You probably shouldn't play Planetside 2 on 2 GB RAM

Except for RAM, my PC is pretty decent. I have a QuadCore Q6600 CPU (old, but good enough to run any game at pretty high graphics, even the powerhouses) and a GTX 560 TI. Games like The Witcher 2, Battlefield 3 and Sleeping Dogs run pretty good at 1680x1050 with most details at high (maybe without some DX11 stuff like tesselation). Sure, I'm not getting 60 fps, but it's always well over 30.

Planetside 2 however, is barely playable on my PC. I checked the requirements and it wanted a GTS 250 and dual core CPU as minimum, so I downloaded it to try it out. However, as soon as I started it, my computer started getting noisy like a motherfucker and the load times were horrendous. Even at the menus it will halt for a long time. I eventually got into a game, but the game was just not playable. Everytime I took a step or touched the mouse, the game would halt for a number of seconds before letting my character move for literally two seconds before it would halt again.

So I restarted my PC (it ran really slow) and then tried again, but this time I put everything to low (but kept native rez) and also started fraps to see the framerate. I got into a game, and it was already WAY better, and by that I mean that it was somehwat playable. I seem to get about 80 fps with everything at low, which would be great if the fucking game wouldnt halt every 2 steps (although this time is nowehere near as bad as last time).

After about 2 minutes of moving around in the starting area, it started running smoother, so I took a ship and started flying it. It controls just like the helicopters in battefield 3 so I had no problem with it since I played alot of that game. But as soon as I got out of that area, the game started halting again and I crashed in a hill.

After checking the requirements again, I noticed that the game does indeed ask for 4 GB of RAM, so for you people out there that have 2 GB, know that the game may run like shit. Mine is low frequency too (DDR 2 667 Mhz because its an old motherboard) so it may run better on higher frequency, but still, be wary.

I am fucking pissed. I could play this game at 80 fps if I had some more goddamn RAM, and for a motherboard like mine is hard to find compatible RAM now.

RAM is generally one of the cheapest computer parts to upgrade or replace so you should probably upgrade. 
 
At least 4gb although might as well get 8 since its so cheap. Assuming you run an OS that can handle that much ram anyway.

It's not the price, it's the fact that DDR 2 is hard to find, especially my frequency. It stopped being made for years. I'll check some second hand stuff, maybe I find some.

@Alexandru: The scarcity will make the price insane, sadly

@clstirens said:

@Alexandru: The scarcity will make the price insane, sadly

I know, and since I'm only gonna find it second hand, they might be fried which would fry my motherboard too, so its a big risk even then. If I had DDR 3, I could just buy some tommorow and fix the problem.

@Alexandru: considering the price of DDR2 in some cases, it might be time to start saving for a new build. Wait for the next Socket (someone past Ivy bridge, or the current bulldozer) and buy a new mobo + cpu + ram

from what ive heard, planetside 2 is fairly poorly optimized

PS2 is indeed poorly optimized. Even people with brand new CPU's and graphics cards have reported having as low as 5 fps during big battles.

I have a Q6600 @3.2ghz and a Radeon 5770, with 8gb ram. For me it runs pretty good, comparing to some people with newer rigs. Mostly 60 fps, but whenever I'm at a huge base assault with 200+ players I get around 15-20 fps.

The devs have stated that they are constantly working on optimizations, performance should improve in upcoming patches.

Can't be too hard surely? I've got a core 2 duo and gtx 460 so our motherboards must be similar at least and I've got 4GB ram

@Geurge said:

Can't be too hard surely? I've got a core 2 duo and gtx 460 so our motherboards must be similar at least and I've got 4GB ram

its not imposible. There are online places to buy from, but shipping will cost quite a bit to send it where I live (romania) and they are scarce too. I am gonna search and get some, but it will be way more annoying then if I had DDR 3 where I could literally go to a store close to my house and get some in 20 minutes.

@Alexandru said:

I have a QuadCore Q6600 CPU (old, but good enough to run any game at pretty high graphics, even the powerhouses)

Sadly I hate to tell you, that PC is probably not going to be enough to run PS2 very well even if you had more RAM. PS2 is very CPU intensive, moreso than any game I can think of. I have an i5 2500k and a GTX 660 Ti and I can run the game reasonably well on high, but it still can dip below 30fps in large fights, and it is entirely because I don't have a more powerful i7.

SOE has come out and explicitly said that you shouldn't expect to get great performance with the game unless you have a relatively powerful i7, and based on my experience it is true.

@Alexandru said:

It's not the price, it's the fact that DDR 2 is hard to find, especially my frequency. It stopped being made for years. I'll check some second hand stuff, maybe I find some.

Frequency doesn't matter ram will downclock to your frequency. Replace your DIMMS with 2x2GBs and you are fine. 45 USD is not that expensive, also fried RAM will not fry your motherboard. It will simply just not boot. You are getting some false information.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_5?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ddr2+4gb&sprefix=DDR2+%2Caps%2C126

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100018235%20600000403&IsNodeId=1&Description=DDR2&name=4GB%20%282%20x%202GB%29&Order=BESTMATCH

any set will work.

@Loafsmooch said:

PS2 is indeed poorly optimized. Even people with brand new CPU's and graphics cards have reported having as low as 5 fps during big battles.

I have a Q6600 @3.2ghz and a Radeon 5770, with 8gb ram. For me it runs pretty good, comparing to some people with newer rigs. Mostly 60 fps, but whenever I'm at a huge base assault with 200+ players I get around 15-20 fps.

The devs have stated that they are constantly working on optimizations, performance should improve in upcoming patches.

It's far better than during the beta. I know it can be patchy at times, but they've optimized it so significantly since beta that I'm shocked.*

*I've been through countless betas, none of which have seen as much optimization as PS2.

@Clonedzero said:

from what ive heard, planetside 2 is fairly poorly optimized

Also poorly balanced, imo.

@Alexandru said:

I have a QuadCore Q6600 CPU (old, but good enough to run any game at pretty high graphics, even the powerhouses)

Sadly I hate to tell you, that PC is probably not going to be enough to run PS2 very well even if you had more RAM. PS2 is very CPU intensive, moreso than any game I can think of. I have an i5 2500k and a GTX 660 Ti and I can run the game reasonably well on high, but it still can dip below 30fps in large fights, and it is entirely because I don't have a more powerful i7.

SOE has come out and explicitly said that you shouldn't expect to get great performance with the game unless you have a relatively powerful i7, and based on my experience it is true.