Will making these hardware changes...

[Sqube]

My current specs:
AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Winchester Core)
Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
ATI X800XL
2x250 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 (non-RAID)
4x512 Corsair Value RAM PC3200

What's in the pipeline:
2x1 gig Patriot PC3200

What's in the pipe dream:
nVIDIA 7800 GT

What I'm asking:
Will I notice a performance change when I install that Patriot RAM?
Would I notice a change if I jumped to the 7800 GT?

TiA as always.

 

[ribbon13]

This would be better for a RAM upgrade

 

[biostud]

Since you already have 2Gb memory, don't change it. The performance gain will be minimal.
Have you overclocked your CPU?, if not you should try that.

you will definately see an increase changing your videocard, but what games and what resolution do you play at? The x800xl should be able to handle most new games fine if you decrease Anti-aliasing and/or resolution a bit.

 

[Sqube]

ribbon13
That RAM's faster but (1) I wasn't really planning on overclocking and (2) the timing's on the Patriot RAM are a lot tighter (2-3-2-5 versus 3-4-4-8), which I thought would be more important to an AMD box.

biostud
Yeah, but having 4x512 makes the slots run at PC2700; I figured the speed boost plus the superior timings would be nice. And I know how to work my video card to make games run smoothly, but I was just wondering if switching to the 7800 GT would make my processor such a bottleneck that I wouldn't see a real performance increase from it. I usually play at a resolution of 1280x960; higher if I can, and lower if I have to.

 

[ribbon13]

But you'll be running it lower than DDR500. if you run it 1:1 with your CPUs HTT, I'm sure you be able to get similar or better timings than the Patriot. The pair I tested managed DDR430 2-3-2-7@2.85v

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Sqube
ribbon13
That RAM's faster but (1) I wasn't really planning on overclocking and (2) the timing's on the Patriot RAM are a lot tighter (2-3-2-5 versus 3-4-4-8), which I thought would be more important to an AMD box.

biostud
Yeah, but having 4x512 makes the slots run at PC2700; I figured the speed boost plus the superior timings would be nice. And I know how to work my video card to make games run smoothly, but I was just wondering if switching to the 7800 GT would make my processor such a bottleneck that I wouldn't see a real performance increase from it. I usually play at a resolution of 1280x960; higher if I can, and lower if I have to.

Save your money and you are a lot closer to that drea of the video card...

Ram is not gonna be a huge upgrade just by improving timings.

 

[Sqube]

Well, when I said that RAM was in the pipeline I meant "it'll be arriving tomorrow." Are you all saying that the RAM straight up isn't worth the money, or are you just saying that I could do better?

Also, I'm not expecting a 10 fps increase or anything like that, but is there going to be no tangible benefit from trading in 4x512 Corsair VALUE sticks at DDR333 for 2x1 gig Patriot sticks with better timing at DDR400? That just strikes me as strange; I figure there's gotta be some kinda benefit, or there wouldn't be a market for performance RAM at all.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Sqube
Well, when I said that RAM was in the pipeline I meant "it'll be arriving tomorrow." Are you all saying that the RAM straight up isn't worth the money, or are you just saying that I could do better?

Also, I'm not expecting a 10 fps increase or anything like that, but is there going to be no tangible benefit from trading in 4x512 Corsair VALUE sticks at DDR333 for 2x1 gig Patriot sticks with better timing at DDR400? That just strikes me as strange; I figure there's gotta be some kinda benefit, or there wouldn't be a market for performance RAM at all.

With the integrated memory controller ram speeds really aren't as big of a deal as they use to be. Timings can help...but nothing amazingly drastic. The market for performance RAM is more based on OCing than anything else.

 

[Sqube]

Oh... balls.