Worth upgrading to a 1GB ?

[edmundoab]

Hey guys, I have a Twinx 512MB CORSAIR PC3200

It has great timings that can run 2-2-2-5 at DDR400
even at DDR 410 , its stable at 2-2-2-5

but as I have heard about performance difference in WinXP using a 1GB...
do you think its worth upgrading at this point?

I know there isn't any BH-5 Chips around anymore... which is pretty sucky.. another added factor to hold on to my 256MB x 2...
but for how long?

 

[pelikan]

I'd get a gig when you do something with your system that needs it. For example, gaming is the only thing I do with my system that stresses it. 512mb was always enough for the games I played. Until Far Cry. It was running a big choppy at times so I tried it with a gig of memory. Makes all the difference.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: edmundoab
Hey guys, I have a Twinx 512MB CORSAIR PC3200



It has great timings that can run 2-2-2-5 at DDR400

even at DDR 410 , its stable at 2-2-2-5



but as I have heard about performance difference in WinXP using a 1GB...

do you think its worth upgrading at this point?



I know there isn't any BH-5 Chips around anymore... which is pretty sucky.. another added factor to hold on to my 256MB x 2...

but for how long?

It depends on what you're doing with your system, Edmundo. By the looks of your system, you're probably a gamer.

I can tell you this, the day I bought BFV I upgraded to 1GB of RAM. So, I had the opportunity to see the game run at 512 and 1GB (same speed) RAM. There was a noticible difference in performance, especially when navigating through the menus. RAM is pretty cheap now-a-days, I say go for it.

 

[XBoxLPU]

If you have the money go for it

I am waiting for the prices to go down though

 

[edmundoab]

yeah active games being played now is Warcraft 3 TFT
So far so good, but I know its at the roof now,

games like far cry is definately going to choppy like what pelikan said,

still Mushkin seems like a good substitute so far
if I want to continue running 2-2-2 timings..

 

[Dman877]

I recently upgraded to 1 gig from 512, only dif I noticed is UT2k4 maps load a bit faster with less initial stuttering.

 

[magomago]

if you get something slightly looser in timings I doubt you'll see much of an effect on your computer. But it really depends what you do. I don't game (err...or when i game its very non intensive games) so 512 does it perfect for me.

For you it might be a different story though~ And Warcraft3 runs fine on 512

 

[randumb]

Check your RAM usage in your most intensive tasks. If it looks like you'd benefit from more RAM then get some, but otherwise you don't need it.

 

[Markfw]

Running ONLY Far Cry, 673 meg usage.... Enough said.

 

[faye]

I would like to play FARCRY, Halflife2, Doom3 once they are released..

what kind of memory should i get? 1GB is kinda huge.. but if it is the only case, i have no choice

INTEL based and AMD based use different ram, right?

in my mine, i think of PC3500 1GB DDR Dual Channel ram for both system, but don't know which brand to get.. Hey, I do overclock(not much, a bit) so which brand is great doing it? and money is the biggest issue.

thanks

 

[Markfw]

The Athlon64 (except FX-51/53) only use one channel and DON'T NEED DUAL CHANNEL. They do just fine with one. An Athlon 3400+ with a mild overclock is all you need to beat a 3.4 P4 even at 3.6 in gaming ! Benchmarks by many sites have shown this.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Considering I've had Diablo II an ancient game take up 480 megs of ram I'd say it's about time to upgrade.

 

[edmundoab]

thanks for the feedback

 

[Anubis]

do you use photoshop alot? other then gameing PS loves ram and if you do alot of image editing it will help

 

[bandana163]

I have 1GB TwinX. There are some very good memory modules around.

I'm glad I have a gig when I play Far Cry or UT.

 

[edmundoab]

yeah i do alot of gaming,

I know my game doesn't require a gig of mem yet,
but as I move on I will,

But my main concern was whether it will have a boost to the current WindowsXP

 

[Tiggerbaby]

oops

 

[Tiggerbaby]

Originally posted by: faye
I would like to play FARCRY, Halflife2, Doom3 once they are released..

what kind of memory should i get? 1GB is kinda huge.. but if it is the only case, i have no choice

INTEL based and AMD based use different ram, right?

in my mine, i think of PC3500 1GB DDR Dual Channel ram for both system, but don't know which brand to get.. Hey, I do overclock(not much, a bit) so which brand is great doing it? and money is the biggest issue.

thanks

No offense, but I think you will need more than RAM to be able to run HL2 and Doom3 with your current configuration

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: warcrow

Originally posted by: edmundoab
Hey guys, I have a Twinx 512MB CORSAIR PC3200

RAM is pretty cheap now-a-days, I say go for it.

Maybe 4 months ago, today 512mb of RAM is real expensive when about 4 months ago you could get Geil Ultra Platinum PC3500 for $43 for 256 mb, and now the price has jumped to $65.

Don't upgrade the ram unless you see an application that runs slow with 512. Also press Cntrl+Alt+ Delete and under Performance setting check the Peak rate. If that often exceed 512 by a lot like say reaches 680 or 750 then you should get a gig of ram. The peak rate shows the maximum ram that was addressed since the last boot. So you can have your system running for say a day or 3 days and see what maximum you reach. If is below or close to 512, there is no need to upgrade.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: edmundoab
yeah i do alot of gaming,



I know my game doesn't require a gig of mem yet,

but as I move on I will,



But my main concern was whether it will have a boost to the current WindowsXP

You are better off getting a 36gb raptor hard drive for the price of 512mb to feel a boost for XP in my opinion and loading, compressing, decompression times.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
The Athlon64 (except FX-51/53) only use one channel and DON'T NEED DUAL CHANNEL. They do just fine with one. An Athlon 3400+ with a mild overclock is all you need to beat a 3.4 P4 even at 3.6 in gaming ! Benchmarks by many sites have shown this.

Only at 1024x768 and maybe 1280x1024. Remember as most of us play at 1600x1200 this is a moot point and I dont know why everyone keeps making it. Besides no one will ever notice playing Far Cry at 36 vs. 39 frames per second with a 9800Pro and that is all an A64 will give you. On the opposite end you'll be hard pressed to notice the difference between 75 and 85 frames in Far cry if you have 6800Ultra so the A64 gaming advantage is really a minor thing. In most cases A64 gains 10% on top of a P4 cpu (t low resolutions) and that certainly doesn't justify going for A64 alone. However, it's office usage advantage and faster decompression/compression rates which are used by us everytime a zipped file is download or created are a strong advnatage in my eyes. Also the 64-bit support will surely prove to be an addeded benefit. But gaming...I would certainly hold on that thought.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Running ONLY Far Cry, 673 meg usage.... Enough said.

Why you can afford to run Far Cry and something else? lol that game alone is intensive regardless of RaM. For me it makes no difference since my 8500 is slow as hell so the videocard should always be upgraded before 512 ram to 1gig +. So edmundoab what are your system specs, specifically videocard? It might be better off to invest that money into another component that is lacking instead of RAM, unless you already have high end cpu/gpu.

 

[edmundoab]

Currently using an XP2100 @ 2.25Ghz ( 205 X 11 )
SLK900
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro
HDD#1 Maxtor Fireball Plus 40GB 2MB cache ( i know you guys are going to call me to upgrade the drive instead )
HDD#2 IBM Deskstar 40GB 2MB cache
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe Rev 2.00
Corsair 512MB XMS TwinX PC3200 LLPT @ 2-2-2-11
420 Watt Enlight PSU
Onboard Sound Nvidia SoundStorm

 

[Markfw]

Memory I think, but only based on what your peak memory usage is, and/or what games you play. for BF1942 oe Far Cry, get the gig.

 

[Maximilian]

I noticed no diffence at all, except im now equal with my friend and he cant boast he has more but people have said that far cry is choppy, which gives a good indication of how other future games will run. Get a gig when you can afford it as the prices suck right now.