FPS and RAM

I've been asking around and I'm concerned about the FPS I;m getting in GW.

Normally I run around 10-18 FPS but I've been as low as 6. Even with all my graphics at min I can't get up past 25 at idle.

So, my system specs

I've got a 2ghz single core processor with a Radeon X1300 graphics card (256mb)
I've also got 2gb of ram (supposedly).


My RAM issue is odd, in my computer I've got 2 512mb sticks. And I have 2000mb of virtual ram (set in Control Panel). That should be 3gb right? I've downloaded a RAM monitoring tool called FreeRAM XP and it monitors my ram usage. Most of the time I only have 550mb free. Surely I can't be using 2.5gb or ram when my processor is idle? Therefore I've drawn the conclusion that either my RAM sticks arn't working, or my virtual memory isn't working or FreeRAM simply doesn't register the virtual memory. Any ideas on this? Can I check exactly how much RAM my computer has access too, including Virtual memory.

I don't even know if RAM will affect the frame rate.

Oddly enough I have 40-50 FPS when I play WoW but other 'newish' 3D games such as AoE and KOTORII have FPSs around 20 again.

Summery:
So, what FPS do you get normally?
What are your graphics set to?
Have you set your graphics through GW or your graphics card directly?
Can I find out how much RAM I have in total?
Will RAM even help FPS?

Thankyou very much



Your local Earth Ele

Mazey

I usally get like 60 fps, but sometimes it changes down in the 40s and 30s for no reason :/

never use freeram software, they just mess with your system by unloading "iddle" process that ensure your OS stability.
virtual ram is that "virtual", windows writes necessary info on the hard drive and retrieves when necessary, maybe your hard drive is slow and not writting quickly.

You got 1GB of RAM. Virtual memory is only used when you run out of RAM, so no, you're not using 2GBs of RAM, lol.

I'd say, with that graphics card, those frame rates are normal. Buy a new card.
RAM wont affect you frame rate, unless you only had 512MB or 256MB, which would obviously need many data swaps from the RAM and a heavier usage of the virtual memory. Your problem is really the graphics.

And you can check your RAM with Ctrl+Alt+Del in the 'Performance' tab. No need to 'freaky' 3rd party apps. ^^

I have an almost 5 year old 9800xt, and I still get no less than 30 FPS even under heavy battle. I'm running in 1280*960 resolution, AA*4, AF*4 and everything 'high'. In GW of course.

Buy a new card & processor. ^^

Your problem is right there:

you have only *1* gb of ram. Virtuall ram is there only to help with freeing reall memory from stuff that is not used at a time (idle tasks, preloaded dll libraries...), getting big about it helps nothing as windows will only fill it with garbage, hell, it even hurts your performance.

So, lowering your virtuall memory to 512 mb is first step towards better performance. If it ever becomes too low, windows will handle it.

(if your ram sticks werent working, your computer wont get past bios check, if they were working but damaged, it would be pretty obvious as you would be crashing all the time.)

(btw, do you have correct drivers? unless you are confused and wrote cpu/graphics specs wrong, you definitelly should be getting better fps)

I think your video card may have more to do with it than your RAM. the x1300 is a very low spec card for last generation. It only has 6 total shader processors (four for pixel, two for vertex), which can result in bottlenecks in games like this. try turning shader quality down, post-process off, and shadows and reflections off.

I have had a similar issue to you. I downloaded all the latest drivers for my graphics card and it has helped my fps a bit, but I still have to play on a really low setting to get a 25ish fps. I have heard some people say that Vista may be the cause of this and such would make sense since I recently got a new computer that was an overall upgrade, but ran on Vista instead of XP like my other comp. Some people run on vista just fine, but I still hear of others saying that they run into low fps when they install Vista, so this may have something to do with your problems, but I'm far from a computer techie of any sorts.

Summery:
So, what FPS do you get normally? 80-100
What are your graphics set to? All High
Have you set your graphics through GW or your graphics card directly? huh?
Can I find out how much RAM I have in total? 1.12 gigs
Will RAM even help FPS? No

I run a Radeon 9800 Pro 128 mb video card everything on high, get good FPS and the only lag I ever get is from internet or server related problems. The game isnt really that demanding.

oh to answer your questions
normal fps: constant 60 (vsync)
graphics settings: maximum, 16x quality AA, 16x AF, 1680x1050
in-game or driver: AA and AF set in driver, all other tweaks are in-game
total ram: 2gb physical, 1gb virtual

when calculating ram for requirements, only count your physical ram. virtual memory isn't to be counted on as a main source of ram.

once you're above reccomended specs, the amount of ram won't have an effect on your average FPS. however, it can help in keeping your fps more stable.

Thing is, I only just bought the Radeon X1300, about 2 months ago. It cost me a fair bit of money and I'm restricted to getting anything better/bigger because my computer case is so small and the power isn't big enough to handle really powerful cards. I'm looking into building my own comp but I've not got the money I need to think seriously about it.

So I've only got 1gb of RAM. That's fine, I don't feel I need more. I can't understand there being a problem with my video card. I've downloaded all the latest drivers and everything. Looking at the internet I can see it was only released 1.5 years ago. I could run GW on my last graphics card and that was 3 years old.

I've been studying the recommended specs and I'm above all of them, my graphics card is above the recommended too. Surely the recommended specs would be for getting an FPS above 50, not 15 like me?

I've just checked my system specs and I was right:
1.94ghz processor
1gb of RAM
Radeon X1300 Pro 256mb

So, if it's not those, what else could be affecting my FPS?

Thankyou so much for all your help

Mazey

I can say from when I started Gw before frame rates were displayed...Ram will effect performance. I upgraded from 256 to 512 and the to 1024 in an aging system, it has a dramatic effect. More so than a video card upgrade though the card I had to begin with a 5500fx runs Gw fine. That system being 6 years old now manages on a low end cable connection to hit about 35-40 fps on a high resolution. I cant say why yours are so low seeing your specs compared to my old system, maybe you have something sucking up memory in the background. And as for getting 50+ fps, My current setup is an antlhon 64 3500+ 2048 ram and 6800gs vid card, it sees 60 fps steadily and is well above the stats recommended. So in my longwindedness id say check for any adware or other viruses, check processes running etc. Try to cut back anything you dont need and also check how much harddrive space your using. Basic stuff...i cant say it will all help but its what I do on my old system to keep it running tolerable on Gw.

If your cpu is a celeron then consider buying a real P4. When my new video card became faulty, i played with my old geforce ti4200 and still got around 30 fps(around) with medium settings on a P4 3.2Ghz.(i hope i remember correctly). Your video card(gpu 450Mhz, ram 250Mhz) is better than the ti4200(gpu 250Mhz, ram 250Mhz).
Running too many processes on the background can affect performance also.

Most of the time I've only got 47 or so processes in the background. I've had a look and the ones taking up the most memory are:
SVChost.exe which is a windows thing
Edict.exe which in an encarta thing
CCAPP.exe
and GW obviously
Otherwise the rest are niminal things like sound software and various windows processes. So it doesn't look odd to me.
In reply to Tarzen: I've only got 20gb of hard drive left but I've got an external drive as well, Its not like I'm pushed for space.

I'm just running a virus and adware scan now but I think it's unlikely they're causing any problems. I run an adware scan every week and my FPS has never been above 20.

I also downloaded new graphics card drivers but they've not made a difference.

I'm at a loss of what to do, it seems really odd. If I've got a better system than your old one QoH then it would make sense for mine to work fine.. It's a mystery

I'm very grateful for everyone's continued help

The amount of RAM doesn't have much of an effect on performance unless there simply isn't enough and the page file has to be used instead, 1 GB should be quite enough for Guild Wars unless you've got tons of stuff running in the background.

Your video card is very weak by current standards, and likely has something to do with the game running slowly on your computer. Try running the game at different resolutions, if the game runs a lot faster on lower resolution settings the video card is the bottleneck, or at least part of it.

Also, what kind of processor do you have? Its clock rate (you know, the GHz thing) alone is NOT an adequate measurement of its processing power, unless you're comparing two processors of identical design, and there's quite a few different models out there. A 1.94 GHz Celeron is a lot slower than a 1.94 GHz Athlon 64 or Core 2, for example.

Anything over 1 gig of ram almost certainly won't see a performance boost unless you're running mad crazy processes. I don't know much about the x1300, but your processor certainly looks low end, especially if it's a celeron. You could always try overclocking your card a bit with ATItool, that's an easy way to eek out another few FPS, but be careful....

My processor is an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ whatever that means.

I tried the game at lower res (800x600 to be specific, I normally run at 1250x 1024) and there was no noticable difference. I might try this ATI tool.

I'll be really angry if it is all my video card's fault. I only bought it two months ago and I was told is was a good card. If it is the video card however I can't change it (there's no room and not enough power) so I'll think hard about this new computer.

If I do get a new graphics card, can you recommend one? My budget is really £200 but I could wait for the Direct X10 cards to drop in price.

Thanks once again

got 15-20 fps with evrything at high =)

Whoever told you the video card was good probably wasn't talking about gaming. The Radeon X1300, like most very low-end cards, is hardly intended for 3d graphics, but for home theatre use and such.

Though if changing the in-game resolution had no effect on the FPS I'd say the processor is quite slow too.

I'm using an Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.05 GHz and a Radeon X700 Pro, and get a pretty solid 40-50 FPS around the first two campaigns, and more than 30 FPS most of the time in Elona, my CPU's clearly the bottleneck most of the time.

Ok, first thing at 1GB RAM or more, RAM doesn't impact on your fps. Secondly, the x1300 is like it's been said previously a low-end card so don't expect anything good out of it. An older generation card with 6 and above as 2nd number and 128MB RAM+ would give you better performance since they have more shader processors, better quality parts. That explains why a radeon 9800 will perform better than your video card.

As for asking for fps, you have to ask about what video card people are using so you can compare to yours.

As for getting better fps in WoW, just look at the difference between the graphics in both games and you have your answer right there.

Lastly, adding more RAM won't improve your fps.

I used to have a similar system but with a 7300GS, which is pretty much equivalent to yours in performance. After upgrading to a 7600GT, GW did run faster. FPS went up depending on area - about 5 FPS increase in PVP, 10-20 increase in PVE. My eyes can't really tell the difference though.

It's probably best to save up for a new computer entirely. Spending money upgrading an Athlon XP system is a poor investment IMO. Socket 462, DDR memory, and AGP are things of the past.