new ram or new vid card?

[Medicated]

here is my situation. have an 1800+ tbred running now at 11.5x166. pretty much determined that my ram is what is stopping me from pushing the fsb higher, which i would like to do. currently using a gf2 gts vid card. i have the money right now to either get 512mb pc3200 corsair xms and then push the fsb higher, or to get a new vid card, gf4 most likely. The only thing i do on this comp that stresses the hardware at all is gaming. So, i'm wondering which upgrade will give me the better performance increase...new ram and faster comp or new vid card?
thanks

[toastedzergling]

New video card of course, if you measure your computer speed by 3DMark, with a new Geforce4 Ti4 4200 you double or triple your score, with corsair ram you get about 10%

[JimboZ88]

if you tell me what ram you have, then i can accurately post, but unless it's a stick of 64mb pc100 ram, then that may be the prob, but i'm sure you have somethin better:)...i would upgrade my vid card regardless of the ram i have. My friend had a gf2 gts, and bought an albatron Pturbo....HUGE difference!

unless you have REALLY crappy ram, then don't upgrade that...Upgrade your Vid card

Hope that helps you out

[stopdrpnro]

well it all depends oon what u mean by performance. if we are just talkin abou gaming performance than a video card obviously. but w/ the better ram u can up the fsb and u'll see benefits across the board not just gaming ... personally i'd go w/ the videocard

[Medicated]

i am using samsung pc2700 now, and the only reason i would consider upgrading the ram at all instead of the vid card is cause if i do, i should be able to up the fsb a significant amount as my cpu is running rather cool currently(34C idle/39C load).

[Captain Slug]

VIDEO CARD

The RAM may not get you as much as your expecting. Even if it does, it won't boost your overall system speed as much as a Video Card upgrade.

[stopdrpnro]

yea i just realized u were already at 166fsb... get the video card. .being at 166 already doesn't leave u much more room to up the fsb anyway.

[Medicated]

Originally posted by stopdrpnro
yea i just realized u were already at 166fsb... get the video card. .being at 166 already doesn't leave u much more room to up the fsb anyway.

well, my mobo does support up to 250 fsb with the current bios, so there is "some" room to raise it higher long as my proc and ram can handle it, but i will likely go with the vid card anyway

[ninthebin]

if you were to get an upto date video card you would see such a performance increase!

[james.miller]

a gf2-gts is a bottle-neck to that system. getting better ram will do very little for your system in its present state.
I say get a new video card, but, dont get a gf4 ti, get an ATI r9500pro. that will more that tripple your score in 3dmark

[ninthebin]

yeah 9500pro is cheaper than Ti4600 and alot better than it IMO...although is it available to buy in US yet? as although you can order it here - they arent getting it on the shelves until like mid Jan

[cursor]

I agree. Get a Radeon 9500 pro and overclock it. DX 9 compatible and it spanks the GF4's with eye candy on.

[james.miller]

yeah unfortunatly we arnt getting them until mid-january (probably february at the earliest IMO)

[whiteemcee]

wow.. i had the same question which to upgrade.. this really helped a lot.. thanks