wouldnt hurt if you upgraded your front intake fan to a 120mm fan either... i know you are on a tight budget, but 80mm fans arent designed for the thermal load of today's machines.
wouldnt hurt if you upgraded your front intake fan to a 120mm fan either... i know you are on a tight budget, but 80mm fans arent designed for the thermal load of today's machines.
No it wouldn't hurt at all. Looking for one as we speak,thanks
Heres some stuff to thing about. If you are going to be running windows 7 64 bit, get 8 gig ram, without a doubt.
Get a power supply mentioned somewhere up above and read the reviews on them. Sometimes the cheap 500w power supplies are not true 500 watts. I.e. the rails coming off the power supply are not sending the correct voltage.
One other thing I wanted to mention. I am not sure how savy you are with putting PC's together but once you slap all the stuff together in the case, make 100% sure that your bios is setup correctly. I.e. Make sure your memory is running at the correct speed/settings and voltage. The bios settings can make a cheap PC act like an alienware....
Also once Windows is installed and you have all your drivers, especially the newly updated motherboard drivers (hint hint) make sure you download CPU-Z to verify your stuff (memory, processor, GPU's) are all running at the correct speed.
oh by the way, when I was in the weekend beta, i was running the game on a 46 inch flatscreen TV with 1920/1080 resolution with everything maxxed on the graphics settings with just a gtx 275 with 896 meg ram. I do have 2 gtx 275's in my machine running in SLI but I turned SLI off just to see what the game would run like and believe it or not it ran great.
Heres some stuff to thing about. If you are going to be running windows 7 64 bit, get 8 gig ram, without a doubt.
Get a power supply mentioned somewhere up above and read the reviews on them. Sometimes the cheap 500w power supplies are not true 500 watts. I.e. the rails coming off the power supply are not sending the correct voltage.
One other thing I wanted to mention. I am not sure how savy you are with putting PC's together but once you slap all the stuff together in the case, make 100% sure that your bios is setup correctly. I.e. Make sure your memory is running at the correct speed/settings and voltage. The bios settings can make a cheap PC act like an alienware....
Also once Windows is installed and you have all your drivers, especially the newly updated motherboard drivers (hint hint) make sure you download CPU-Z to verify your stuff (memory, processor, GPU's) are all running at the correct speed.
oh by the way, when I was in the weekend beta, i was running the game on a 46 inch flatscreen TV with 1920/1080 resolution with everything maxxed on the graphics settings with just a gtx 275 with 896 meg ram. I do have 2 gtx 275's in my machine running in SLI but I turned SLI off just to see what the game would run like and believe it or not it ran great.
It's not a brand new build but i am running Win 7 64 so along with the GPU & PSU i'll be adding a 4 GB stick too.
I will check out CPU-Z and make sure that all my settings are correct anyhow.
It's not a brand new build but i am running Win 7 64 so along with the GPU & PSU i'll be adding a 4 GB stick too.
I will check out CPU-Z and make sure that all my settings are correct anyhow.
Thanks for the heads up on TOR's performance!
You will never exceed the 4GB you have playing SWTOR. Windows 7 uses only about 1GB of RAM, and no single game uses more than 3GB all by itself. In fact, if the game tried to use more than 2GB by itself, it would crash, because 32-bit applications are only allowed 2GB of address space by Windows. Since the game has to run reliably, that means it has to run far below that 2GB limit, for the sake of a safety margin. So by design, TOR should never, ever, use more than 1.5GB of memory, give or take.
So Windows and TOR will use maybe 2.5-3GB of RAM, leaving you with more than a full gigabyte to spare. That's easily enough to run Skype, Overwolf, and whatever else you want.
Adding 4GB will spend money and net you nothing, and if you only add a single 4GB stick, you'll make your computer slower, not faster, because then half your memory will be single-channel.
Just buy the GPU and the power supply, and it'll do nicely.
SWTOR actually uses 2 separate processes, one for the game and one for audio. The game process uses about 1.6 GB at peak from what I've seen (out of the 32 bit 2 GB limit). The audio process uses about 400 MB at its peak. So this puts the game at around 2GB peak.
The interesting thing is that since it's split into 2 processes it can potentially use more memory than normal 32 bit apps (those without the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag). So the standard '4 GB is most you can use' isn't necessarily true here, but in practice it still is (haven't seen it go above 1.9GB max total with all settings maxed and 4x AA forced.)
So yes 4GB is still fine. Memory is just workspace, and even if your 4GB is at 95% capacity it will still run about as fast as an 8GB system at 50% capacity. It's not until you hit 100% and have to start swapping data to hard drive to make room that there's an issue. But this game is getting me ready to upgrade to 8GB.
SWTOR actually uses 2 separate processes, one for the game and one for audio. The game process uses about 1.6 GB at peak from what I've seen (out of the 32 bit 2 GB limit). The audio process uses about 400 MB at its peak. So this puts the game at around 2GB peak.
The interesting thing is that since it's split into 2 processes it can potentially use more memory than normal 32 bit apps (those without the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag). So the standard '4 GB is most you can use' isn't necessarily true here, but in practice it still is (haven't seen it go above 1.9GB max total with all settings maxed and 4x AA forced.)
So yes 4GB is still fine. Memory is just workspace, and even if your 4GB is at 95% capacity it will still run about as fast as an 8GB system at 50% capacity. It's not until you hit 100% and have to start swapping data to hard drive to make room that there's an issue. But this game is getting me ready to upgrade to 8GB.
If TOR even gets close to 2GB, the split makes sense. I mean, even if it only practically uses 1.9GB under any normal circumstance, spiking up to 2.0001GB, even for a moment, means a crash. You're right that they took an interesting approach.
I also agree that it's time to start giving more serious thought to 8GB as a standard, although I say that with the caveat that you and I probably have slightly larger budgets to work with than the OP, which makes low-priority changes like that more reasonable.
i got the GPU and PSU yesterday for $190. It's not that i can't afford a few extra $ to get a fan and add another 4gigs, it's that i want to keep it within a low budget 'cause add another $160 for CE that i'm gonna get charged at some point and i'll be spending around $400 in total just to play the game...which is fine cause it's what i like but i'm trying to keep it within a reasonable amount
SWTOR actually uses 2 separate processes, one for the game and one for audio. The game process uses about 1.6 GB at peak from what I've seen (out of the 32 bit 2 GB limit). The audio process uses about 400 MB at its peak. So this puts the game at around 2GB peak.
The interesting thing is that since it's split into 2 processes it can potentially use more memory than normal 32 bit apps (those without the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag). So the standard '4 GB is most you can use' isn't necessarily true here, but in practice it still is (haven't seen it go above 1.9GB max total with all settings maxed and 4x AA forced.)
So yes 4GB is still fine. Memory is just workspace, and even if your 4GB is at 95% capacity it will still run about as fast as an 8GB system at 50% capacity. It's not until you hit 100% and have to start swapping data to hard drive to make room that there's an issue. But this game is getting me ready to upgrade to 8GB.
It's very interesting to read that TOR uses 2 seperate processes though, didn't know about that . I'll start off with my 4 gigs and add some more when and if i feel it's needed.
Comments
wouldnt hurt if you upgraded your front intake fan to a 120mm fan either... i know you are on a tight budget, but 80mm fans arent designed for the thermal load of today's machines.
No it wouldn't hurt at all. Looking for one as we speak,thanks
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Heres some stuff to thing about. If you are going to be running windows 7 64 bit, get 8 gig ram, without a doubt.
Get a power supply mentioned somewhere up above and read the reviews on them. Sometimes the cheap 500w power supplies are not true 500 watts. I.e. the rails coming off the power supply are not sending the correct voltage.
One other thing I wanted to mention. I am not sure how savy you are with putting PC's together but once you slap all the stuff together in the case, make 100% sure that your bios is setup correctly. I.e. Make sure your memory is running at the correct speed/settings and voltage. The bios settings can make a cheap PC act like an alienware....
Also once Windows is installed and you have all your drivers, especially the newly updated motherboard drivers (hint hint) make sure you download CPU-Z to verify your stuff (memory, processor, GPU's) are all running at the correct speed.
oh by the way, when I was in the weekend beta, i was running the game on a 46 inch flatscreen TV with 1920/1080 resolution with everything maxxed on the graphics settings with just a gtx 275 with 896 meg ram. I do have 2 gtx 275's in my machine running in SLI but I turned SLI off just to see what the game would run like and believe it or not it ran great.
It's not a brand new build but i am running Win 7 64 so along with the GPU & PSU i'll be adding a 4 GB stick too.
I will check out CPU-Z and make sure that all my settings are correct anyhow.
Thanks for the heads up on TOR's performance!
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
You will never exceed the 4GB you have playing SWTOR. Windows 7 uses only about 1GB of RAM, and no single game uses more than 3GB all by itself. In fact, if the game tried to use more than 2GB by itself, it would crash, because 32-bit applications are only allowed 2GB of address space by Windows. Since the game has to run reliably, that means it has to run far below that 2GB limit, for the sake of a safety margin. So by design, TOR should never, ever, use more than 1.5GB of memory, give or take.
So Windows and TOR will use maybe 2.5-3GB of RAM, leaving you with more than a full gigabyte to spare. That's easily enough to run Skype, Overwolf, and whatever else you want.
Adding 4GB will spend money and net you nothing, and if you only add a single 4GB stick, you'll make your computer slower, not faster, because then half your memory will be single-channel.
Just buy the GPU and the power supply, and it'll do nicely.
SWTOR actually uses 2 separate processes, one for the game and one for audio. The game process uses about 1.6 GB at peak from what I've seen (out of the 32 bit 2 GB limit). The audio process uses about 400 MB at its peak. So this puts the game at around 2GB peak.
The interesting thing is that since it's split into 2 processes it can potentially use more memory than normal 32 bit apps (those without the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag). So the standard '4 GB is most you can use' isn't necessarily true here, but in practice it still is (haven't seen it go above 1.9GB max total with all settings maxed and 4x AA forced.)
So yes 4GB is still fine. Memory is just workspace, and even if your 4GB is at 95% capacity it will still run about as fast as an 8GB system at 50% capacity. It's not until you hit 100% and have to start swapping data to hard drive to make room that there's an issue. But this game is getting me ready to upgrade to 8GB.
If TOR even gets close to 2GB, the split makes sense. I mean, even if it only practically uses 1.9GB under any normal circumstance, spiking up to 2.0001GB, even for a moment, means a crash. You're right that they took an interesting approach.
I also agree that it's time to start giving more serious thought to 8GB as a standard, although I say that with the caveat that you and I probably have slightly larger budgets to work with than the OP, which makes low-priority changes like that more reasonable.
i got the GPU and PSU yesterday for $190. It's not that i can't afford a few extra $ to get a fan and add another 4gigs, it's that i want to keep it within a low budget 'cause add another $160 for CE that i'm gonna get charged at some point and i'll be spending around $400 in total just to play the game...which is fine cause it's what i like but i'm trying to keep it within a reasonable amount
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
It's very interesting to read that TOR uses 2 seperate processes though, didn't know about that . I'll start off with my 4 gigs and add some more when and if i feel it's needed.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.