running BG2 in Windows XP

[Robert Sharp]

Ok, I am trying to play Baldur's Gate 2 in Windows XP, but I am getting a lot of slowdown, especially when casting entangle spells, or when there are lots of enemies on screen. Is this a RAM problem or a problem with running the game in XP? I only have 384 RAM, but I could swear I had less than that on my older machine and it ran just fine.

[Robert Sharp]

Ok, I've decided I need to add more RAM anyway. So I am using Sandra to find out what kind of RAM I need. On the main system info it says I have DDR-SDRAM, but on the physical memory banks screen it says I have 256 DIMM SDRAM and 128 DIMM SDRAM. As some of you know, the DDR has 184 pins the normal SDRAM has 168 (or something like that). Do I have to physically open my case to find out which I need?

Oh...if it helps, the supported SDRAM speeds are PC66 and PC100.

[shift6]

Either open it up or look up your motherboard's specs online. :)

[unbongwah]

When you say "supported," is that what Sandra tells you, or what's in your MB manual, or what? How are you determining what kind of RAM your MB supports?

Normally DDR RAM speeds are expressed in terms of bandwidth, not clock speed: e.g., "PC2100" DDR RAM has 2.1GB/s and runs at 133MHz, IIRC. Older SDR RAM is rated in terms of clock speed - "PC100" RAM runs at 100MHz. So chances are your system doesn't use / support DDR. But like shift6 says - check your MB to be sure.

Also, if your system doesn't support DDR RAM, chances are it's more than a couple of years old, as I think DDR RAM became more or less standard quite a while ago. You might want to consider a system overhaul, not just a RAM upgrade at this point. What CPU and video card do you have?

[Winterrain]

If you have your Ramsticks in your paws, you can simply identify SD and DDR.

If it has 2 holes on the contact side, its SD Ram, if it has only 1 hole slightly off the middle, its DDR. Or watch what the sticker says ;)

[Kunikos]

If you tell us what speed processor you have I could probably figure out whether it is DDR or not... DDR btw is at PC2100 speed, quite a bit higher than PC66,100,or 133. =)