RAM Update Question

[Agentbolt]

Hey all,

Currently I'm wondering if I should bother upgrading from 512 MB to 1 GB of RAM. My current system is:

Athlon XP 2500@3200
ABIT NF-7 Mobo
512MB Geil Golden Dragon RAM
Sapphire 9800SE Vid Card.

In games like Doom III, there's some definite slowdown with display resolution at anything higher than 640x480 or with the detail above Medium.

Is getting another 512 MB of RAM going to help this at all? Will it help the computer in any other ways? And if I should upgrade, do I need to get another stick of Geil to have the computer run in Dual Channel Memory? Or can I just get any PC3200 RAM?

Thanks all

 

[jpeyton]

Slowdown in Doom 3 can be cured with a new videocard, although something else may be the issue if you're having trouble above 640x480/Medium. 9800SEs are much faster than that. Check your drivers and video settings.

Have you tried softmodding the card?

 

[Agentbolt]

Thanks for the reply:

Yeah, I tried softmodding the vid card, got bad artifacting so I had to switch to regular Catalyst drivers (running 4.11 now I think) Someone suggested RMAing the card because NewEgg tends to send back a different card rather than repairing the one sent, but that sounds kinda scummy, so I'm accepting that I'm stuck with a plain 9800SE for the time being.

The card is OCed to 390/341, any further than that and there's artifacting, and with stock cooling I don't want to push it too hard. The card scores ~30K in Aquamark and ~3500 in 3DMark03. Those seemed like vaguely acceptable scores for this card.

Other than checking basic stuff (fastwrites are off, card is set to 8X AGP, drivers are current) is there anything else I should be checking? 640x480 Medium Detail is really bad for a 9800SE? (It's a Sapphire, 128 Bit Memory)

 

[Agentbolt]

*bump*

Anyone else care to weigh in? Please?

 

[Agentbolt]

If anyone can answer at least one or two of the 14 or so questions I've asked, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, if someone could tell me what I'm neglecting to do to make it I'm not getting any answers, that'd be cool too.

 

[boyRacer]

if you can see it paging the HD while it goes slideshow for you then hey go for the 1GB...

an identical stick to yours would be optimal to run in dual channel. as for your video card... well you'll obviously benefit more from a videocard upgrade but heh... the cards worth upgrading to are just too expensive for me.

 

[Rike]

OK, jpeyton is completely correct. Get a new vid card. More RAM and faster RAM will help, but the vid card is the best upgrade for your system. Not that more RAM is bad.

On the issue of RAM, you will need two sticks of RAM to run dual channel. A matched pair is best. 1 gig will make your system a little faster, but only when your running apps that need it. I hope that helps a little.

 

[Agentbolt]

Thanks.

So anyone have an opinion on whether my 9800SE is underperforming or not? If it is, maybe I should RMA it after all.

 

[boyRacer]

Probably.

I don't know about Doom 3 since I heard rather demanding but I have a 2100+@~3200+ ,9500 Pro @ 325/310 (128-bit), and 512MB RAM and I can run HL2 1024x768 around 50-60fps with high details but no AA/AF. 1280x960 and things get choppy at 35fps.

 

[furie27]

Hardocp did a great breakdown of systems and video card benchmarks with Doom 3. Probably your best comparison is the 9600xt, it is pretty close to the 128 bit SE 9800 cards. I think your numbers are a bit low for the card. Hope this helps.