I have great news -- your 2GB ram + 512MB VRAM on your video card = 2.5 GB or so -- XP 32 home can use 4GB, so you can buy 2GB more RIGHT NOW with no further cost and it will benefit you!
As to whether to switch to Vista64 + 4GB or Vista 64 + 6GB or 8GB -- your choice. You have a PERFECTLY USABLE system right now. Not always the fastest, but I'm guessing it'll get the job done in almost every case. The worst common trade offs would be limited gaming FPS and limited resolution on the 8800GT and CPU combination, but really if you're playing is 1600x1200 or lower resolution I suspect that you can easily set options to make your CPU + GPU perform JUST FINE in every case -- maybe not uber maximum but fun & fine.
If you add more RAM you'll see the OS be a little more responsive when it lags currently although speed of your disc drive also accounts for some of the lag. In games new levels will tend to load faster. It'll be an overall improvement you'll notice in some cases. If you ever do load up a LOT of applications at once, you'll CERTAINLY see a benefit from more RAM, but many people almost never do TOTALLY fill up 2GB with application data although more RAM is ALWAYS nice just to cache the disk / data a little better speeding up some of the lags as I've said.
IMHO if you buy some nice 2x2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 5-5-5-15 or faster RAM sticks you will possibly be able to use them not only NOW but maybe for your NEXT build if you upgrade the CPU / motherboard within about 18 months. In time DDR3 (incompatible) will get to become the better choice for price/performance, and some of the new motherboards/CPUs we're seeing introduced REQUIRE DDR3 and cannot work with DDR2 -- thing is I think the best VALUE of price vs performance for CPU Motherboard and RAM will mean you can still get one more "whole system" upgrade out of DDR2 and keeping any new DDR2 RAM you buy soon and still have excellent performance and price.
If you're going that route and might upgrade the CPU to something like a Q6600, Q9300, whatever, and upgrade to a P35 / P45 chipset motherboard etc. within a year then getting more DDR2 now (as in 1: 2x2GB kit for 4GB around $45 or TWO 2x2GB kits for 8GB total -- around $90) is not a bad decision because it will improve your CURRENT system AND be useful for your NEXT system upgrade too.
If you really want to keep the CPU / motherboard you have now for another 2 years, though, and then go to the state of the art, you might as well not buy 8GB DDR2 RAM now since maybe you will not be able to use it in some of the future highest performance systems. In this case be compromising and buy 2x1GB now or 2x2GB and get rid of your current RAM to use 4GB total with XP32 and that will be a good choice without having to move to Vista 64 to use 8GB right now.
You would need to move to Vista 64 if you want to go above 4GB installed memory though.
That would probably WORK for most all of your applications / hardware, but it is a more costly choice. If you DO buy it and 8GB RAM then get the RETAIL version (not OEM) OS so that you CAN transfer it to a new computer motherboard once or twice or however many times more you need to in the future with no hassle / limits.
2x2GB kits ARE a great deal now (well SOME are great deals -- $50 or less for a PC2-1000 kit for instance), though, and personally I'd buy one of those over 2x1GB kits even if it meant selling / giving away your existing RAM because you'll keep XP32.
Originally posted by: jjj807
Hey, since memory has been getting so cheap, and Vista is taking over I've been thinking to myself. Here is my setup
2x1 gb (2gb) dual channel ddr2800 ram
amd x2 5000+ cpu
gigabyte am2 ma5s4-sli mobo
EVga 512 8800gt
Windows xp Pro sp3 32-bit
I have windows xp 32-bit so i cant get more than 2 gigs of ram right? So is it getting to be that time where 4 gigs and vista is necessary for gaming? And how solid is the 8800gt still? I love it. Thanks
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