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Subject: Re: How much RAM, etc?

Author: Matthew Hull

Date: 14:22:34 10/30/03

Go up one level in this thread


On October 30, 2003 at 16:31:23, Timothy J. Frohlick wrote:

>Melissa,
>
>RAM is not the problem. You need to have two or more processors to properly
>multitask.

Either that or reduce the dispatching priority of the chess progs if they are
just running analysis.  I have no idea if you can do that in Windblows.

>In addition, a video card with 128 MB video RAM is a minimum for good
>graphics performance.


That's not true.  Her 32 meg card should suffice.  The 3D chess board is not
graphicly demanding.  Heck, Quake III runs fine on a 32 meg card.  It runs okay
on my Nvidia 16 meg card.  No way a 3D chess board is more demanding than that.


>Your system is OK for word processing and the internet but
>not for graphic intensive tasks while crunching numbers at the same time.  In
>short, your system is inadequate for your demands.

I think her system is fine.  Plenty of RAM.  Decent MHZ.  Vid card is fine.
Windows just gives you no control, I guess.  Most folks don't try to multi-task
too much when running a chess engine, since chess want's all CPU resources
available.

Matt


>
>TJF
>
>PS Game programs have a tendency to crash even the best computers.
>
>
>On October 30, 2003 at 15:56:38, Melissa Reese wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>This is my first post to this forum. I've looked through several pages of
>>messages here, but didn't see what I was looking for (perhaps I was just blind,
>>or my kind of questions are too simple for this forum? :-)).
>>
>>Anyway, here are my questions...
>>
>>I recently got a new computer, and I have a couple of chess programs I use for
>>learning/practicing (I'm not an advanced player, but I am enthusiastic!).  The
>>programs I currently have are Hiarcs 9 and Chessmaster 9000.
>>
>>I usually have several programs running at the same time, and without a chess
>>program running, everything is very very fast.  However, if I start playing a
>>game with CM 9000, all my other programs slow down - not horribly, but certainly
>>noticeably (when my email program checks for mail, or opening other programs,
>>etc.).  I'm not especially "geeky" when it comes to understanding computer
>>hardware issues (RAM, Processor power, etc.) with regards to having what I need
>>to run these seemingly power-hungry chess programs, and still run other programs
>>concurrently and with decent speed (or is that even possible?).
>>
>>Here's a little of what I know about my computer (a few of the possibly relevant
>>items listed):
>>
>>ASUS P4S533-MX W/Audio/Video/Lan
>>Intel Celeron 2.4 GHZ
>>Enlight 72500A W/300 WATT ATX
>>Seagate 80 GB/7200 RPM ATA-100
>>Kingston 512 MB DDR2100 RAM
>>Windows XP Home
>>Creative Soundblaster 5.1
>>Etc...
>>
>>Looking at that, can anyone suggest anything like a certain amount of additional
>>RAM, etc. that could help my computer run more efficiently when I have my chess
>>programs running?  Or should I simply expect other programs to be affected in
>>this way when running a chess program?
>>
>>Thanks for any ideas you may have for me!
>>
>>Melissa



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