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I doubled my computer's RAM from 2 GB to 4 GB of 800 MHz DDR. Why would it make Windows 7 desktop animations twice as fast (2x) and all games twice as fast and unplayable?

Is there any way to add my two gigs of memory and not mess up my computing experience?

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  • what game do you play that gets a 2x speedup?
    – akira
    Jan 17, 2011 at 8:18
  • All games/animations should be programmed to run based on some kind of timer inside your computer, so my question would be what can make this timer run faster...
    – Timbo
    Jan 17, 2011 at 8:25
  • @JoePea Check your BIOS... Let me know if I am correct.
    – David
    Jan 17, 2011 at 19:43
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    @Joe Pea, please don't post your question multiple times
    – Ivo Flipse
    Jan 17, 2011 at 19:53
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    @Joe Pea Can you provide an example of offending game? I haven't had such problems with any games released in last 15 years or so.
    – AndrejaKo
    Jan 17, 2011 at 20:52

5 Answers 5

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While old games gameplay speed may be affected by larger memory, I don't think Windows 7 animation speed will go faster just because you add more RAM. Maybe your computer are running with too much background program and services, so that previously it was running the animation slower than intended. As for the games, perhaps they are, too, actually running slower than intended. I remembered taking advantage of games like those, playing a racing game with too high settings, getting an easy victory. Thus, now, you are running your OS and games with their actual speed. By the way, a Windows 7 client should actually run fine with 2 GB of RAM, so please check your services and other background process for memory leaks, unless you're running a server.

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  • Nope, the game literally run twice as fast. It literally looks like fast forward in a movie. It's unplayable because the computer over powers you and wins because one can't think that fast. The computer is very powerful and no other programs are running.
    – trusktr
    Jan 17, 2011 at 19:33
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The solution was to set PCIe as the first video device that initiates in Bios. Before, it was set to PCI onboard video (no express). Wierd, but this solved the problem and all graphics became normal speed.

NOTE: The graphics were fine, the gameplay speed was super fast. Weird how changing BIOS to use PCIe before onboard video fixed the problem!

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As Timbo wrote in comments, most games should run on some sort of timer so that you do not have this.

The majority of games with loading screens could go quicker, but the only games that would be "Unplayable" as far as I know, would be older games.

I remember years ago playing Transport Tycoon on my 486, then going to a Pentium at my dads office! It was unplayable and far to fast!

If you are playing any old games, you may want to take a look at DOSBox, it can slow down older games that do not rely on a system timer.

If this doesn't help, please say the game in question!

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  • Well i just realized that when i insert a new matching memory chip, it makes the whole computer operate at 2 times speed... gotta figure out how to get rid of that problem.
    – trusktr
    Jan 17, 2011 at 19:28
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This seems a bizarre request, but if you install both dimms in the same channel (instead of following mobo instructions and putting 1 in each channel), your computer will be as memory bottlenecked as if it only had 1 dimm.

If the performance increase came not from improved memory bandwidth, but from no longer having to swap to the hard disk you could run more software so that your commit charge (performance tab of task manager) is significantly over 4gb.

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  • That's a little over my head, but I'm gunna get back to this topic with the exact actions to replicate my issue...
    – trusktr
    May 28, 2011 at 5:17
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I understand that I am violating SOP by not directly answering the given question, but I am truly facinated by this and am wondering how the BIOS affects what I am guessing are the clock speeds of the PCIe and PCI interfaces.

I know I should technically start a new thread, but my question would reference back to this and become hopelessly convoluted.

Basically, can someone explain what is going on here? Is the PCI or PCIe slot being overclocked by the BIOS somehow, though "fast motion" is NOT what I see from MY overclocked GPU (I just see improved performance)? Why would reducing the memory make a difference? Can this sometimes explain unusually slow GPU performance as well? Can something be learned here (by a dummy like me) to improve GPU performance?

I recall 30 years ago (insert "old man" voice) my first clone had a "turbo" button that would cause some games to run too fast, but that was in the wild and wholly days of DOS when both the BIOS and OS were much less regulated.

Again, I know this post is not an answer but I would appreciate an explanation of what exactly is going on.

Thanks everyone!

Nick

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  • I truly agree, it's very odd indeed. I will try and replicate the effect and get back to you on this. Indeed, it was behaving like the old turbo button did back in the day. I want to know exactly what is going on here and will get back to this with a result!
    – trusktr
    May 28, 2011 at 5:15

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