Will increasing RAM benefit my current setup?

Hi all,

I bought an ok computer a while ago for movies, games, music and the other usual stuff.

I play MW2, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2 etc mainly in multiplayer.

Can't afford to upgrade just yet so decided to get round to finally doing some overclocking to increase the frame rates.

Have the following setup: P5N32E-SLI, E6600 (Oc'd from 2.4 to 3.2gig), 8800GTS 640 (not overclocked yet as Rivatuner keeps reseting the clock speeds?), 2 1gig sticks of Geil DDR2 PC6400 800mhz (oc'd to 850 - won't boot on 900).

I'm running Windows 7 64bit too.

I have a £25 voucher for Play.com and they have two 1gig sticks of Geil Black Dragon for just £30 with the same timings.

If I go from 2 to 4 gig, will I see any performance difference at all on this set up??

If not, I'll put it towards GOW3 on the PS3 instead : )

Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Your Windows 7 64bit will run a lot better with the extra RAM.

Well the more ram you have in your system, the better programs and apps will respond overall.

You'll see a slight improvement none the less. Be advised tho that populating all 4 ramslots on the board will put more stress on the NB when you're overclocking. Some chips/boards don't overclock well having 4 sticks of ram.

If the new ram has the same timings/voltages as the old ram, I say go for it, but you might have to lower the ram speed back to 800, then once you have the other 2 sticks in, try the 850. Might have to bump up the NB voltage tho a notch or 2.

I also say go for it. I consider 4GB to be the minimum these days (unless it's just an email/internet machine for the folks or something).

If you ever notice stuttering and the like in games, extra RAM will likely help that a bit. You will probably just notice overall improvement in the responsiveness of the system in other apps as well.

Def. go for more RAM

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I forgot to mention that my RAM timings are currently 4-4-4-12 and I am running W7 from a solid state hard drive (Which is great as I can open programs straight away as soon as windows loads! : )

To the previous poster - you mention stuttering and I was playing Dirt 2 last night and I get intermitant stuttering when racing. Almost like there's frames missing every few seconds.

It's really noticable and even if I set the graphics to the lowest, it still happens. I can also play on high settings too (bar AA of course) and I get the same performance with the stuttering.

Might this be to do with the RAM? Or if not, any ideas what might cause this?

PS: Nothing else stutters though so it could just be something to do with the game I suppose.

I'd bet that it is the RAM, but to be sure, you can play the game and when it's stuttering, take a look at your Harddrive activity light and see if it's going off.

superfuel said:

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I forgot to mention that my RAM timings are currently 4-4-4-12 and I am running W7 from a solid state hard drive (Which is great as I can open programs straight away as soon as windows loads! : )

To the previous poster - you mention stuttering and I was playing Dirt 2 last night and I get intermitant stuttering when racing. Almost like there's frames missing every few seconds.

It's really noticable and even if I set the graphics to the lowest, it still happens. I can also play on high settings too (bar AA of course) and I get the same performance with the stuttering.

Might this be to do with the RAM? Or if not, any ideas what might cause this?

PS: Nothing else stutters though so it could just be something to do with the game I suppose.

Click to expand...

dirt 2 has frame holes in it. that microstuttering is quite normal for that game. 4 gigs of ram will make a HUGE difference in performance. trust me. that is money well spent