Will slower (but more) memory slow down my gaming experience?

[vcarpio2]

My AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz rig has 2GB of 1066 memory.

I saw on Newegg 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2 6400 for only $25 AR.

Will doubling memory (4GB versus 2GB) but with slower speed (DDR2 800 versus DDR2 1066) affect my Crysis gaming experience? Slower? Faster? The same?

I am not overclocking but overclocking advice is welcome, too.

Thanks!

I forgot to add, my mb supports 1066 memory.

 

[ochadd]

Are you running a 64bit OS?

Without direct experience I'm fairly certain that 4Gb of memory, on a 64 bit OS, running the 64 bit Crysis executable, should be noticably better than 2GB of faster memory.

 

[vcarpio2]

I'm running 32-bit. I got my Vista Ultimate free at one of the MS seminars. I remember reading my license is also good for a 64-bit install. I didn't get to research pros and cons of 64-bit (are there any cons?) so I installed 32-bit.

Thanks for the input. There's also 4GB 1066 memory for $40 AR at Newegg so I'm trying to decide between the two.

 

[yh125d]

4gb of 800 ram would definitely be quite a bit better.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

More RAM > Faster RAM.

 

[vcarpio2]

Thanks a lot! I went for it...

 

[taltamir]

more ram > faster ram, always.

 

[vcarpio2]

I interpret taltamir's and BlueAcolyte's

Originally posted by: taltamir
more ram > faster ram, always.

as more ram is better than faster ram. Someone correct me if wrong.

 

[taltamir]

you correctly interpreted it

 

[Yellowbeard]

Good choice IMO to go with 4GB. AN804 and AN806 should be some interesting reading also:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/appnotes/default.aspx

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Originally posted by: taltamir
you correctly interpreted it

:thumbsup:

 

[vcarpio2]

Thanks a lot, everyone! Now I can't wait.

A second PC will also benefit from the hand-me-down 2GB RAM modules.

I'm wondering if Microsoft's Silverlight will improve with more RAM (4GB vs. 2GB), too. I use the PC to watch Netflix streaming movies, too. I had switched to Netflix's streaming video's Silverlight option from the old Media Player version and since then noticed a slight drop in frame rate.