Do I really need 2 GB memory?

[Lost Nebraskan]

I ran the original Silent Hunter about 10-12 years ago and really enjoyed it. I want to buy and use SH4, but my computer is limited to 1 GB memory instead of 2 GB. I can make all the other modifications. I know SH will run on 1GB, but will it run wel enough to really enjoy. Fair winds and following seas to all.

[Sailor Steve]

Welcome aboard, Herr Kaleun Flatlander! And greetings from the mountains of Utah.

I run SH3 with only 512KB, but will be upgrading to at least 2GB when I can finally get SH4. It couldn't hurt, anyway, so why not make the leap? At least that's what I tell myself.

[Seaman_Hornsby]

I run it fine with 1 GB, are the rest of your system specs up to snuff? Video card is going to make a big difference, as older systems don't run it as well.

[Misfit138]

I run SH3 with only 512KB

:huh: What's your FPS?

:rotfl:

[Sailor Steve]

Hey! I LIKE my photo album.:p


Actually, I've never had too much trouble, even in port. Of course the very smoky ship sinking does bad things if I try to zoom in, but I'll get it fixed.


Someday.

[edit]: Oh. I wrote KB, didn't I. I meant MB, of course.:doh:

[Fish40]

I'm running the sim with only 1gig, but mind you all other requirements are exceeded. I'm not obsessed with FR, but rather if the game plays decently smooth, that's good enough for me. I have tweaked my rig the best I could by shutting down all background applications, and whatever else I could think of to squeeze an extra ounce of performance out of her.

Keeping your rig in tip top shape will help performance for sure. Defrag regularly, and be sure all your drivers are up to date. To take it one step further, update your BIOS, and Chipset as well. This all helps.


I set the ingame settings at half or better and suffer no major slowdowns, to speak of. Fine tune your rig, and you will be able to run this sim with 1gig of memory.:up:

[Linavitch]

Welcome Lost.

You should get 'reasonable' performance with 1gb of Ram and I certainly recommend that you get SHIV 1.3 modded up.

Personally I have 2GB of ram but only a x850 graphics card which is down the lower end of the specs but I too have 'reasonable' performace.

Check this to score the rest of your rig:-

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

Welcome aboard and good hunting,

[AVGWarhawk]

I ran the game fine with 1 gig. FPS were good and most goodies checked and sliders at half or full. You suffer only in high time compression and a lot of ships in you view because your hard driver start page filing and acting like RAM. This give you a jitter or two. Other than that if your card and processor are up to snuff, you should have a reasonably smooth game. Take it from me.....the low end of the spectrum computer guy:oops:

Anyway....welcome aboard.:D

[Captain Scribb]

I have been running the game on 1 gig since May and feel no need to upgrade for this game. I run it at fairly moderate settings as well. If you can upgrade do it, but you will still have a blast with this game on 1 gig. Time compression can get a little dicey, but other than that I have no real problems.

[orangenee]

I'm with the other one gig people, it runs perfectly fine for me. Just switch off as many surplus programs off as possible before you start the game.

[PepsiCan]

I would argue that a good video card is more important than the RAM. It will work fine with 1 Gb of RAM.

[Monica Lewinsky]

A FYI:
My gaming rig is 1 gig with XP home edition and I play sh4 on it - it is 6 years old and I refuse to put any more money into it.

Spouse's PC is:
2 gig RAM with Windows Vista on it and I snuck SH4 on it with the 1.3 patch.

HUGE difference in performance

On 1 gig vs. 2 gig RAM, man what a difference! SH4 is SLOW on my 1 gig RAM machine PC crap machine.

[Rockin Robbins]

This is a fine excuse for a motherboard upgrade with a couple nice PCI-e slots and capacity for lotsa gigabytes. And from there you can buy a couple high end graphics cards and an huge ultra high speed hard drive and a 22" flat screen and .....

Eating and married life are overrated anyway. :rotfl:

[Gunner]

Ubisoft did make the game playable on lower end systems, so yeh 1 gb is ok, 2 gb,real nice:up: pending yer system specs, wether yer an eye candy guy ur not, the game is capable of some awsome graphics or just reallygood graphics.Bumping yer system to 2 gb will increase yer overall PC performance, not just SH4:arrgh!:

[maerean_m]

Do I really need 2 GB memory?

YES

Isn't your car slower when carrying 5 people instead of just you, the driver?
Your PC is also slower when you're using it very close to the load limit.

PS: on very long patrols, SH4 alone uses over 1.3 Gb of RAM.

[Fearless]

I'm running the sim with only 1gig, but mind you all other requirements are exceeded. I'm not obsessed with FR, but rather if the game plays decently smooth, that's good enough for me. I have tweaked my rig the best I could by shutting down all background applications, and whatever else I could think of to squeeze an extra ounce of performance out of her.

Keeping your rig in tip top shape will help performance for sure. Defrag regularly, and be sure all your drivers are up to date. To take it one step further, update your BIOS, and Chipset as well. This all helps.


I set the ingame settings at half or better and suffer no major slowdowns, to speak of. Fine tune your rig, and you will be able to run this sim with 1gig of memory.:up:

Is there an easy way to update your BIOS and Chipset 'cos I'm pretty cautious when it comes to touching that kinda stuff? I have a Kocab 18P motherboard and have noticed when starting the comp up it tells me the BIOS is dated 1993:hmm:

[Misfit138]

[edit]: Oh. I wrote KB, didn't I. I meant MB, of course.:doh:
I'm such a nerd! I'm still laughing on this. Had get some sleep yesteday because I thought the only reason I found this funny was the lack of sleep but no... :oops:

[AVGWarhawk]

Is there an easy way to update your BIOS and Chipset 'cos I'm pretty cautious when it comes to touching that kinda stuff? I have a Kocab 18P motherboard and have noticed when starting the comp up it tells me the BIOS is dated 1993


You need to go to the board makers site for any update on BIOS. A nice program that gives you in formation of your systems is called CPUZ or CPUID. It is free. Tells you your socket and motherboard manufacturer, RAM speed, CPU speed and voltages, etc. As far as BIOS updates, if you can get into the BIOS and have options to change things like speeds and such, this can help you with getting better performance. Changing clocks and things is not for the light at heart. I was able to get a modded BIOS for my AU31 motherboard. The original BIOS was, in short, locked down. With the modded BIOS I could start setting things for better performance and keep a stable system. My computer has never run faster.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuidsdk.php

Link to CPUZ

[Capt. Shark Bait]

Hey! I LIKE my photo album.:p

you're gonna have to stop hitting shift/F11 when you wanna take screenies:doh:

[EAGLE_01]

I used to run it on 512 MB RAM pc 133, and it ran ok.. (with an old ATI 1050 series card); got a new machine with Vista Home Premium and 1G RAM and the sim took off. 38-40 fps in port, on the bridge, 70 at sea... went to 2 gigs of ram and even time compression has NO problems. Get 2G if you can, but these men are steering you right!:up: 1G will make you happy.

[Snakeeyes]

A FYI:
My gaming rig is 1 gig with XP home edition and I play sh4 on it - it is 6 years old and I refuse to put any more money into it.

Spouse's PC is:
2 gig RAM with Windows Vista on it and I snuck SH4 on it with the 1.3 patch.

HUGE difference in performance

On 1 gig vs. 2 gig RAM, man what a difference! SH4 is SLOW on my 1 gig RAM machine PC crap machine.
you can run it with 1GB RAM but you won't like it... that's all I have to say. I was in your position last month. I finally cracked and decided to get not just 2GB but a new PC. It's coming next Tuesday. From what I hear from the group, the sim will be reborn. Get the extra ram. It's rather cheap right now.

Think of it like this... you spend the money to buy a Corvette but you don't pitch in the cash to get great tires. What's the point?!

I think Sean Connery's character put it best in "The Untouchables"...

"If you're going up against these people Mr. Ness then you must be prepared to go all the way."

Get the RAM. You'll thank me.

[fredbass]

So is 4g of Ram overkill?

[AVGWarhawk]

So is 4g of Ram overkill?

Not unless you are tracking the entire naval fleet and keeping tabs on the ICBM solo's in and around the US.

[Snakeeyes]

LOL!

You gotta love this site. ;)

[Lost Nebraskan]

Gentlemen:

I appreciate your advice. I will put a new video card in my machine. I already exceed all the other requirements. I already keep my machine lean and mean. I will update my BIOS, chipset and drivers, if needed.

When I get it all up and running, I will be back for advice on the patches.

Seems like you all will be pretty good shipmates.

Sink 'em all.
Sink 'em all.
The long and the short and the tall.