Battlefield 2: How much ram do you need?

[MadPistol]

I did some practical tests today using different amounts of ram to run Battlefield 2, as I have found that lots of people are having game issues. First let me tell you what specs I'm running.

2.8C Ghz P4
Intel 875P Motherboard
PNY Verto Geforce 6800 GT
350-watt Antec Smart Power PSU
Audigy 2 ZS

I think that's all of the relevent specs needed for this. As you can tell my system is a little dated, but you will find that with the right amount of resources, that it runs this "resource hog" like a dream.

I ran 3 different configurations of Ram today, all in Dual channel configurations. NOTE: performance here is still not optimal. All RAM timings are 3.0-3-3-8, which for PC 3200 memory is not tight at all. The configurations are as follows.

512 MB (2 x 256mb)
1 GB (4 x 256mb) NOTE: I haven't tried 2 x 512MB configuration yet.
1.5 GB (2 x 256mb, 2 x 512mb)

As I said, ram timings for each configuration is exactly the same, so there is no doubt that these results are accurate. Here is what I observed.

512MB (2 x 256mb)

Well, lets put it this way:
"I pity the fool who has to play the game with this much RAM!"
I'm sorry to say that as the minimum required to run BF2, that's all it is. I can run settings @ low and no higher. even then, I get about 30 - 45 fps usually, but there is lots of lag in game (no matter which server you're on). It also takes FOREVER to load.

Another annoying fact: getting back to the desktop after you finish playing the game is annoying. The BF2 theme music plays for like 5 minutes. I almost thought about restarting my comp when this first happened. It really sucked. I'd say the game experience for BF2 @ 512mb RAM is about a 4/10. This is not a recommended setup.

1 GB (4 x 256mb)

A much more widely used setup by gamers, 1 GB will allow you to run practically every game @ highest settings (provided you have a nice video card) and get great performance. However, if you're running 1 GB for BF2, turn up the settings at your own risk. my experience with doing that is miserable for about the first 5 - 6 minutes of internet gameplay. (resolution is set @ 1024 x 768) While the game does run smoothly after a little bit of time, it still occasionally jumps and stutters.

For getting back to the desktop, if you've been playing for 30 minutes or more, be prepared to hear the BF2 theme for about 3 minutes after you load back to your desktop. This game still depletes 1 GB of memory completely if you're running this game with all settings maxed. I'd say the overall game experience here is about 7.5/10. It's much more playable than 512mb of RAM, but I would recommend keeping the settings @ medium for this kind of setup.

1.5 GB (2 x 256mb, 2 x 512mb)

I went out today and got 2 new sticks of 512mb RAM, and based on what I have been hearing about BF2's performance, I didn't think that it was going to make much of a difference....

I am so thankful that I was wrong about that.

That little extra boost of RAM is all you need to push your game to the limit. To put into perspective how much of a difference this makes, I pushed my settings from medium and 1024 x 768 res (which got about 30 fps) all the way to highest settings and 1600 x 1200. Believe it or not, I got better frame rates in this configuration @ 1600 x 1200 than I did with 1 GB @ 1024 x 768. It really does make that big of a difference.

There was only small little bits and pieces of stuttering. It was so miniscule though that it wasn't enough to even be a slight annoyance. basically, it was the page files sent between RAM, Video card, and the Hard Drive, which happens on all of today's highend games so it didn't phase me at all.

So what about going back to the desktop? Well, after playing for an hour (just to make sure that the RAM was nice and full) I went back to the desktop. Surprisingly enough, it gets back to the full operability in the desktop in under 30 seconds. To make things even better, the song goes away as soon as you leave the game. It's about time!!!!!! Game experience for this configuration is about a 9.9/10 (only because of the small amounts of stuttering. It's only noticible if you really look though) I think with 2 GB's of memory, that score would be a 10 easily, but I'm not willing to shell out another $120 to get that last little 1% performance increase. This is good enough.



There you have it. Hopefully this will help some of you that are thinking about or have the game make a decision about what you need to run it. Please reply to this thread if you have further questions. Also, if you have anything else you want to ask me that you don't necessarily want to post (I don't know why, but it does happen) post on here and I'll send you a PM that has my email address so you can contact me.

Enjoy guys!

[Comage]

This is a very decent and good write-up.

I'd still be thinking that 512MB of RAM is still good enough for gaming (and even until mid-2006), were it not for this good read.

Bump it up!

[MJCfromCT]

I have 1GB of RAM, 2700+ (running at 200x10.5), 9800 Pro.

When playing BF2 (1024, everything high except for lighting and textures at medium, 100% draw distance, 2xaa), I notice my hard drive activity light blinking quite a lot at the beginning of a map. I'm thinking that 1GB of RAM isn't enough in this case. Once I have been playing on a map for a while, the hard drive stops being accessed and my gameplay is a lot less choppy.

[Someone Stupid]

I don't play the game, but I've READ on forums of several instances of people with high end machines that were experiences occasional hits or just bogged down were they wanted things to be having things cured by going to 1.5 gigs. I can't verify it, but that is what I've read. Sounds to be a resource hog.

[bob05]

I have 640 meg of PC2700 and I play just fine. I can Alt-Tab to check email, AIM, etc. just fine.

[MadPistol]

Originally posted by bob05
I have 640 meg of PC2700 and I play just fine. I can Alt-Tab to check email, AIM, etc. just fine.

First, are you talking about Battlefield 2?

Second, How high are your settings?

If you read what I tested, you'll see that what you are doing isn't impossible at lowest settings, but w/ 640mb of memory (kind of a weird number), it has to lag somewhat.

I was going to ask if you're running the game under Windows 2000, but that can't be possible because according to the specs sheet, this game exclusively supports XP only. Therefore, I don't think your statement is possible. Sorry.

[MadPistol]

is this good enough to sticky??? I put quite a bit of time (and money) into finding this out.

[RamonGTP]

I expierenced some of the same things as well...

When I had 1GB of ram it was choppy for the first couple minutes and then smoothed out, with an occasional skip here and there, but nothing major. However, it did not take me 3 minutes to exit back to desktop, it only took a few seoncds, but the system wasn't as responsive as normal for a few minutes due to everything being stored in the page file when the game was running. These were at 2-2-2-11 memory timings.

When I ran 1.5Gigs it was completely smooth, from the start of the level, to the end of the level and exiting the game. When I exited out of the game, it was pretty much instantanious, all my desktop icons were right there where as with 1GB, they needed to be reloaded into RAM. I initially had to lower my timings to 2.5-3-3-11 with the 3rd 512MB stick, but later found it to be a faulty stick, got a new one and i'm back to 2-2-2-11. I did not however notice any dramatic performance differences ingame going between the aggressive and relaxed timings, except that my random reboots and CTD errors were gone with the new stick. The AMOUNT of memory obviusly makes a much bigger difference here than the SPEED does.

I did not try it with 512MB nor would I want to attempt it.

[MadPistol]

Originally posted by RamonGTP
I did not try it with 512MB nor would I want to attempt it.

Unless you're just itching to see how bad the game is on 512mb, I don't recommend trying it. It's like driving a stationwagon up a steep hill w/ no brakes, a broken drive shaft, and an 4 cylinder engine that is about to fall out of the car...

Basically, scary, annoying, and overall, unsafe.



Is there anyone daring enough to put in one 256mb stick and see how it runs? I bet the game crashes before you even get to the multiplayer screen.

[bob05]

Originally posted by MadPistol
First, are you talking about Battlefield 2?

Second, How high are your settings?

If you read what I tested, you'll see that what you are doing isn't impossible at lowest settings, but w/ 640mb of memory (kind of a weird number), it has to lag somewhat.

I was going to ask if you're running the game under Windows 2000, but that can't be possible because according to the specs sheet, this game exclusively supports XP only. Therefore, I don't think your statement is possible. Sorry.

Yes, I'm talking about Battlefield: 2 (The demo). I'm a med detail at 800x600. I can make a FRAPS movie I guess. Obviously it takes a while to ALT-Tab (not instantaneous) but its possible. Yes it does lag at larger battles but its playable. I don't experience the 5 minute music that you did (I get maybe 3-5 secs). Also load times are a little longer.

[MadPistol]

Originally posted by bob05
Yes, I'm talking about Battlefield: 2 (The demo). I'm a med detail at 800x600. I can make a FRAPS movie I guess. Obviously it takes a while to ALT-Tab (not instantaneous) but its possible. Yes it does lag at larger battles but its playable. I don't experience the 5 minute music that you did (I get maybe 3-5 secs). Also load times are a little longer.

Ok. with the right video card, that statement sounds much closer to possible than your first comment. Your first comment was said in such a way that it sounded like it was easy to do that, but now I understand.

[bob05]

P.S. I pulled my 512 stick out (leaving 128 meg) and Windows XP barely booted (took about 6-8 minutes). I closed everything I could and tried to run BF: 2. As expected it didn't even load. I may try 256 if I can find a stick of it.

[bob05]

UPDATE: After 10+ minutes the game loaded (I thought it froze )! Menus are fine (took a while to log in though). Locked up at 'Joining Server' for a good 3-4 minutes. Loading objects etc. takes a good 10-11 minutes. When I clicked to Join Now I saw the opening screen to the map and I got stuck on 'Respawn in 0'. Then it quit to desktop (that in itself took a while too). Simply unplayable.

[MadPistol]

Congrats. You proved EA is actually correct on telling you some good minimum specs to go with.

if you're brave enough, try 384mb of RAM. maybe you'll have more success w/ that.

[bob05]

Originally posted by MadPistol
Congrats. You proved EA is actually correct on telling you some good minimum specs to go with.

if you're brave enough, try 384mb of RAM. maybe you'll have more success w/ that.

lol I guess they are right about somethings. I certainly will try 384 meg if I can find a 256 meg stick (I should have one lying in a Dell somewhere).