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Upgrade Memory or No?

Z

Zeppelin_Child

n00b
Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
22
I'm running a moderate rig. AMD64 3200, x800 xl... It's an emachines that I upgraded. My delema is, should I upgrade the ram?

I want to play Oblivion when it comes out, so I'm nto sure hwat my preformance will be like right now.

I have 768 mb of memory right now. The computer came with 256, and I added two 256's from crucial.

Clearly this is not the ebst setup, but would I benifit form taking out that ram and using say... this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220037

My mobo is MSI RS480M2/RX480M2 (MS-7093). I think it supports dual channel. Basicly, I'm just wondering what kind of preformance increase I could expect to see by upgrading my ram to what I posted. Do you guys think it's worth it?

I will msot liekly be getting a new computer in about a year and a half, and I'm sure I will atleast use 2 gigs for that computer, so I wont reuse this RAM, so is it worth it? If you ened more specs just let me know! Thanks in advance!
 
My link works for me. Anyways, the link is to 2 dimms of 512 partriot pc3200 that costs $60 after a rebate. I do kind of want ot stick to a budget because Ill upgrad ein a little over a year, so my question it, is it worth it to get 2 512's, or no? Two 1 gig sticks are kind of out of my price range. :(
 
ah, it works now. before newegg was suggested a bunch of refurb parts, which is where i got that stick from.

anyhow, now that i see it, it's a pretty good buy, esp after the rebate
 
Thank you, but my real question is, what kind of preformance increase could I expect to see? Is it worth the upgrade?
 
well... i don't really know, as the game isn't out yet, and nobody's dome extensive memory size testing on it ;)
 
there's not many games i know of that benefit from ore than 1gb.. BF2 and FEAR come to mind. it basically just smooths things out
 
No no no, I'm not adding the 2x512, I dont have room for that. I would replace the old ram with it, therefor running in dual channel (and 2T? I don't knwo much about ram).
 
3 sticks of 256 vs 2 sticks of 512 hmmmm

i wouldnt bother.

dual channel is overrated as well.

If you play fear or doom3 or games like that, I would consider it but you are getting a new computer in less than 2 years.
 
yeah, the extra 256mb won't do a whooollle lot. if you had 4 slots, i'd day run 2x512 + 2x256, but it seems you can't do that, no?
 
I do have four slots actually, but i've heard it is illadvisable to run all memory slots? Or is that just a rumor? Besides it is still 60 bucks... Maybe I'll just stick with 3x256

Thanks for all the advice guys!
 
Zeppelin_Child said:
I do have four slots actually, but i've heard it is illadvisable to run all memory slots? Or is that just a rumor? Besides it is still 60 bucks... Maybe I'll just stick with 3x256

Thanks for all the advice guys!
Click to expand...

Actually, filling only three of the four memory slots on any dual-channel motherboard will greatly decrease memory performance and stability. Many systems will not even boot at all or will not run anywhere near as stably as desired with three of the four memory slots filled. And even if it runs stable, single-channel will be forced, as well as a 2T command rate and a 166MHz memory clockspeed (while any one of the three doesn't meaningfully affect the performance of an A64 system, all three slowdowns combined will make a noticeable impact on system performance). What's worse, some systems force an even slower 100MHz memory clockspeed with three slots filled out of four. So, if you MUST run a Socket 939 platform in single-channel mode, it is MUCH better running only one stick of memory than three sticks of memory.
 
Zeppelin_Child said:
I do have four slots actually, but i've heard it is illadvisable to run all memory slots? Or is that just a rumor? Besides it is still 60 bucks... Maybe I'll just stick with 3x256

Thanks for all the advice guys!
Click to expand...

its not that its ill advised, its just that instead of memory running at 200MHz it will run at 166MHz, just a limitation of the memory controller
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, filling only three of the four memory slots on any dual-channel motherboard will greatly decrease memory performance and stability
Click to expand...
3 sticks in an s939 rig will be 166mhz, 2T, single channel (usually.. ask you said, sometimes it'll be even worse)
4 sticks will be 166mhz, 2T, dual channel. better performance if you ask me :D
 
So should i just get one mroe stick of 256? It seems like that will give me the best preformance for the lowest cost. Then again, it cant run in dual channel unless they are all identical sticks right? Or am I wrong again?

Thanks again for all the help guys!
 
yes you can. you need an even number of sticks for dual channel, with the nf2 being an exception, and taking any number greater than 1 stick for dual channel

just because i'm curious where one would get such an idea, what is it that made you think that more than two sticks wouldn't be dual channel?
 
I have never heard of anyone have dual ch. with more than 2.

Dual means 2. ;) Composed of two usually like or complementary parts.

Ah now that iIread the entire thread, I see that you mentioned 4 sticks would be dual.
 
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