RAM and Framerate

Dorfeater · 12-10-2006, 07:08 PM

I'm having a total brain fart here, so I'll just lay it out...

I have a pos toshiba laptop, 1.7ghz, 512mb ram, 128 shared intel crap gpu. It will play WoW, but I'm trying to get my framerate up because, well I'm sittin at like 15, if I'm lucky... anyways... If I upgraded the RAM to say 1gb.. would that boost my framerate at all or am I pretty much just stuck with the crappy shared video as my problem?

Thanks.

Tiesiaan · 12-10-2006, 07:42 PM

Yes.

As an example, my friend and I share a lot of stats on our desktops, but I have 1 gig o' RAM, and he has 2. The difference is I can run medium BF2 settings (about half the settings maxed) with full frame rates, and he can turn everything up to max and run smoothly. The is all the result of a single gig of RAM, and of course my new upgrade focus is in the RAM department.

tolliner · 12-10-2006, 07:53 PM

Would more RAM help you in your case? Probalby not worth the money. Upping the RAM would make a bigger difference when you have other hardware to back it up. Your best bet is probably save up and get a new laptop (of desktop which will get you more bang for your buck)

PS: Teisiaan, the setting which will be effected by the amount of RAM you have would be the rendering distance. Everything else is tied to the GPU.

rabb1t · 12-10-2006, 08:06 PM

It depends. Are you talking about ~15 FPS all the time, or ~15 FPS just when you log in or just when you go to the auction house and then it later clears up to like 30 FPS?

If you are seeing heavy dips only briefly at certain times, then yes, that is probably the result of low ram. If you are talking about low FPS all the time, no matter where you are, then that's a GPU thing.

In general an integrated laptop GPU isn't going to cut it for games.

Dorfeater · 12-10-2006, 09:01 PM

Indoors everything is smooth, I mean... it could be better but its about 32fps average if I'm inside or in a dungeon with few players... outside and/or around the AH's is where its really bothersome.

< Broke as a joke otherwise I would build a new computer. I am saving, but I was wondering if theres anything I can do to make my playtime more enjoyable until then.

rabb1t · 12-11-2006, 05:31 PM

Yeah then that sounds like an issue swapping stuff to/from the ram/hard drive because you are only on 512. Since you see ~30FPS 'normally' getting more ram should fix the problem.

I'd say that PC probably isn't worth investing more than 1 512 meg stick into (which would bump you to 1 gig provided you have multi-ram slots.)

Dorfeater · 12-11-2006, 06:07 PM

Well, I had a 100$ to burn so I bought a 1gb stick... yeah, prolly wont do TOO much, but hopefully it will at least keep me happy until I can get a new desktop built. My only concern is being able to play WoW, thats really the only game I play anymore, I don't have the time to play anything else and get anywhere, lol.

Thanks for the advice.

Slide · 12-12-2006, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorfeater

I'm having a total brain fart here, so I'll just lay it out...

I have a pos toshiba laptop, 1.7ghz, 512mb ram, 128 shared intel crap gpu. It will play WoW, but I'm trying to get my framerate up because, well I'm sittin at like 15, if I'm lucky... anyways... If I upgraded the RAM to say 1gb.. would that boost my framerate at all or am I pretty much just stuck with the crappy shared video as my problem?

Thanks.

WoW has a massive performance boost from 512MB to 1GB. It wont happen in other games, but for WoW yes do it. It actually becomes proper;y playable / smooth at around 768MB - but the extra stops Ironforge lagging.

I used to play it on a P1600 / 128MB GF3 / 512MB setup and it was aweful - knocking it up to 1GB made *all* the difference.