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JMK
07-07-2005, 03:09 AM
I am currently running 1 stick of 512ddr2. I was wondering would it be in my best interest to upgrade to 1gb? Would i notice much of a performance gain? Also, is there much of a performance gain from 1gb to 2gb? Finally, I was wondering is it possible for me to buy a 1gb stick and still use my old 512 at the same time? Or would only more 512 work with the current 512?


My Current ram: here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211128)
My Mobo: here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121246)
Duffman
07-07-2005, 04:51 AM
Well getting another stick of 512 won't hurt you, it will make things run faster.
What processor do you have, you will only notice an increase in performance by fixing the systems bottle neck. If its the ram then go get more, but if its the cpu more ram won't help...

But at that price I say go for it.
JMK
07-07-2005, 05:54 AM
I have a p4 3.2 processor. How much ram do you think my processor would be able to handle? I dont want to buy so much that I can't tell the difference between the amount i just put in and the amount I had before.


My processor: here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116201)
Guyver
07-07-2005, 06:18 AM
UR processor is good, and it cant hurt to have more ram, so ya get it
Duffman
07-07-2005, 06:43 AM
JMK, make this a bit easier for us just post your full system specs, the mobo, cpu, ram, video card, all of it. But you can leave out the motherboard and the RAM I guess because we already know it.
Peerzy
07-07-2005, 09:11 AM
JMK, make this a bit easier for us just post your full system specs, the mobo, cpu, ram, video card, all of it. But you can leave out the motherboard and the RAM I guess because we already know it.


So basically you want to know what his Video Card is :frusty:


Yes get the ram, however you will want to keep it the same speed as your other stick of ram as buying anythign faster will just run at the slower sticks speed anyway
Virtualbody1234
07-07-2005, 01:25 PM
Doesn't it matter if you are currently using all of the 512?

If you still have free RAM when you run all the programs you use then adding more RAM won't make a difference. Run the most programs you normally run and then check in the Windows Task Manager>Performance tab>Physical Memory Available.
lynx
07-07-2005, 04:14 PM
Doesn't it matter if you are currently using all of the 512?

If you still have free RAM when you run all the programs you use then adding more RAM won't make a difference. Run the most programs you normally run and then check in the Windows Task Manager>Performance tab>Physical Memory Available.
Not necessarily. If some of the memory used by progs has been shipped out to VM you could still have Available Physical Memory, so that viewpoint is not necessarily valid.

Take the Total Physical Memory and subtract the Total Kernel Memory. This gives the Usable Physical Memory. If this is greater than the Total Commit Charge, then you don't need more memory. If it is less, then more memory may give you a performance improvement, but how much depends on how the progs you are using are shipped out to VM.

Note: the above is only an approximate calculation of Usable Physical Memory.
JMK
07-07-2005, 08:34 PM
I did what you said lynx and i did all the math and it was around 300,000 less. This was when i was playing counterstrike source while playing music like i usually do. Someone asked what vid card I have. I have GeForce 6600 GT pci-e. So with that said.. how much more ram should I buy? :unsure:
S!X
07-08-2005, 03:16 AM
I have GeForce 6600 GT pci-e. So with that said.. how much more ram should I buy? :unsure:

Id buy another stick of what you currently have.
Duffman
07-08-2005, 04:01 AM
Yeah, as I thought, system is great and the ram could be a little bit more plentiful, so go for it man.
lynx
07-08-2005, 04:18 PM
From what you've described, another 512MB should be plenty. I've only got 1GB, and the only time I've filled that is when I had a prog with a mem leak (I know that because I run without a page file).

It sounds like your peak usage is around 800MB. Of course, that excludes System Cache but 1GB total should be plenty for you, anything extra would just be wasted.
bigdawgfoxx
07-08-2005, 07:01 PM
My usable memory is 315000 above my total commit charge..so i guess i dont need any.

I have been wondering though, if i bought an identicle stick of ram and places it in the 3rd slot, would it still run dual channel with 3 sticks...(256MB PC3200 2-2-2-5)
clocker
07-08-2005, 07:02 PM
I have been wondering though, if i bought an identicle stick of ram and places it in the 3rd slot, would it still run dual channel with 3 sticks...(256MB PC3200 2-2-2-5)
No, it wouldn't.
Snee
07-08-2005, 07:05 PM
Two of them would run in dual channel though, I think :unsure:
bigdawgfoxx
07-08-2005, 09:02 PM
Yeah, I already have 2 of them running in dual channel.

Thanks Clocker.
Snee
07-08-2005, 10:17 PM
Yeah, but I think two of them would stilll run in dual channel, whereas the third would run in single channel, was what I was trying to say.

Meaning that the third won't brake the others.


:unsure:
bigdawgfoxx
07-09-2005, 04:09 AM
ohhh i see
JMK
07-09-2005, 06:44 AM
Thanks for the help lynx. I'll make sure to buy myself another stick of 512.
clocker
07-09-2005, 03:38 PM
Yeah, but I think two of them would stilll run in dual channel,


:unsure:
I don't think so.
Even the NF4 boards won't do that yet.
Snee
07-09-2005, 03:55 PM
Yeah you are tight, you can't do it with three 256 sticks (didn't think about that bit, silly me).

The single one has to be a 512 stick.

Was looking at this-> http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-011965.htm

When I should have thought about something like this-> http://www.hardwareforumz.com/ABIT-NF7s-v2-dual-channel-mem-slots-filled-ftopict57599.html


EDit: And I just noticed that the intel requires the memory in both channels to be equal too.