Hi again everybody.
Long story short, I recently installed a 2006-era video card into a 2004-era PC which I'm giving to somebody this Christmas, and I loaded some 2006-ish games to test it out. It definitely performs better with games like Oblivion and Anno 1701, which were near-unplayable with the previous video card. But it struggles with lots of anti-aliasing and frame rates gets a little choppy when there's lots of detail on screen.
Now I'm wondering if, for the person who will get the comp, it's a good idea to upgrade the RAM a bit, since RAM is cheap these days. As I recall, a video card needs lots of RAM to see its full potential. What I want to know is, is this one of these cases? And what RAM would be good to get for this old comp? Specs follow.
Old components:
CPU: Athlon XP 2800+ (1.25 GHz; roughly equal to an Intel 2.8 GHz, I think)
Mobo: ASUS A7V8X-X
RAM: 2x512 MB Kingston PC3200 (200 MHz) DDR SDRAM (I'm assuming DDR1)
New components:
PSU: Corsair 650W
GPU: eVGA GeForce 7800 GS (256 MB) (previously GeForce 6600 GT)
HD: WDC Black 1TB
I know it isn't really worth it to upgrade this old computer, but I got the video card free and I had to get the hard drive, so I'm just wondering if a little more will soup things up a bit for pre-, maybe up to-2007 gaming. And, if so, what RAM should I buy? Here's a test I did with the Crucial memory scanner app, which makes this my current choice for the third memory slot on the mobo, to add on to my existing Kingston sticks for total of 2GB, which I'm hoping will give a noticeable improvement. On the other hand, maybe I should go for cheaper memory, Corsair or G.Skill or something, and get a full new 3GB, chucking the Kingston sticks out.
One other thing: the Crucial memory test says this about my system: "When using DDR400 (PC3200) the system supports a maximum of 2 banks of memory ... A single DIMM will either have 1 or 2 banks of memory." Does this mean I literally can't get a third RAM stick, because the Kingston sticks take up all the banks? Even though there's still one slot free?
A little help here and I can finally finish up this old comp once and for all.
Long story short, I recently installed a 2006-era video card into a 2004-era PC which I'm giving to somebody this Christmas, and I loaded some 2006-ish games to test it out. It definitely performs better with games like Oblivion and Anno 1701, which were near-unplayable with the previous video card. But it struggles with lots of anti-aliasing and frame rates gets a little choppy when there's lots of detail on screen.
Now I'm wondering if, for the person who will get the comp, it's a good idea to upgrade the RAM a bit, since RAM is cheap these days. As I recall, a video card needs lots of RAM to see its full potential. What I want to know is, is this one of these cases? And what RAM would be good to get for this old comp? Specs follow.
Old components:
CPU: Athlon XP 2800+ (1.25 GHz; roughly equal to an Intel 2.8 GHz, I think)
Mobo: ASUS A7V8X-X
RAM: 2x512 MB Kingston PC3200 (200 MHz) DDR SDRAM (I'm assuming DDR1)
New components:
PSU: Corsair 650W
GPU: eVGA GeForce 7800 GS (256 MB) (previously GeForce 6600 GT)
HD: WDC Black 1TB
I know it isn't really worth it to upgrade this old computer, but I got the video card free and I had to get the hard drive, so I'm just wondering if a little more will soup things up a bit for pre-, maybe up to-2007 gaming. And, if so, what RAM should I buy? Here's a test I did with the Crucial memory scanner app, which makes this my current choice for the third memory slot on the mobo, to add on to my existing Kingston sticks for total of 2GB, which I'm hoping will give a noticeable improvement. On the other hand, maybe I should go for cheaper memory, Corsair or G.Skill or something, and get a full new 3GB, chucking the Kingston sticks out.
One other thing: the Crucial memory test says this about my system: "When using DDR400 (PC3200) the system supports a maximum of 2 banks of memory ... A single DIMM will either have 1 or 2 banks of memory." Does this mean I literally can't get a third RAM stick, because the Kingston sticks take up all the banks? Even though there's still one slot free?
A little help here and I can finally finish up this old comp once and for all.
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