More RAM needed

[fire_munki]

Hi,
I feel my comp needs some more RAM at the moment I've got a 512DDR PC2700 chip in. should i buy another identical chip to match the chips up to 1gb or should i buy a 1Gb chip and run mis-matched chips?
Thanks

[techniner]

Hrmm 512DDR is pretty good...

I mean obviously adding ram can never hurt..

But whats the real problem here one might ask..

Spyware eating up resources perhaps?

But to answer your question.. first check the specs on your motherboard and see what the MAX RAM capabilities are on your board.

Then add the second chip accordingly.

[fire_munki]

Specs on motherboard say it can take up to 2Gb of RAM. shouldn't be any spyware on, i just want the more ram to make newer games like HL2 look pretty and battlefield2 run well.

[jpt62089]

I would suggest getting a 1Gig stick.... BF 2 is a HUGE program......

[belama]

Specs on motherboard say it can take up to 2Gb of RAM. shouldn't be any spyware on, i just want the more ram to make newer games like HL2 look pretty and battlefield2 run well.

More RAM will NOT make games look "pretty". It wouldnt be a bad idea to add some but will only make loading faster.

To make games look more "pretty", you would need another video card. What video card do you have right now?

[fire_munki]

A 128Mg GeForce Fx5700Le, by pretty i ment tsome of the nicer video options which when i turn them on the frame rate drops rather a lot when lots of things start to happen.

[Catweazle]

An FX5700LE is not really all that powerful in terms of the needs of modern games. More RAM will certainly assist with BF2, which is about the first game for which more than 1Gb of RAM is recommended. Most users feel that 2Gb is really required for decent performance.

I'd be considering adding a 1Gb module of PC2700 or PC3200 to the rig, but you need to be mindful that your 5700LE really only performs at about the capability of an FX5200. The 'LE' means that it is a cut-down model. I'm sorry to tell you so, but I'm afraid that cutting corners with the cost of display cards really doesn't pay!

[Coconut Monkey]

by pretty i ment tsome of the nicer video options which when i turn them on the frame rate drops rather a lot when lots of things start to happen.

As belama stated, RAM doesn't really play a part in this unless your hard drive starts thrashing in the middle of your game. The video card and to a lesser extent your CPU play the most important roles in "eye candy".

[jpt62089]

more RAM does allow you to get the most out of your card tho.... it speeds the game up (to a certain point)

[Coconut Monkey]

more RAM does allow you to get the most out of your card tho.... it speeds the game up (to a certain point)

No, not as such. It does speed up loading and prevent swapping to the hard drive, but doesn't help your video card that much. If it runs out of onboard memory, then it will swap out to the system RAM. However, this is far slower, in terms of both latency and transfer speeds. If this starts to occur, then you probably want to lower graphics detail or look at a new video card.

[jpt62089]

thats what I ment it speeds up loading....

sorry if i didnt make it clear I am battling a really bad cold/allergies atm... had it for a week now >_<

[Pim]

I have to say i'm not a real computer expert yet but i hope i help you with this

When you play online your Video card and makes most diffirence to your eye candy. And also of course a fast internet connection prevents lagging.

But when playing game your processor has to do a lot of calculating (location of bots, AI, Physics) But of course a lot of ram helps to. First look if your pc supports
dual channel memory if it does (when you install 2 identical ram chips) your pc can acsess both modules at the same time so that gives added performance.

If you're planning on upgrading some stuff (exept for ram) look well at the age of your computer because if you have a very old one you'd better buy a new system when you've saved enough, and put the useful parts of your old one in your newly created system.

And of course there is the manual in there often there is a reference on which upgrades are best. Or look at a forum for the games you want better performance of. Experienced gamers can tell you which upgrades give you most improved performance.

ps: games with large maps(fps) often like lots of ram and fast processors
this also applies to RTS.

gl signed Pim