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Will adding more ram extend the life of my gaming rig?

H

havuk

Senior member
Trying to hold off on upgrading my cpu/mb/video, most games can bu run maxed out but star wars the old republic is stuttering some @ 1028x1080 with shadows turned off and high detail, I also nootice some stuttering at lower resolutions.

Would adding an additional 4gb of ram help with this issue? What about my video card, would upgrading it help?
 
You might be able to overclock your Q6600 to 3 GHz, that could make more of a difference. My E8400 at 3.0 GHz with 4 GB RAM was working well at 16 x 10 resolution except in the fleet where it stuttered a bit. I never tried PVP with it, but PVE was fine.

I just upgraded to an i5-2500 and 8 GB and it's definitely smoother even though I upped the resolution to 19 x 12, but: it was still stalling a bit in Fleet during the Rakghoul event where dozens of people were huddled together to farm the DNA from infections. I think that's just a failing of the engine and / or the server when there are large groups of players together.

So I'd say:
- try overclocking first
- realize that Fleet stuttering isn't fixable
 
I would guess it is the video card, but have you checked RAM usage while the game is running? When the stuttering happens a low resolutions, is it in areas with a lot going on?

RAM is so cheap now, but it is also good timing to be looking at video cards now that the "new" ones are still quite new.

I personally don't have a lot of experience with that game, so I can't say for sure.
 
Check your RAM usage while gaming as Captain Howdy suggested. If you aren't going over 4GB now, adding another 4GB won't do anything.
 
Upgrading from 4GBs, you're going to see diminishing returns, at best. I upgraded from 4GB to 8GBs a couple years ago, and the difference was negligible. Is TOR the only game you're experiencing problems with?
 
honestly, there's nothing wrong with this build as long as you put a mild overclock on the q6600.

The biggest increase alone you will ever see from systems with a few years of mileage, is a fresh install. Regardless of how good you think your anti-virus or malware software is. How long does it take for your pc to start up,and how long is the delay before you can start activating programs after windows logs in?
 
upgrading from 4gb to 8gb ddr2 is a minimum of $50 if you have 2x2gb now or $100 if you have 4x1gb

not worth throwing money into an obsolete platform, plus it's not even guaranteed to work correctly (some boards have issues when fully loaded with 4x2gb)
 
I'd upgrade in this order if cash flow warrants it:

1.) gpu- in some games simply a better gpu will help
2.) cpu/mobo
3.) ram, ram last as certain mobos are finicky about what ram works properly.

And to answer your question more ram in THAT pc will not help your gaming experience.
 
I think a 5% memory overclock on the gpu would give you a better return that 4GB of system ram.
 
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