How much is enough RAM?

[jimmiedee65]

Oh wow thanks v much i'll try that now :-D

...

It's asked me to give info on my comp, i've told it i've got a fujitsu siemens, then i told it it's a scaleo model.
Its now asked me which fujitsu siemens scaleo model it is. On the front of my computer it says scaleo 600
but there are 3 possible scaleo models:
(PC133 SDRAM, PDRAM, or DDR)
it doesn't mention any of these in the computer manual and i can't see them anywhere else, do you know where i could find out which one?

 

[Rockfang]

Oh wow thanks v much i'll try that now :-D

...

It's asked me to give info on my comp, i've told it i've got a fujitsu siemens, then i told it it's a scaleo model.
Its now asked me which fujitsu siemens scaleo model it is. On the front of my computer it says scaleo 600
but there are 3 possible scaleo models:
(PC133 SDRAM, PDRAM, or DDR)
it doesn't mention any of these in the computer manual and i can't see them anywhere else, do you know where i could find out which one?

Go to http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
With that link, you should not have to make any selections. Should figure it out automatically.

 

[jimmiedee65]

Oh cool, done that, http://www.crucial.com/systemscanne...=587C132931D926C3&tabid=AM&pagename=index.asp

It said that. is that anywhere near min requirements for CIV?

 

[jimmiedee65]

i clicked upgrade this slot but it said it couldn't determine what sort of 'giga byte' model i have???

 

[Rockfang]

i clicked upgrade this slot but it said it couldn't determine what sort of 'giga byte' model i have???

That is odd. Not sure what to tell you. Sorry.

 

[jimmiedee65]

It's ok, i've done some searching, downloaded a few files from my manual. I found that my motherboard is a G8 ST....lots of letters, they didn't match exactly with the options given, but i clicked the one most similar and it gave me this
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanne...132931D926C3&model=GA-8ST&submit=Go+to+Step+3

You'll have to scroll down to see the RAM piece. It looks very similar to the RAM i have in my computer now (i know from when i opened it up). Both have the same verical black plastic things.

I have only ever seen two different types of ram pieces so i don't know exactly, but they are distinctly different, could i assume that that is the right one?

 

[Mistoffeles]

Go to the Gigabyte website at this page:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Default.aspx

and you can look up your motherboard by model number, it will tell you what type of memory you need, for example I have a GA-8IPE1000-Pro2, which can use any Pentium-4 or P4-based Celery CPU, and any RAM memory speed from 200-400MHZ (possibly higher).

Gigabyte motherboards are usually good with any subtype of RAM sticks, so basically, a DIMM is a DIMM, a SIMM is a SIMM, as long as you get the right speed - for instance you may need 266MHz DIMMs for an older machine, or 400MHz for a newer one.

Also, to the untrained eye (and sometimes to the trained eye) there is little or no visible difference between msot types of RAM memory (SIMM, DIMM, DDR2 DIMM) except SoDIMMs (half the width, for laptops and smaller).

For best performance, virtual memory (aka swap file, page file, etc) should be set to a fixed size (minimum and maximum equal), the larger the better unless you have lots of RAM memory (2GB or larger). The maximum virtual memory Windows XP will use (except for 64-bit edition) is 4GB, or 4096 minimum, 4096 maximum. Best performance is obtained from putting the swap file on a different bus, i.e. a hard drive that is attached to a different data cable than your main drive inside your computer.

P.S.: I would not use any less than 1GB of RAM in a gaming machine these days, prefferably 2GB, so try at least 2x512MB, or 4x512MB, or 2x1GB. If you have a nice, forgiving motherboard perhaps even 4x1GB for 4GB total.

Other things that can slow you down include processor speed and video card, but RAM memory is usually the bottleneck for most people these days.

 

[jimmiedee65]

Gigabyte motherboards are usually good with any subtype of RAM sticks, so basically, a DIMM is a DIMM, a SIMM is a SIMM, as long as you get the right speed - for instance you may need 266MHz DIMMs for an older machine, or 400MHz for a newer one.

tyvm. I used the link but couldn't find any that matched my motherboard. I looked in my online documentation, in a folder called main board there was an adobe file with the front page saying:
USER’S MANUAL
GA-8STXC
P4 Titan-DDR Motherboard
Pentium® 4 Processor Motherboard
Rev. 1001
12ME-8STXC-1001

...On the website you gave, and also on the crucial website there are no boards matching that, there is on called a GA-8ST, and others with similar names, should i just use the GA-8ST?

Thanks again.

 

[crunch]

I took a look at the manual of your motherboard: http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl...ds/Motherboards/GigaByte/8STXCFS/8stxc_uk.pdf
I am attaching the part about memory.

 

[jimmiedee65]

thanks, what does the double/single side thing mean?

 

[Mistoffeles]

thanks, what does the double/single side thing mean?

16 chips are used on a double-sided stick, as opposed to 8, thus a double-sided 512-megabyte DIMM uses 16 256-megabit chips, while a single-sided 512-megabyte DIMM uses 8 512-megabit chips, effectively making double-sided less expensive in the high-end ranges where single chips with double the capacity are more than twice the cost. Not all motherboards support double-sided memory in all configurations, however.

Your board appears to support only 266 and 333 MHz DIMMs, you will have to check your BIOS to see what speed your current memory is working at, and possibly look up what memory speeds your particular CPU supports. With a BIOS update, you may even be able to use 400MHz DIMMs, but there's no guarantee.

If you want to use your existing memory with any new memory you will have to either match speeds, or run the new (and faster) memory at the speed of the slower memory. The advantage to this would be that when you upgraded to a new motherboard you may be able to carry the new memory forward rather than buying even more to match the new motherboard.

Oh, and then there's CAS and RAS latencies to make it even more complex.

As you can see there are a lot of things to consider even with such a small component, this is why computer techs get paid "teh big bux"

 

[jimmiedee65]

my computer is beginning to scare me. who knows what other secrets lurk within...

I think i fully understood the first paragraph - not so famous last words.

But when you say 266 and 333 what do these numbers mean? i thought RAM only worked in regular numbers, i.e. 256, 512 etc.

How do i check my BIOS?

I'll pretend i didn't hear the CAS and RAS thing :-S

and how do you know all this?

 

[Jasond]

With my current spec, my computer can handle Large maps with 7-9 other Civs on it without any problem. I haven't tried Huge maps or 18 Civs on a map but from a few of the other threads I have seen you need more than 1Gb to play Huge maps with alot of Civs on it as some others have experienced CTDs or it runs too slowly with 1Gb of RAM. I can't see it needing more then 1.5Gb RAM in any case. It's still way too much imho anyway.

I can play huge maps with alot of civilizations, I really don't think Civilization series is a RAM-Hog like Battlefield 2. It really depends on your Graphics card and Processor, it's also good to have your harddrive to be atleast 7,200rpm/s

 

[Keith_C]

I went from 512MB to 1.25gb on my laptop, and there was a *massive* improvement in performance. Well worth it for only £40.

Jimmiedee - download this program: CPU-Z, extract it to your desktop, and run it.

Then, go to the 'About' tab, click the 'Registers Dump' button, and attach the file it generates onto this thread. We'll then tell you the type of memory you need

 

[Keith_C]

I've attached mine to give you an idea of what it looks like

 

[malclave]

But when you say 266 and 333 what do these numbers mean? i thought RAM only worked in regular numbers, i.e. 256, 512 etc.

"256" and "512" are the amount of RAM on a chip; "266" and "333" are the speed the RAM operates at.

 

[1shot1kill]

I wonder what my computer would do with that much ram. I am thinking of buying some. The game works fine except with the wonder videos the sound skips a little. I use XP 256mb ram pentium 3 i know these are below requirements but would more ram help whith the sound

 

[malclave]

Windows XP on 256MB of RAM?

If you go up to 512MB total, you'll probably see a marked improvement in just about everything. And even better if you go to 1GB.

 

[Comraddict]

wth 512MB it will crawl on Civ IV, with 256MB it will read from hard drive all the time.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

please delete this post