8500@3.16GHz

RAM 4.0GB Dual-channel DDR2@400Mhz

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1024Mb

WinXP Home SP3

HannsG 28" widescreen

[avengerzx 10]

Seems like 4GB is the most preferable choice :D

[pappi_man 0]

8GB, and only because I had extra money to spend.

[Pummel 10]

4gig DDR 2 here. I also have a SSD which is nice. If/when I next upgrade my computer, I'll get a new processor with new motherboard and new RAM, and that will most likely be 6 or 8 gig of DDR3. But for now, there just aren't enough good games for me to care.

[chicago 13]

I have only 2GB DDR2 for now but next month it will be the big update of my PC. I think of about 4GB DDR3 it will be enough :).

[Posta 10]

16GB.

Ramdiskin' most of it.

[galzohar 31]

you running a x64 (64bit) OS?

x86 (32bit) will ONLY use 3GB of RAM INCLUDING your video RAM

So if you have 2GB video and 4GB system, a total of 6GB and run a 32bit OS you have 3GB sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

That's quite nonsense as well. Video card ram has nothing to do with your system RAM. WinXP uses something like 3.25GB of your 4GB of RAM, but the 2GB on the video card are still 2GB on the video card...

On another note, though, as far as I understand more than 1GB on the card in current games and standard HD resolutions is more than enough, and 2GB won't really benefit anything right now.

Another thing worth noting is that a crappy PC with an SSC is probably a bad idea, since a crappy PC cant' run high enough graphic settings for HDD stutter to become a problem (low graphic settings means Arma 2 can probably keep most of the important stuff on the RAM most of the time and thus it won't use the HDD much and the SSD will be a waste of money). Spend money on a computer than can run max settings with 4GB of RAM first (at least when you're not moving around so you don't have HDD stutter), and only then worry about SSD or more ram for a ramdisk.

[pooroldspike 129]

I'm just a grunt wargamer not a PC expert, but I think I read somewhere that we have to balance the processor, RAM and video card properly so that they all work together as a team, and it's no good upgrading just one of them if the other two can't keep up.

[Pummel 10]

That's quite nonsense as well. Video card ram has nothing to do with your system RAM. WinXP uses something like 3.25GB of your 4GB of RAM, but the 2GB on the video card are still 2GB on the video card...

On another note, though, as far as I understand more than 1GB on the card in current games and standard HD resolutions is more than enough, and 2GB won't really benefit anything right now.

Another thing worth noting is that a crappy PC with an SSC is probably a bad idea, since a crappy PC cant' run high enough graphic settings for HDD stutter to become a problem (low graphic settings means Arma 2 can probably keep most of the important stuff on the RAM most of the time and thus it won't use the HDD much and the SSD will be a waste of money). Spend money on a computer than can run max settings with 4GB of RAM first (at least when you're not moving around so you don't have HDD stutter), and only then worry about SSD or more ram for a ramdisk.

The graphics cards with large amounts of ram are for very high resolutions, or for people who run multiple displays.

Also SSD's are useful for more than just graphic stutter. The main advantage of an SSD is the load times, of everything, games and applications and the OS itself. It makes the whole PC seem snappier in general use. It's also cooler, and completely silent. But yes, for gaming it would be best to have good cpu/ram/graphics card first, and an SSD is icing on the cake.

Edited March 22, 2011 by Pummel

[Nølsen 10]

8 GB of DDR3.

[ScareCroweb 10]

That's quite nonsense as well. Video card ram has nothing to do with your system RAM. WinXP uses something like 3.25GB of your 4GB of RAM, but the 2GB on the video card are still 2GB on the video card...

who told you that?

32 bit system can only read and use 3.25 gigabyte period. your video memory must be mapped the same way as your RAM, just because you have a video card wont make the 32 bit system more aware of more ram :)

its simply not enough adress room for all the ram.

With a 64 bit sytem that problem goes away poof.

imagine you have a 4 gigbyte ram + 1 Gigabyte vram your system can only map 3.25 gigabyte total and not your 5 gigabyte of ram you totally have.

Edited March 26, 2011 by ScareCroweb

[galzohar 31]

OK I looked around a lot and actually couldn't find a definite answer for this, so I'll take that statement back.

In any case, I doubt there are a lot of people with multiple monitors that only have 4GB of RAM or less and a 32-bit OS..

[ScareCroweb 10]

Its true everything I said the amount of space the video card can take from the system address is set with your agp aperture setting in your bios. but dont take my word for it read here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670

So my advise is get a 64 bit system and your memory problems is gone atleast with 64 bits you get to use ALL your memory :)

Edited March 27, 2011 by ScareCroweb

[bangtail 0]

AGP? Not many people using that these days bud.

AGP aperture has nothing to do with contemporary PCs (Pro tip: We're on PCI-E these days).

For example, a 1GB video card makes full use of it's VRAM on a 32 bit OS, the VRAM has nothing to do with the system RAM.

Edited March 27, 2011 by BangTail

[ScareCroweb 10]

point remains valid though the address area in 32 bit is still limiting the use of all your ram, I'm using pci-express too btw but this is not about what kind of hardware we are using its about 32 bits versus 64. Bro