So THAT'S what I've been missing!

[railbard]

Installed my new graphics card and RAM today.

My system is still very low end, but just the same....wow! No, WOW!!! The improvement in graphic quality just from turning TSX on is incredible. Now I'm fiddling with settings trying to find the balance that gives me decent performance and good eye candy. :)

I'm running:

AMD Athlon 7550 Dual-Core @ 2.8ghz
32-bit Windows Vista
4 GB RAM (though as a 32 bit machine it can only address about 3.5 GB, still better than the 2 GB I was running!)
Galaxy GT240 DDR3 with 2 GB RAM

I know that isn't even in the same class with what some of you are running, but it sure works for me, for now until I can buy a new machine!

I'm running TS2012 with TSX on, no Anti-aliasing, anisotropc x2, and in-game with everything on medium except view distance at high and scenery detail at 10, and shadow detail off. Only low detail shadows is checked. Screen size is 1024 x 768. I will keep tweaking these until the system chokes, but right now I appear to be getting 25-30 fps most of the time (though I haven't tried all the routes--however I've been fiddling with WCML which I know is pretty graphics intensive so I think that gives me a pretty good idea what to expect in other routes).

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to at least make some inexpensive upgrades to my current system!

Kevin

[TheFlier]

AMD Athlon 7550 Dual-Core @ 2.8ghz
32-bit Windows Vista
4 GB RAM (though as a 32 bit machine it can only address about 3.5 GB, still better than the 2 GB I was running!)
Galaxy GT240 DDR3 with 2 GB RAM
Kevin

I hate to break bad news...

32 bit OS can only address 4gb - that includes VRaM on your graphics card.

You have a toal of 6gb (including the 2gb of Vram). This means you'll only see 2gb of your system ram, as the Vram is adressed first. So, the larger your Vram the less system ram you can access. Try using a memory monitor to confirm this.

[simer4]

32 bit OS can only address 4gb - that includes VRaM on your graphics card.

It's actually 3.25-3.5 GB usable in a 32-Bit system. So, yeah, even less.

[TheFlier]

It's actually 3.25-3.5 GB usable in a 32-Bit system. So, yeah, even less.

is it?

My system properties showed 3.26gb after upgrading, so I google'd 32bit addressing and found that stuff about Vram stealing Ram, so I decided the 3.26 was what was left after my 512mb card took a slice.

I just found a binary calculator and converted 32x binary '1's. Result=4,294,967,295
So I think 32bit OS can fully address 4gb :)

http://www.calculator.net/binary-calcul ... &x=59&y=19

and this is the addressable range of a 64bit OS
18,446,744,073,709,551,616

LOL

[PapaXpress]

For those who have trouble sleeping...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2272