/3GB switch drops FPS to 4-5, any ideas?

[cawalton]

<p>Hi,</p><p>I have an Intel E8500, ATI 4870 (using Cat 8.9) and DFI MB (using Intel P35 chipset w/ most recent Bios) on WinXP SP3.  I just added 2 2GB memory sticks and added the /3GB switch to the WinXP bootini file, rebooted, logged into EQ2 and the FPS starts and remains at 4-5, with the /3GB switch not present (and a reboot), I'm back to my usual 30-40 FPS (Vsync on).  I've loaded and unloaded the /3GB switch several times (with intervening reboots) and always get the same results.</p><p> Any ideas?  Am I supposed to add any lines to the EQ2 ini file or something? Thanks</p>

[KniteShayd]

<p>Hope someone, other than me, posts to your problem.  Everyone seems to have neglected my FPS issue.</p><p>I have been having same issue of 4-5 FPS.  I didn't change my mem, but no one is being helpful...</p>

[Wingrider01]

<cite>cawalton wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Hi,</p><p>I have an Intel E8500, ATI 4870 (using Cat 8.9) and DFI MB (using Intel P35 chipset w/ most recent Bios) on WinXP SP3.  I just added 2 2GB memory sticks and added the /3GB switch to the WinXP bootini file, rebooted, logged into EQ2 and the FPS starts and remains at 4-5, with the /3GB switch not present (and a reboot), I'm back to my usual 30-40 FPS (Vsync on).  I've loaded and unloaded the /3GB switch several times (with intervening reboots) and always get the same results.</p><p> Any ideas?  Am I supposed to add any lines to the EQ2 ini file or something? Thanks</p></blockquote><p>did you follow the instructions on the MS knowledge base concerning > 3gb systems?</p><p><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988/en-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988/en-us</a></p>

[damicatz]

The problem is you are trying to use more than 2 gigabytes of memory with an archaic 32-bit operating system.  The solution is to either modernize your system and use a 64-bit operating system or deal with not being able to use all of your RAM.The /3gb switch takes 1 gigabyte from kernel address space and puts it in user mode address space.  Video memory is mapped in kernel address space.  Which means that you won't be able to use all of your video card's memory (unless you also have an obsolete video card with less than 256mb of VRAM) because there isn't enough kernel mode address space to map it all. See http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/08/05/208908.aspx and <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/08/06/209840.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/a.../06/209840.aspx</a>

[Taimes]

<p>1. If you added 2 2gig sticks try removing the old sticks from the motherboard. 4 sticks often cause weird problems.</p><p>2. Try using /3GB /USERVA 2800</p><p>The /3gb switch has always worked for me even with an "archaic" OS</p>

[damicatz]

<cite>Taimes wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>1. If you added 2 2gig sticks try removing the old sticks from the motherboard. 4 sticks often cause weird problems.</p><p>2. Try using /3GB /USERVA 2800</p><p>The /3gb switch has always worked for me even with an "archaic" OS</p></blockquote>Too bad Everquest 2 isn't large address aware (as are the majority of programs) and won't see anything above two gigabytes without relinking (and thereby modifying the executable).For that matter, there seems to be some confusion on exactly what the /3gb switch does.  Virtual memory address space has nothing to do with the amout of physical memory your system can use.  All the /3gb switch does is allow certain large address aware programs to see and use memory addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.  The amount of physical memory you can use in a 32-bit system has absolutely nothing to do with the /3gb switch.When running in legacy 32-bit mode, a computer's physical address space is 32-bits.  Every program has it's own 32-bit virtual address space where stuff is mapped to the physical address space.  RAM is not the only thing that has to be mapped to your physical address space.  Every piece of hardware that uses DMA (Direct Memory Address; pretty much all addon cards, drives/drivecontrollers and USB Host Controllers to name a few ) takes up physical address space.  Everything that contains any sort of memory has that memory mapped to the physical address space (Video card memory, X-Fi X-RAM etc.).  Right off the bat, the fourth gigabyte of your physical address space is reserved for memory-mapped IO (as is the space between 640k and 1 megabyte due to limitations of the original 8086 that are still present when running in 32-bit mode).  When that reservation was created however, video cards having only 512kb of video memory were considered state of the art and 2D acceleration was the new hot thing.  Put in a new video card with 512mb or 1024mb of RAM and the amount of address space used for memory-mapped IO will extend well into or below the third gigabyte depending on your motherboard, hardware configuration and total VRAM.Modern processors (read : Everything since the Pentium Pro back in 1995) have something called PAE which is basically a hack that extends the physical address space to 36-bits.  It's essentially a modern day revival of the "expanded memory" of yore.  While the physical address space is 36-bits, programs remain 32-bit with 32-bit address spaces but can swap in and out areas of their address space by using a special API.  It's a clunky hack that almost no consumer level programs support.  Which means to any game (even those that are "large address aware&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, it's no different than not having the PAE flag on.  Furthermore, Microsoft disabled the PAE Feature in Windows XP starting with Service Pack 2 (it'll still say PAE in system properties but all that boot option does in Windows XP now is enable DEP; it doesn't increase the physical address size.  Too many idiots were enabling the flag and causing their systems to become unstable due to incompatible drivers and applications).So to sum up this post; Windows XP 32-bit has a 4 gigabyte physical address space.  Up to 1.5 gigabytes of this address space are reserved for system usage and memory-mapped IO.  Blindly futzing with the address space will not do anything to change this limitation.  You will never be able to use all four gigabytes of RAM under 32-bit Windows XP; you'll be lucky to get to 3 gigabytes.  Using a 32-bit operating system on such a modern system is like using Windows 3.1 on a Pentium 4 system.  It's a waste of money and resources because you'll never make use of all the RAM you purchased and your system will never reach it's full potential.