Age of Empires 3

[homer]

-G15 logitech gaming keyboard that has a performance monitor on it (CPU usage and RAM usage)
-2gb of RAM
-3ghz processor

i have a wierd issue concerning this game.while i am playing this game and there is ALOT of action going on (explosions, hundreds of units moving, etc.) it starts to get choppy, however, the performance monitor tells me that my RAM usage is only at 59%, and it doesnt go past that. why doesnt it just take up more RAM if its getting choppy?? whats going on??

P.S. any other game can break the 59% mark except this one.

[Neil]

What is your graphics card? That can make or break a system. Plus you have not told us your CPU usage!?

[homer]

CPU usage ~60%

graphics card geforce 7600 gt oc 256mb

again this is ONLY when there is a lot of action happenening.

[Neil]

Is there harddrive activity whilst the game goes choppy? If so it would seem to suggest you have insufficent RAM. No harddrive activity suggests your graphics card can't keep up.

[homer]

it is quite possible that my hardrive cant keep up. everything else is more than enough. if it is my harddrive, then why can it run BattleField 2 at its highest quality without ever getting choppy?

BTW battlefield 2 can break the 59% RAM usage barrier it uses about ~%70-80, perhaps thats why it doesnt get choppy. which leads to my original question, why cant AoE break that 59% barrier when alot of action is going on?

[Neil]

When you are playing the game, look at the harddrive light and listen to the harddrive sounds, if you can hear them... is the harddrive being accessed frequently whilst in the game?

[homer]

what do you mean by "accessed frequently"? do you mean running processes and services etc?

i also do not have a hardrive LED on my comp case. as far as i know, i would have to remove the harddrive to actually see the onboard LED.

[Neil]

Try turning the detail level down?

[Track]

Age of Empires 3 is a new game. It has newer graphics and it takes a new graphics card to run it.

You have a mid-range graphics card. That means that u can only run the game on medium graphics settings.

RAM usage has nothig to do with performance if u have much of it. You have 2 GB of RAM, while the game only needs 1 GB, that is why ur not seeing the RAM go above 60%. Using more RAM and getting to 70% or higher wouldnt do anything. The game just dosent need it. What it needs is a more powerfull graphics card or for u to turn down the graphics settings, in order for it to run better when there is much action on screen.

[homer]

ic thanks.