Priorizing RAM for a program?

[Whisky]

Hello,

Is it possible to somehow make windows automatically notice some program and give it all the possible resources when it needs them? My windows tends to give all the recourses to firefox when I alt-tab from warcraft and try to go to the interwebz, and this causes the warcraft to lag horribly (fps goes to 1-5) until I restart wc3..

So how can I force the windows to give the warcraft highest priority, even when alttabbed??

Thanks in advance.

 

[Slapshot136]

open up task manager, right-click on war3.exe, and set it's priority to "above normal" - this will dedicate more CPU time to WC3, however I don't know of any way to adjust ram usage.. maybe disable flash/javascript in firefox

 

[Rapmaster]

In XP you can try this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417 (applies in Vista/Windows 7 too for CPU control, but you can't control memory... those versions supposedly have much better memory management on their own) - but it's really intended for servers. Not sure if alt-tabbed out apps count as background services.

How to manually optimize the memory usage
You can optimize your computer's memory usage to reflect your specific needs. If your computer is used as a workstation instead of as a server, you can increase performance by devoting more memory to your programs. Your programs will work faster and the system cache size will remain the default size that was included with Windows XP. Or, you can set aside more computer memory for a larger system cache if your computer is used primarily as a server, or if you use programs that require a large system cache.
Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance click Settings.
Click the Advanced tab, and then under Memory usage use one of the following methods:
Click Programs if you use your computer primarily as a workstation instead of as a server. This option allocates more memory to your programs.
Click System cache if your computer is used primarily as a server or if you use programs that use a large system cache.
Click OK to save preferences and close the dialog box.

 

[Whisky]

I changed it to server chache, and tried it out. After sometime, the lags came anyways.

I was kinda hoping for some program that runs in the backround and forces all the memory for warcraft or other program..

And sorry I forgot to mention that I'm using 32bit xp.

 

[Slapshot136]

before I went to a x64 system, I used a program called RamDisk which let me allocate un-used memory (since x32 could only use about 3GB and I had 4), maybe you can limit the amount of memory that the system gets in the bios and then use ramdisk to allocate the rest to WC3, I don't quite remember if that was possible or not, it was a while ago

 

[staind25]

Are you fairly certain that lack of RAM is actually the problem? I could see it being a problem if you had maybe 256 MB of RAM or less...

Just to check, is your game set to the same resolution as your desktop? Sometimes when they're not on the same resolution, returning to the game can produce framerate issues.