What exactly does more RAM do for you?

[Azndude2190]

I dont know whether I should invest money into buying a 6800GS or another 1GB of RAM...is it necessary for games right now?

 

[rasczak]

what games are you playing? or apps are you using?

 

[professor1942]

Just BF2. Everything else runs fine with 1 GB.

 

[DaveSimmons]

2 GB RAM helps in a few games right now, Battlefield 2 being the most mentioned. More RAM means less swapping in new maps / textures from disk, can help with stalling / stuttering. It won't increase FPS once a map and its textures are fully loaded.

(Advanced Search "2 GB" or "2GB" for honey bunches o' threads)


6800GS helps to make resolutions above 1024x768 playable, and even 1024x768 smoother for new games like F.E.A.R. : see the Video tab on main AT website

Which matters more? Depends on the games you want to play, and what resolutions you want to play them at.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: professor1942
Just BF2. Everything else runs fine with 1 GB.

Actually I think stupid Sim City 4 can also benefit from more than 1GB (depending on map size) but that game was a massive hog (the biggest) for it's day since it was released well before BF2.

BF2 is the reason I upgraded to 2GB, I am glad I did for that game.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: Azndude2190
I dont know whether I should invest money into buying a 6800GS or another 1GB of RAM...is it necessary for games right now?

Last time I used the word "invest" on technical message boards I got chewed out for not being literal "your videocard loses VALUE SO THATS A BAD INVESTMENT!1!1!one."

Back on track, you'll get more pronounced, immediate, results with a 6800GS. Another GB of RAM will clean up any stuttering/hang you may have (most commonly seen when opening a door).

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, You may have the answer already but here's the simple answer. If the system runs out of memory because you are running lot's of memory intensive stuff, the unused, at the moment, memory contents are swapped out to the Hard Drive. It's called Virtual Memory. When the swapped out stuff is again needed it has to be swapped back into memory. HD is many many times slower than Real Memory, so you get slowed down. More memory has to be swapped less often or not at all, so keeps your system speed up. Hope this helps, Jim

 

[Kaido]

I have 2 gigs of ram in my laptop, along with a 9600 Mobility Radeon. The RAM definately helps everything run a lot smoother. Make sure you're running at least a 7200rpm hard drive, too.

 

[ashakar]

I'de go with the video card at this moment because if you have 4x512mb memmory with an AMD system you have to run your ram with a 2T command rate, which will actually slow things down a little. With the video card you'll see a noticable improvement if your going to be playing games. You can see the difference between the card you have now and the one your looking to buy here.

the only games that I think benifit from 2 gigs of ram are BF2 and Civ4

 

[lyssword]

yeah 512 mb is a little slow when loading games, but 1gb is just fine 4 me

 

[Sean Maxwell]

for pure gaming purposes, the Geforce 6800 GS will be an easy decision for you.. seeing as another gigabyte of memory will not increase your framerates nearly as much as the video card

 

[w00t]

6800GS

I can run all my games fine with a gig of ram along with a X800XL.

 

[KeepItRed]

I'd go for the RAM. It's usually the cheapest and almost the best way to upgrade your PC. It decreases loading time for games/applications and basically speeds most things up. I noticed a huge difference from 512MB to 1GB RAM.

 

[cw42]

ur upgrading from a 6600GT -> 6800GS... i'd say save ur money, and just get a 7800GT since theyve been dropping in price