memory upgrade question

liquid2004

Dyre Straits

There shouldn't be a performance hit as long as you maintain like memory sticks.

Under Windows 98SE, I ran three sticks of 256 RAM and noticed a significant difference over the 512 only.

So, if you can get one stick now, it should provide a decent benefit.

The only real drawback is if your motherboard utilizes Dual Channel Memory, you won't be availing yourself of that improvement with only one stick in a matched slot. So, keep that in mind.

liquid2004

well,yes my motherboard supports dual channel memory,will that effect the games?I use the pc mainly for games

CDsDontBurn

the increase in memory will be beneficial to the machine overall. However, it is recomended that you keep all memory modules the same. If all the memory cannot be purchased at the same time, such as in your case, the next best thing to do is to purchase the the same model/series, and revision from the manufacturer the original memory was purchased. The reason for doing this is to minimize the potential memory errors associated with mixing different types of memory.

Matth

If it has 4 RAM slots, adding a pair of 256's should preserve dual channel operation.

The effect of losing dual channel varies...

On the socket A platform, (Nforce 2 chipset), there was only a single DDR channel to the CPU, so with synchronous memory speeds, the gain from dual channel was minimal.

Intel Netburst architecture is memory bandwidth hungry, so an Intel platform suffers more from the loss of "quad pumping".

AMD64 (S939) - there was a single channel version (s754) - and test results varied, with larger cached CPU models in single channel showing rughly equivalent to smaller caches and dual channel.

Some tasks tend to be highly cache localized, while others place heavy demands on memory bandwidth.

liquid2004

my cpu is A64 3200 (OC to 2.7Ghz) and my M/B ASUS A8N SLI PREMIUM (NFORCE4)
In general,is duall channel memory helping games run faster,i dont mind about other applications,well i dont want to get rid of the stuttering(with the extra memory) and have lower frames

Dyre Straits

If you already have Dual Channel Enabled, you would likely risk losing it if you add just one stick to a single slot.

Dual Channel function allows data flow simultaneously by dividing the memory task between the two sticks of memory. Personally, I wouldn't want to lose that function.

I as pretty much in the same boat as you until recently. I was running 1 GB of Dual Channel Corsair. I finally picked up the same memory just recently so that I now have 2 GB.

In all honesty, I really haven't noticed any significant improvement in my games. OBLIVION is my benchmark game and it doesn't seem to play any better than it did before adding the new memory.

You mileage may vary.

Grace

If you add only a single 512MB stick, the behaviour of the motherboard depends on chipset itself. Some chipsets support flex DDR mode, which allows the two identical sticks to run dual channel and the sole stick is used after the two first are full, in single channel mode. But other chipsets will just disable Dual DDR and run Single channel.

Greek talk:

Αν θέλεις να προσθέσεις μνήμη για να βελτιώσεις το framerate, είναι το τελευταίο που θα πρέπει να αναβαθμίσεις. Τα παιχνίδια στηρίζονται κατά 60% στην κάρτα γραφικών και 30% στον επεξεργαστή. Όλο το υπόλοιπο σύστημα παίζει ελάχιστο ρόλο όταν έχεις 1GB και παραπάνω μνήμη προς το παρόν. Ο επεξεργαστής σου είναι αρκετά καλός, οπότε μάλλον η κάρτα γραφικών σου χρειάζεται αλλαγή.

liquid2004

ok i think i will wait until i have the money for another 2x512 modules,thanks for everything


greek talk :η κάρτα γραφικών δύσκολα να φταίει γιατί είναι x1900xtx(oc core:690 mem:1580).Την επιπλέον μνήμη δεν τη θέλω για να αυξήσω το framerate αλλά γιατι κάποια παιχνίδια σαν το gothic 3 kai to FEAR:extraction point χρησιμοποιούν 1,30GB μνήμη και κολλάν συνέχεια(stuttering),διαβάζουν συνέχεια από το σκληρό

liquid2004

in order to see improvement in OBLIVION you will have to increase the cells that are prebuffered into your ram by changing some variables in the INI file and take advantage of the increased memory,see here http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_9.html,after all your fps wont increase but the game will access fewer times the HDD and you will have less stuttering

Dyre Straits

I should have already known about this.

Anyway, I've downloaded one of those mods and it rewrote the saved games to cure that secondary animations problem. Things are really back to a good consistent performance again. Thanks for the reminder!