Worth doing? – Kyle Lunau
After recently purchasing another stick of RAM for my system, I figured I would measure performance before and after so the rest of you can make educated decisions about upping your RAM. Enjoy!
The System used for this test is as follows:
- Asus A7N8X motherboard
- AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor at 2.3 GHz and 1.825 volts
- Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM drive
- Western Digital 160 GB 7200RPM drive
- PNY Nvidia 6800 GS AGP w/ stock clocks
The testing was carried out as follows:
- In both tests RAM was run at 175 MHz, 3-3-3-7 timings and 2.6 volts
- 3DMark 2001 SE was run on highest settings and 1280 x 1024 resolution
- 3DMark 2003 was run with 1024 x 768 x 32 resolution and optimal settings (the non-pro versions settings are not changeable)
- 3DMark 2005 was run with the same settings as 3DMark 2003 for the same reason
- Aquamark 3 was run with 1024 x 768 x 32 on very high detail with no AA and 4x Aniso
- Load times were an average of 5 tests, boot 2 tests and reset and shutdown 1 test
- BF2 level load was Strike at Karkand Singleplayer with bots on easy
- PCMark was run with the system tests only
- Firefox average was taken starting right after entry to Windows
| Test | 512 MB Single Channel | 1024 MB Dual Channel |
| 3DMark 2001 SE | 13,590 | 13,671 |
| 3DMark 03 | 9,700 | 9,504 |
| 3DMark 05 | 4,434 | 4,485 |
| 3DMark 06 | 2,075 | 2,077 |
| AquaMark 3 | 49,465 | 49,805 |
| PCMark 04 | 3,789 | 3,805 |
| PCMark 05 | 3,282 | 3,361 |
| BF2 Max Playable – Resolution: 1280 x 96 | Terrain: High Effects: High Geometry: High Texture: Medium Lighting: Medium Dynamic Shadows: Medium Dynamic Light: Medium AA: Off Texture Filtering: Medium View Distance: 100% | Terrain: High Effects: High Geometry: High Texture: High Lighting: High Dynamic Shadows: High Dynamic Light: High AA: Off Texture Filtering: High View Distance: 100% |
| Boot Time | 41.88 seconds | 37.35 seconds |
| Firefox Load Time | Initially: 17.20 seconds Average: 4.46 seconds | Initially: 17.37 seconds Average: 4.38 seconds |
| BF2 Level load time | Initially: 4 min/ 44.1 sec 2nd run: 47.78 seconds 3rd run: 30.48 seconds 4th run: 27.51 seconds 5th run 30.54 seconds | Initially: 1 min/ 44.7 sec 2nd run: 45.56 seconds 3rd run: 43.16 seconds 4th run: 43.36 seconds 5th run: 42.81 seconds |
| Shutdown time | 17.81 Seconds | 16.32 seconds |
| Restart time | 1 minute 16.30 seconds | 1 minute 18.03 seconds |
WOW!! I would have to say the extra 512 MB is definitely worth it just from the reduction in BF2 load times!
Although I didn’t include it in the testing, I also found that the extra RAM greatly reduced load times in Counter Strike: Source as well. In general use, the extra RAM could not really be noticed though and most of the tests I ran showed only modest increases in performance. But I have to say the gig is good to have in BF2!
All in all I think this proves that for today’s latest games – or newer titles at least – the full gig really makes a difference!
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