UT2004 needs 1024MB of RAM??

[Brian48]

What a difference a little bit of memory makes. As a test, I took out 256mb from one of my backup boxes and ran the game using just the 256mb of RAM recommended on the box. The game hitched like crazy and repeatedly access the swap file on the HDD. This was just with medium textures and details set in the visual options. I'd say this is definitely one game that really needs 512mb or more.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Try this if you're getting a lot of hitching with 512MB:

Step 1: Download O&O CleverCache
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1548.html

Step 2: Install it and run it.
Go to the advanced tab and set absolute maximum to 65470, relative to avail. memory 20, and for file cache checking check file usage every 1000ms. Apply.

Step 3: Go back to the general tab and click the play icon if you need to to make sure it's running, then load up UT2K4 and enjoy the smoothness.

I have only been playing with this for an hour, so these may not be optimal settings, but as it is the difference is like night and day. Seems Windows file cache is caching all those textures as the level loads, so in reality they exist twice in memory - in the file cache and the game's memory footprint - thus taking up more space than needed. Windows compounds the problem by being stingy about giving up the space the file cache is taking up in RAM so XP and UT end up duking it out for memory. This will keep the file cache at a respectable level and the result is drastic. It cut my loading time in half, I've been able to crank the textures back up, and when I exit I don't have to wait an eternity for my desktop to redraw.