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Upgrading Memory or HD for games?

AgentUnknown

AgentUnknown

Golden Member
Just bought Doom 3 and CS: Source. I want better framerates, and have a 9800 pro. Loading times in doom is slow w/ my WD800BB 80GB 2MB 7200RPM harddrive. Should I upgrade that drive to 8MB or should I shoot my memory from 512 to 1 GB? I am running a P4 at 2.4 Ghz. Let me know what is the best option.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
I want better framerates,
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Neither will increase the framerate.
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he be right yo

things may load a little quicker with an 8mb cache drive but i seen a not too great difference between my 80gb IDE WD drive and my samsung SATA drive (latter having 8mb)

and extra memory will mean u can fit all the game needs in your ram which prevents file swapping.

neither have impact on computing power


u want more frames? you need faster cpu and gpu..its as simple as that

if u cant afford new cpu n stuff right now, save up, an overclock that p4
 
Go for RAM. the speed increase of a HDD will be pretty neglibable. (unless if you have like a 6 yr old HDD)

a 512MB stick of PC3200 should do you good. While it may not necessarily increase frame rates significantly, you'll definitely get faster load times and less stuttering when going through doors in Doom3.
 
Originally posted by: cyberknight
Go for RAM. the speed increase of a HDD will be pretty neglibable. (unless if you have like a 6 yr old HDD)

a 512MB stick of PC3200 should do you good. While it may not necessarily increase frame rates significantly, you'll definitely get faster load times and less stuttering when going through doors in Doom3.
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Agreed.
 
Originally posted by: AgentUnknown
Just bought Doom 3 and CS: Source. I want better framerates, and have a 9800 pro. Loading times in doom is slow w/ my WD800BB 80GB 2MB 7200RPM harddrive. Should I upgrade that drive to 8MB or should I shoot my memory from 512 to 1 GB? I am running a P4 at 2.4 Ghz. Let me know what is the best option.
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RE: Doom 3, since you've got a 9800 pro in there do the Humus tweak. It helps with loading between levels. Noticable improvement for me.

I don't think you'll get better frame rates with more ram or another HD. Won't happen.

Fern
 
Hey, thanks for the info. I am also looking to buy a new comp. Any newegg wishilists that u have to make a cheap computer? I could swap out my vid card and HD's.
 
Another vote for more RAM, if anything.
The only times I was wowed by an increase in hard drive speed was when I first moved from 5400rpm to 7200rpm, and when I upgraded my secondary system to a 4 drive RAID 5 setup. Much faster load times and file transfers. But you do need a good RAID 5 card (Promise SX4000), RAM to go with it ($10-$20), and 3-4 drives, so it's definitely not for everybody.

Other than that, I've not seen any major improvements in drive speeds, like the 2MB cache to 8MB move. It was there, but I didn't find the speed increase to be very significant.
 
Faster CPU = faster loading times. Hard drive upgrade would be worthless. A RAM upgrade would get rid of the initial studder when firing weapons and various other studders. A RAM upgrade would be more benificial than a hard drive upgrade though. A videocard upgrade would be the best (and most expensive) upgrade. (PS Raid is worthless for speed).
 
Didn't Anandtech do an article on Raid 0 and concluded that the improve performance is negligable for a PC home user? (which means 95% of us)
 
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