Frequently Asked Questions

Question

How can I maximize my RAM allotment in Source games?

Answer

**Note: as of the September 18 2010 CSS/TF2/DODS update the following should not be entered into launch options into these games or L4D and L4D2. They might still work with FAS, HL2DM, DOD 1.3 -heapsize [Kilobytes]: This command tells the Source Engine to allocate more RAM to the system heap, where it can be accessed by the game to improve performance by caching more game information in RAM and hence reducing loading pauses. The default heapsize varies, but can be 256MB or less. If you have 2GB of RAM you may wish to increase this to 512MB (a heapsize of 524288). You can use higher values if you wish, but I don't recommend exceeding half your physical RAM (e.g. for 2GB RAM, don't set heapsize higher than 1024000). You can't force the game to load completely into RAM, that's not what this command does. Open Steam Game List Right click on the Source game of your chocie Click on Properties Click on Launch Options Add the following -heapsize xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Where xxxxxx is 1/2 RAM on your system 4gb - 2097152 (Windows 64 bit) 3gb - 1572864 (Windows 64 bit) 2gb - 1048576 1gb - 524288 512mb - 262144 256mb - 131072 128mb - 65536