does ram speed (system ram) affect gaming?

[otispunkmeyer]

does say pc3200 have a massive advantage over say 2100?....or are games goin to see the biggest speed gains from faster cpu and gpu?

 

[kylebisme]

depends on the game, but the memory and system bus do have an effect on the lows in framerate on many games.

 

[VIAN]

RAM makes a big difference. Going from PC2100 to PC3200 will be noticeable.

When you load up a game. It exists in the RAM and it runs off the RAM. The CPU and the GPU get all their information from the RAM. So it is one of the most important things to upgrade.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

that puts me in a pickle then.....im gonna have bout 90-100 quid to spend when this keyboard gets sold so i was thinkin of an upgrade because well i aint happy with UT2k4 performance...i mean im gettin as low as 15fps on some maps

i was gonna go for a XP2500 barton mobile becuase they can be run off 133 fsb...and i only have pc2100 ram. reason its a pickle is i can buy faster ram....but the fsb on the computer will be slower.....or i can buy a fast cpu with faster fsb...but then the ram will be too slow!!!

jus want the best possible way to go to get higher frames of UT....

 

[VIAN]

That is a pickle. But Athlon XP chips need RAM that is the same speed as FSB to run best. Think of 2500+ and 512MB of PC2700. This will be your best bet.

What is your System Specs.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

XP2000 (pally.....this aint goin no faster than it is)
512 PC2100
MSI KT3 Ultra 2 (via KT333......with a bios update i can use the 333fsb cpus)
radeon 9500pro...(bout the best thing in my rig!!!)

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
that puts me in a pickle then.....im gonna have bout 90-100 quid to spend when this keyboard gets sold so i was thinkin of an upgrade because well i aint happy with UT2k4 performance...i mean im gettin as low as 15fps on some maps

i was gonna go for a XP2500 barton mobile becuase they can be run off 133 fsb...and i only have pc2100 ram. reason its a pickle is i can buy faster ram....but the fsb on the computer will be slower.....or i can buy a fast cpu with faster fsb...but then the ram will be too slow!!!

jus want the best possible way to go to get higher frames of UT....

If you can hold off buying for a week, please do!

I have a 1900+ with 1GB PC2100 and a 9800 (as you may know from your other thread )
Not far off your PC2100/2000+/9500Pro.

I'm buying a Barton 2500+ and NF2 (Abit NF7), probably ordering tomorrow (from overclockers.co.uk no less!).
It should be here by later this week, and I'm off school, so I should have plenty of time to play. I'll be using my PC2100 RAM, but I also have a stick of PC2700 (256MB )
Using the 2700 with my 1900+ does nothing, as the FSB is limited to 133.
I'll test with the PC2100 1GB, and see if it perfoms much better using PC2700 as well.

I'll see how upgrading my 1900+ to a Barton-M 2500+ fares (in UT2k4, my main reason for upgrading as well), and let you know, unless you're impatient!
I'm getting ready for 1MB broadband in about a month or so, so I want UT2k4 to be up to scratch

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yeah nice one man.....havent sold the key board yet!! some guys coming round 2moro to look.

thanks for that man....could u try that and with 512 pc2100? if u could that would be fantastic!!!

heres my email man if u dont catch me...alex.mason3@ntlworld.com

and hotmail is otispunkmeyer_al@hotmail.com add me

 

[otispunkmeyer]

might catch u in unreal some time

 

[Jeff7181]

It's not worth spending much money on that since your motherboard pretty much sucks... save your money... a new motherboard should be your first purchase.

 

[VIAN]

He could still get some use out of that.

If you aint going A64 939, don't bother upgrading to anything else. You can at least outfit that with a 2800+ and 512 - 1GB of RAM and that is worthwhile performance.

 

[BFG10K]

does say pc3200 have a massive advantage over say 2100?

No, maybe 5%-15%

or are games goin to see the biggest speed gains from faster cpu and gpu?

Usually yes.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

well if i get a new mobo im not gonna be upgrading to much am i? im holding off as long as i can so that when PCi-X comes out and all the new cards come out i can upgrade to something cutting edge.....no point in going for a half grade or possibly a side grade

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
well if i get a new mobo im not gonna be upgrading to much am i? im holding off as long as i can so that when PCi-X comes out and all the new cards come out i can upgrade to something cutting edge.....no point in going for a half grade or possibly a side grade

nForce 2 has a 5-8% speed improvement over the KT333 according to Anandtechs 6-way nForce2 roundup.
Not much of an improvement really.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

exactly....itll do me till i get a job....then i can get serious and cast off this machine downstairs to replace the ailing tiny pc.....such a POS computer

 

[RussianSensation]

Nforce 2 has 0-8% real world gain vs. KT333/400/600 chipsets depending on the cpu speed.
Like the first upgrade path taking an Athlon 1400 and putting it in either motherboard has no effect, but taking XP2800+ to an nforce 2 has some advantage. Of course <10% improvement is not noticeable so unless you have $$ to upgrade both the cpu and the motherboard it would really not make sense for you.

Here is the review where you can see how CPU and GPUs are interchanged to show you which has a greater effect on performance for what game and application.

Upgrade Path 1
Here is another one:

Upgrade Path 2

Your board supports 166FSB so you can put up to 3000+ cpu in there and even a mobile 2500xp-m or 2600xp-m. I just don't know if it would be worthwhile for those 2 for you because if you are stuck at 166 I dont know how high the multiplier gets on the mobiles after 12.5. I have the same board as you and can do 175FSB.

You can still reuse the 2100 ram and not run the cpu and ram synchronously I believe. I dont remember exactly if MSI KT3Ultra 2 allows for ram to run lower than FSB though. I know it allows it to run HCLK, HCLK+33 which means host clock (same as FSB) or same as fsb + 33mhz, but what about HCLK-33? or something like that or Auto perhaps if you set it at auto you can reuse the 2100 ram. If you are on a tight budget, getting a cpu would be the best thing for you not faster ram or another motherboard. Just uprade the CPU. Also what VIAN said might apply to an early XP AMD system but p4 running at 266memory (if used in a ratio with the cpu) will be almost as fast having tight timings as the same system running PC4000 @ 3-4-4-8 so RAM should be THE LAST component to upgrade on a P4 setup. With an AMD setup it will matter more because the architecture likes to run the ram and cpu synchronously but the performance drop will not be dramatic enough to warrant a $100 upgrade against a cpu upgrade.

Have you tried to overclock the ram to 166 (333 effective) I also had Simpletech PC2100 and like a couple month ago I decided to simply go all out and set it at 166 right away on stock voltage and it did it to my suprise. So test the ram and if it can do 166FSB, then you know you to forget getting faster ram because 166 is all you'll need for a cpu upgrade.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Your board supports 166FSB so you can put up to 3000+ cpu in there and even a mobile 2500xp-m or 2600xp-m. I just don't know if it would be worthwhile for those 2 for you because if you are stuck at 166 I dont know how high the multiplier gets on the mobiles after 12.5.

As high as your mobo will allow. All you havta do is some simple, easily-reversible modding. Many of these chips overclock to 2500mhz. That would be a multi of 18x or 19x with 133 FSB. 15x with 166fsb.

I think your best bet, if you don't want to spring for a new board and new ram (ram prices are increasing as of late), I would do a 2400+ mobile (or the 2500 or 2600 mobiles as well... any will work) and overclock it by using multi only (keeping FSB in line with your RAM... if your RAM can run 166, all the better).

Using the link above, you can change the CPU VIEW to SOCKET VIEW. You'll see a graphic that represents your white socket board for your CPU on your mobo. Leave VCORE and FSB alone, but change the value of MULTIPLIER SELECTION to the multi of your choice... let's use "7,50 x systembus (15xFSB)".

5 little black lines will appear on the graphic. These will represent the socket holes you will need to "connect" in order to force your mobo and chip to 15x multi. To do this, get some very thin copper wires. Pop off the banana clip from one of your speakers and cut off 2 or 3 strands of exposed copper wire. That should be enough. You will then chop those down to less than 1 cm in length. You want to bend them into a "U" shape so that you can stick one end of the U in one socket and the other end in the other corresponding socket. Do that 5 times. Then put your CPU back in the socket.

Boot to your BIOS. Change the MULTI in your bios to AUTO. Reboot to windows. Test for stability.

I agree that FSB is your friend, and whenever possible, overclock via FSB. However, there is still a baby in that dirty 133fsb bathwater, so let's not toss it out just yet.

You will see a HUGE improvement over a 2000+ pally with a barton at 166x15 (2490mhz), provided you can run your ram at 166 (try relaxing the timings a bit). If your ram won't play 166, stick with 133fsb and set your multi (using that link) to 18x, and you'll still see a big increase over the palomino chip.

So, you can spend a little more (less than 200 quid) and rebuild it all-- nForce2, mobile barton, pc3200 ram and get very good results. Or, just spend 50 quid and get a lot better performance than you have now. Though, I will say, a new graphics card would do wonders and that might be a good idea for 100 quid (9800pro).