More RAM or New CPU? Which WIll Help More in this Situation?

[Brazin]

My setup:


WinXP Home

ECS K7S5A mobo
AMD 1700+
512 MB DDR RAM
Gforce 4 64MB video


I'm playing Star Wars Galaxies and some other newer games that are pretty high on the spec end. I'd like to improve my fps performance in game but can really only do one thing right now. So which would you recommend and why?

Upgrade to a 2.0 ghz CPU or add another 512 MB DDR?


Thanks!

Brazin

 

[cyman83]

what kind of video card do u have? do you have the geforce 4 mx? if so get a new video card

 

[konichiwa]

Get a good HS/F and overclock. Those 1700+ are famous for being excellent overclockers; I have one in one of my systems now running nicely around 2GHz. Then maybe think about a new video card if you want gaming improvement.

I for one am not a believer in 1G of RAM (yet).

 

[tenoc]

512 MB is plenty. That mobo can take up to a 2400+, very little more cost-wise than a 2000+.

So, of the two options, a cpu upgrade is the choice - more memory will not provide any noticable speed increase.

That said, I'm suspicious of your video card. If it is a GF4 MX4**, it wants upgrading to a "real" GF4 or equivalent.

The MX is really a GF2. You want a GF4 Ti 4200/4400/4600 or Radeon 8500/9100, or better.

 

[thorin]

I have a 2100+ on the same motherboard it noticed a huge change going from 512 to 768 and another (even bigger) change going from a GF2MX400 to a GF4 Ti4200 .

Thorin

 

[Brazin]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It is not an "MX" card. It's a Gforce 4 TI4200. Sounds like the way to go is either a cpu or maybe o/c the cpu and adding some ram.

Konichiwa you mentioned "HS/F" in reference to overclocking the 1700+. I haven't done any over clocking since the days of my Abit mobo and celeron 300a so I'm a little bit behind the times in the o/c arena. Can you explain what "HS/F" means? And can someone possibly point me to an overclocking guide for the 1700+ and my ECS mobo?

In the meantime I'll go start searching around here and see what I can dig up myself.


Thanks!!!

Brazin

 

[Markfw]

You can't OC easily on that ECS mobo without going to unoffical and non-supported bios. I recommend the 2400+ CPU AND ram, you can do both. If that doesn;t give you what you need then a Radeon 9700pro would be next (about $200)

 

[thorin]

HSF = HeatSink & Fan

As for OC'ing on that mobo there isn't much you can do aside from running a processor that normally uses a 100MHz bus at 133MHz, unless you get a third party BIOS that allows you to tweak in smaller steps.

Thorin

 

[Jeff7]

Do you know which XP1700 it is? If it's the Palomino, you won't squeeze much more out of it. If it's a Thoroughbred-B though, you can probably get it to 2GHz+ with adequate cooling.

I don't know how good that motherboard is in terms of its AGP speed though; anyone have any info on that? Maybe a new motherboard instead - nForce2 boards are popular these days; get the ones with the MCP-T southbridge (soundstorm), and you can sell your add-on soundcard.

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Do you know which XP1700 it is? If it's the Palomino, you won't squeeze much more out of it. If it's a Thoroughbred-B though, you can probably get it to 2GHz+ with adequate cooling.

I don't know how good that motherboard is in terms of its AGP speed though; anyone have any info on that? Maybe a new motherboard instead - nForce2 boards are popular these days; get the ones with the MCP-T southbridge (soundstorm), and you can sell your add-on soundcard.

my thoughts exactly

either that, or SAVE UP THE MONEY. a $100, 200 upgrade may only get you a couple of fps more. WOW.

 

[Ilmater]

I had a very similar setup to yours, and i noticed a big difference in performance when going to an nForce 2 motherboard. do you have 1 stick of 512MB RAM or do you have 2 sticks of 256MB each? If you have two sticks (same manufacturer, rating, etc.), then I'd definitely say go for the motherboard.

 

[Brazin]

Two sticks of 256. I'll look into that mobo. What makes it so good in your opinion?

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Brazin
Two sticks of 256. I'll look into that mobo. What makes it so good in your opinion?

i'd say the ability to upgrade to a top-notch athlon in the near future for cheap. on-board sound is of nice quality and it increases overall system performance.

 

[tenoc]

Do you have a budget?

The 2400+ is $75 oem and $85 retail at newegg.

If you want to spend a few hundred bucks, sure, an nForce mobo, a 2500+ Barton, two sticks of 3200 ram...............

 

[Lonyo]

Isn't SWG meant to be a RAM hog like Sim City 4 and BF 1942 or am I confusing it with something else.

You should see if anyone has had experience with SWG, because I think somewhere it's been mentioned that 1 gig of RAM if preferable for it, but I'm not totally sure.

 

[Lonyo]

There's a post in this thread about 1gig of RAM for SWG

Might help.