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Just how much boost does one get from expensive memory?

B

bupkus

Diamond Member
Here it is Thanksgiving day and I'm thinking of tomorrow's Black Friday sales. Sure, I've read about memory with low latencies and tight settings, but in the real world how will that effect my HL2 gaming experience?
Fry's will probably have some memory on sale tomorrow but I really doubt they will have the "good stuff" marked down much, or if they even carry memory like Crucial's Ballistix. So what if I get some PC3200 "value ram"? I would sure like to upgrade to a gig of something that allows my pc to OC to a 400 fsb.

Got: 2500+ Barton OC'd to 2.2GHz w/ 2x256 OCZ EL PC3500 which is running ok. It seems by today's standards this is just economy class performance. Forget my video card, it's legacy ti4200.
 
You have that POS gfx and are considering upping your system memory to increase HL2 performance? Is this a joke? Spend it on a decent card. It's easy to get a cheap, used gfx card since people upgrade them quickly.
 
One thing at a time. The card is slated to be replaced but with a PCIe as I may as well make the change to PCIe as long as my card is such a POS. 🙂

Oddly, my friend who has a 2500+ Barton OC'd to 2GHz and 1GB of PC2700 with a fsb of 333 and a 9800Pro seems to run about as well as my machine. Perhaps I'll give my mobo, cpu and mem to him when I finally go 64.
 
Originally posted by: bupkus
Oddly, my friend who has a 2500+ Barton OC'd to 2GHz and 1GB of PC2700 with a fsb of 333 and a 9800Pro seems to run about as well as my machine. Perhaps I'll give my mobo, cpu and mem to him when I finally go 64.
Click to expand...

HL2=DX9
9800 pro = DX9
Ti 4200 = DX8

your card technically does less work b/c it is not a dx9 card. that is why the performance is close.
 
dc5 is correct. When running HL2, if the game detects a DX9 card (or a FX series GeForce for that matter) it defaults to a DX8 redering path that turns off a lot of the eye candy. The game still looks quite nice, though, even without a lot of the DX9 effects. Heck, it actually runs pretty well with a GeForce 4 MX card on the DX7 path, if you don't mind objects suddenly fading into view as you get closer.

Better memory would be a good idea if you plan to push your processor any higher in clockspeed, but your Barton is probably almost maxed out with the 400MHz OC you've got going right now. If you were tring to push a Mobile Barton up to 2.6GHz, I'd say go for some expensive stuff. If, on the other hand, you're planning to upgrade soon to a A64/nForce 4 combo sometime soon I'd just get a cheap PQI or PDP 1 GB dual channel kit from Fry's because the A64 doesn't really benefit much from low latencies compared to the AXP chips. The money you saved can then be put towards a nice X700-series card (or an X800 if you've got money to burn).
 
Originally posted by: Naustica
Maybe 1-2 frame difference max if you're lucky. This might even be too generous.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that those tight timings are not worth the expense? Would I be better of buying Cas 2.5 or even cas 3.0 for the savings?
 
Definately not worth the expense. You'd notice almost zero difference and maybe a percent or two in benchmarks when comparing CAS ratings.
 
Originally posted by: batmanuel
dc5 is correct. When running HL2, if the game detects a DX9 card (or a FX series GeForce for that matter) it defaults to a DX8 redering path that turns off a lot of the eye candy. The game still looks quite nice, though, even without a lot of the DX9 effects. Heck, it actually runs pretty well with a GeForce 4 MX card on the DX7 path, if you don't mind objects suddenly fading into view as you get closer.
Click to expand...
I don't quite understand. Why would a DX9 based game default to DX8 rendering when it detects a DX9 based card?
😕
 
Originally posted by: Antoneo
Originally posted by: batmanuel
dc5 is correct. When running HL2, if the game detects a DX9 card (or a FX series GeForce for that matter) it defaults to a DX8 redering path that turns off a lot of the eye candy. The game still looks quite nice, though, even without a lot of the DX9 effects. Heck, it actually runs pretty well with a GeForce 4 MX card on the DX7 path, if you don't mind objects suddenly fading into view as you get closer.
Click to expand...
I don't quite understand. Why would a DX9 based game default to DX8 rendering when it detects a DX9 based card?
😕
Click to expand...

Typo, probably. Change to "if the game detects a DX8 card..."
 
So basically, one should select memory to accommodate one's overclocking ambitions. Timings are just the icing on the boaster's cake.
So I should just get 1GB of PC3200 if an FSB of 400 is my likely peak. My current memory as displayed in my sig was just a waste of good cash. Why then all the damn fuss in the tech pages like this site's? I just don't get it.

Edit: if I'm preparing to upgrade to Athlon 64 maybe this next summer, what mem should I be thinking of now to best exploit the 90nm die size and overclockability?
 
Originally posted by: bupkus

Typo, probably. Change to "if the game detects a DX8 card..."
Click to expand...

Yep. Typo. Having a stupid day.

And you have two types of overclockers. You got folks like me who are cheap about it and get a chip one speed grade below our RAM (in my case a 333MHz FSB Barton 2500+ and PC3200 CAS 3 ValueRAM) then wind up the chip to meet the speed of the RAM. My 2500+ is at 2.2GHz on a free after rebate Aero 7 Lite that is only set at about half its possible RPMs because I can't stand the racket of it at full speed.

For me OCing is about getting extra performance for free, and with chip prices where they are at nowadays it just isn't worth the extra cost to me for super low latency RAM that is stable at 250MHz and a watercooling rig. There are on the other hand other people that want to take their hardware right to the cutting edge and wring every last possible MHz out of it and are willing to spare no expense doing it. And there is nothing wrong with that at all. They have a valid reason for needing the best quality RAM they can get. It just depends what camp you fall into and how critical it is that your system is fast as possible what kind of memory you get.
 
Thanks, that helps as now I can clearly define myself in the first catagory. I just ordered 2x512 of Mushkin pc3200 @ 2.5-3-3 for $145 from newegg.com. I hope it was the right decision, I think so.
Thanks.
 
Originally posted by: bupkus
Thanks, that helps as now I can clearly define myself in the first catagory. I just ordered 2x512 of Mushkin pc3200 @ 2.5-3-3 for $145 from newegg.com. I hope it was the right decision, I think so.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

You'll be happy with the new memory.
 
I just picked up the local newspaper and it appears Fry's is offering some memory sales today.
1 GB PC3200 Corsair dual channel $139.99 - $40 MIR = $99.99 // It says it's Low Cas Latency so??
Also,
1 GB PC3200 OCZ single module $179 - $30 MIR = $149.99
I just may get the Corsair and cancel the NE order.
 
I got the Corsair Value Select and it worked for 5 minutes til I decided to test it with UT2004 where it promptly crashed and continued to crash (UT2004) each time I restarted it, which wasn't easy cause UT2004 left a process running and I couldn't ID it.
I ran memtest86 v3 for a little over an hour an got 7 errors, each in memory between 0 and 512MB so I figured one of the modules was bad. I returned the pair and got another pair but they crashed my system too. Tomorrow they go back for good. I'm using my OCZ PC3500 EL right now with as always, the default settings. I never could tighten the timings.
I think I'll just stick with what I have until I get a new motherboard and cpu. Too bad, it would have been nice.
 
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