new video or more ram?

[faye]

Hi,

i have an AGP board,
along with ATI 9800pro 128mb with 512mb of physical ram(system)

should i get another 2x256mb of ram or get a new video card if let say i want to play F.E.A.R?

 

[faye]

system is limited to AGP and DDR.

can't go ddr2 or pci-e

 

[Soccerman06]

How bout new system?

otherwise, your ram will be holdin you back more than the video. The video card might be considered overkill on your system if it werent OCed

 

[faye]

new system?
i wish i could, but no budget yet.
i am planning to get a notebook because..


by adding ram will actually increase the frame rate in games?
what i am thinking is the video will do all the frame rate stuffs and ram will only fasten the speed of load time... is it true?

 

[Fadey]

the upgrade to 1 gb ram will be perfect for fear.. however............ games like BF2 use upto 2gb , fears limit is 1gb unless u got SLI. But any way an extra 512 meg ram will be the best upgrade for the price... a new 3d card with noticable increase will cost u abit.

 

[stevty2889]

Newer games will be limited by both your ram and your video card. I would definatly upgrade to 1gb of ram. You can keep your current ram and add another 2x256mb or 2x512mb sticks, and still keep dual channel mode. You would need a 6800GT to get a big noticable differance over your 9800pro. The 6600GT is slightly faster, but not by much, the 6800 a little faster than the 6600GT, but a 6800GT would make a noticable differance. The fastest AGP card you could get would be an X850. It really depends on your budget, and what resolutions you like to play at. If you play at 1024x768, just get the ram, 1280x1024 upgrade the video card too, to around a 6800GT.

 

[Jiggz]

Upgrade the ram but get the highest density and fastest ram you can afford. Like 512 mb stick or better yet 1 gb stick at least PC3200.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
Newer games will be limited by both your ram and your video card. I would definatly upgrade to 1gb of ram. You can keep your current ram and add another 2x256mb or 2x512mb sticks, and still keep dual channel mode. You would need a 6800GT to get a big noticable differance over your 9800pro. The 6600GT is slightly faster, but not by much, the 6800 a little faster than the 6600GT, but a 6800GT would make a noticable differance. The fastest AGP card you could get would be an X850. It really depends on your budget, and what resolutions you like to play at. If you play at 1024x768, just get the ram, 1280x1024 upgrade the video card too, to around a 6800GT.

 

[faye]

i think i am going to get another GEIL PC3200 2.5CL 2x256MB to maintain the dual channel...

if i add a 2x512mb, will i maintain the dual channel, the current ram that i have is 2x256mb.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: faye
i think i am going to get another GEIL PC3200 2.5CL 2x256MB to maintain the dual channel...

if i add a 2x512mb, will i maintain the dual channel, the current ram that i have is 2x256mb.

good call. i have a 9800pro & 1gig. even with a new card i think your ram would have held you back too much. i play fear & q4 and they both are 'playable'

sooner or later ill upgrade my video card tho.

 

[Mavrick007]

First put a stick of ram in (a stick of 512megs) to bring it up to 1gig. It doesn't matter if you have 2x256megs in there now, you can decide to keep the dual channel, but I would highly advise against going with 4 sticks of 256megs. If you must have dual channel, try for 2x512megs and it would be fine.

If you can swing it, I would upgrade the vid card. I would get at least a 6800nu or better. If you can, try for a 6800GT or x800XL for probably the best price/performance.

 

[sonoma1993]

upgrade at least to 1gb of ram

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: faye

what i am thinking is the video will do all the frame rate stuffs and ram will only fasten the speed of load time... is it true?

That's my observation/experience with benchmarking games such as D3, FarCry & PainKiller.

Although must add that D3 was already loading so fast with only 512MB there was no improvement. PK saw huge decreases in load times. I attribute this to possibly better coding in D3. FEAR sounds like it's not coded very efficiently, so its loading my suffer with only 512MB.

I don't think your CPU would cause a noticiable bottlenck with a 6800GT or ATI X850XT PE. You might wanna look for a used 6800GT and also add the ram if your budget can swing it.

Fern


Fern

 

[faye]

i can't upgrade both,
can i still get dual channel if i use different brand of ram?

i want to get the corsair value series .. but it is not as overclockable as geil.

 

[Fern]

Since I don't fool around with Intel, I don't know. Might PM a member named Duvie, he used to do a lot OC and benchies with Intel CPU's. (Seems most members here are now on the a64 bandwagon. )

Fern

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: faye
i can't upgrade both,
can i still get dual channel if i use different brand of ram?

i want to get the corsair value series .. but it is not as overclockable as geil.

You can get a differant brand and keep dual channel. As long as you match the sticks that are paired together you'll be fine. You can keep your current 2x256mb sticks in, and add 2x512mb sticks of a differant brand, and still have dual channel. I had a gigabyte motherboard with 6 ram slots. I had 2x256mb sticks of PC2100 Centon, 2x256mb sticks of PC2100 Crucial, and 2x256mb sticks of kingmax PC3500, and it still worked in dual channel.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

Go with the RAM. 1024mb it's pretty much the standard these days. This will also buy you some time to save up for a new video card when the times comes that you need a new one.

 

[n7]

Honestly, you need more RAM & a better GPU.

But with a budget, i'd go with more RAM. 2x512 to be specific.

FEAR will stutter like crazy with only 512 MB RAM, or i would figure it would, considering it stuttered for me with 1 GB!

Get 2x512 MB, & you'll still have dual channel.

Then start saving for a X800XL

 

[imported_Nacelle]

I was going to tell you to skip with adding 512mb of ram and add a full gig. You'll be able to set the texture settings higher, without stuttering. I found that even 1gb on fear isn't enough if you want the highest settings. But, since you're running a P4, that may not be the best idea either. They really need dual channel to run fast.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Nacelle
I was going to tell you to skip with adding 512mb of ram and add a full gig. You'll be able to set the texture settings higher, without stuttering. I found that even 1gb on fear isn't enough if you want the highest settings. But, since you're running a P4, that may not be the best idea either. They really need dual channel to run fast.

Faye has 4 RAM slots on the mobo, & is only using two right now.

So by going with 2x512 MB additional, the end result will still be dual channel
And total would be 1536 MB.

 

[forumposter32]

In your case, the RAM would hold back a little while the CPU is holding you back even more.
http://www23.tomshardware.com

If you wanted to replace the CPU, then you'd have to change the motherboard then you'd probably want to get a PCI-E instead. Well, that's annoying, but that's life.

 

[faye]

just got myself a pair of 512mb Corsair valueseries .

haven't tried Fear yet, will try later today...