What's does the team think about 'memory' utilities such as FREEMEM, RAMBOOSTER and RAMIDLE? Can these make any useful difference on the average system or do they cause more harm than good by overriding Windows default management systems?

Why do I ask? Frame rates again, of course. I seem to lose all my 'physical' memory these days despite doing all the right things with Enditall, display sliders, visibility and so on. With FS2000 running a bit of decent scenery and a good panel in front of me, I'm getting readings of single digit physical memory which translates into frame rates that emulate the kind of robotic dancing Michael Jackson used to do before he got good at it. Like, 3-4FPS on final if I'm lucky. Sometimes the system completely hangs.

My system is PIII, 600MHZ, 128MB RAM, with standard Intel 810 Chipset graphics. At Ben's recommendation I've ordered a GeForce2 MX video card (which should arrive today) which may help a bit, hopefully, but I still can't understand why my system seems to be gluing up. I perform regular disk maintenance.

I have a full install of scenedb. I have my scenery library set to max cache - is that sensible? Or should I reduce that, disable all mesh sceneries and go back to circling Meigs in a C182S? Boo hoo!

In the hope of a few more helpful comments, here's some wallpaper in return. You may have seen it, but if not, it's a wonderful picture. Kenya for sure, but can anyone identify the plane?

http://www.paxship.com/africafly.html

Regards
Mark Beaumont

"Have altitude, not attitude"

• RE: Memory tweakers,Ben Chiu, 14:22z, 07-02-01
  • RE: Memory tweakers,darkmoment, 16:08z, 07-02-01
    • RE: Memory tweakers,The Jim, 11:55z, 07-04-01

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Greetings Mark:

I don't have any experience with those mem utils you mention, however, you need to beware of mem utils that do things that Windows already does. For example, RAM booster sounds like a program that spools RAM to disk (which the Windows swap file already does), so there's likely to be a loss in performance since you're adding new code to do exactly what the OS does already. Other RAM utils that add RAM disks to move your swap file to is another redundant waste of resources because Windows swaps to disk once it runs short of physical RAM space. By taking away that RAM to run a RAM disk, you're causing the system to swap earlier than it needs to while adding the additional code to run the RAM disk in the first place. So the bottom line, is read carefully before installing any of those things.

To answer your question about RAM and FS, FS is really more of a CPU hog than a RAM hog. The only time that RAM seems to play any difference in frame rates is when accessing scenery files. If your scenery file exceeds your free RAM, you won't be able to fit as much into memory, causing a disk read (and related pause) when you need a new chunk of scenery. (Note that your first scenery access will remain the same because you're reading directly from disk.)

Scenery cache settings have to do with CD-ROM access, so if you've got all your scenery loaded on HD, you might try turning that down. There's little to be gained here, and again, it won't affect frame rates as we discussed above.

Ah, mesh scenery. That's what's killing your frame rate. That and many aftermarket panels will drop your frame rates to next to nothing. The panel problems can be checked by turning the panel off and noting the change in frame rates. (Press the W key.) Most panels (acutally guages) will cause a frame rate drop, but some are VERY demanding, so you might want to check that.

I'm not really sure what causes the mesh scenery to bog systems down so much (I suspect that they add twice as much to render--the stuff below is rendered although you can't see it), but Joe's the expert on mesh scenery here and perhaps he can provide some tips for you.

In my experiece, 256 megs of RAM is optimum for FS2K. I've run more than that, but started running into the dreaded "stutter."

Thanks for the link to the pix. I wonder if those lions were waiting for their pilot to fly them somewhere, or if they just ate the pilot!

Best!
Ben

I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into your replies, Ben. All noted. I think I'll back off from the mem utilities first; try disabling mesh sceneries for a while; cut down my cloud levels; and grow wings so that I don't need a panel. It does frustrate me, I have to say, that ever since the days of FS4 we've had the same flipping issues ... the hardware can never cope with the power user of MS flightsim software. We should be flying, not worrying about this all the time.

I think I understand now why there are so many wonderfully proficient freeware aircraft and scenery designers out there. They're so fed up with trying to fly smoothly that they need another way to pursue their hobby!

All the best,

Mark

"Keep between the green bits"

It has been my experience that the only way to conserve memory, is to cut down on the programs running in the background. And the only way to actually "regain" memory is to re-start your computer. Supposedly, when a program terminates, all memory in use is freed for other applications, but sadly, this isn't always the case. So, a good clean re-start is needed to get the job done. You cn experiment with the programs all you want (as I'm sure there won't be *many* negative side effects). Just play it safe, and any program you install won't cause you many heart/head aches. lol

-The Jim
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"Those daring young men and
their flying machines..."
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