i am currently using 1gb of ram ,and my mobo can hold 3gb,my question is
: is it worth carrying on upgrading until i reach the 3gb limit or is there a amount that will be "enough"
i ask this as by saving money on future ram upgrades the money can then be ploughed into other parts of the computer such as storage and graphics
system specs
amd athlon 3200+
1gb ram
1 x 120gb hdd
1 x 80gb hdd(slave)
nvidia ge-force 6200 (128mb)
dvd-rw drive
cd-rw drive
thanks
2006-10-24 10:47:42 · 14 answers · asked by brianthesnail123 7 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
dschoolma is right. Unless you're planning on working with HUGE photo or video files, you won't see any improvement from having 3GB of RAM. If you're just wanting a faster system overall, upgrade to 2GB of RAM, and get one of these processors, which is considerably faster than your 3200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103531
If you're wanting to be able to play games better, then spend $100-200 on a much faster video card, and get yourself a 1GB stick of RAM to add to what you already have, if you have any money left over. If you don't, you'll notice about 25 TIMES more difference by getting a fast video card than you will by having more RAM.
2006-10-24 14:17:02 · answer #1 · answered by alchemist_n_tx 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Geez. Any version of Vista (except Starter) will see 3.5GB out of 4GB. And ReadyBoost DOES work on a maxed out system. Might be worth your time. XP without the PAE switch was limited to 3.25 GB. Where have you people been? That said, assuming you're running Aero, your card is doing most of the work. Since Vista identifies that your bottleneck is memory, your card must be at least a 512M version which is plenty fine for gaming. Ask Adrian Kingsley of ZDNet if you don't believe me. Make sure you have the latest drivers. That may help. That being said, Ian S is right, not much improvement from the extra RAM as far as frame rates go. That's on the video card itself. If you go with SLI (two cards, his term is crossfire which is for ATI) make sure you have the power supply and cooling to work it. Otherwise you will be deeply upset. Michael S has a good suggestion of going to crucial and let them scan your system for suggestions as to what you may be able to upgrade. Memory is pretty cheap and easy to install. They might have something for you that will improve your machines performance. Good luck and Cheers! edit: Thank you Ammunition for the help to the knowless. Wake up people, Vista is just fine thank you. However, he still won't see much improvement as far as frame rates go. Still, I would say go for it also.
2016-05-22 10:10:28 · answer #2 · answered by Shivani 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Vista needs a minimum of 1Gb of Ram to operate.
But if you're running XP then because XP doesn't recognise or utilise any memory over 1gig it would be a waste of money. Better to spend it on graphics card upgrade maybe.
2006-10-25 14:37:35 · answer #3 · answered by Jill 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The real question is: What are you going to be doing with this system? If you are going to be working on 200Mb photos in Adobe photoshop (like I do) then you will definitly benefit from 3Gb of RAM. If you are working with Large games with lots of graphics then stick with 1 or 2Gb of RAM and add lots of video memory. If you are going to be working with Large Video files in a video editor then you will need both the 3Gb of RAM *and* LOTS of video memory.
Hope this helps,
2006-10-24 12:56:04 · answer #4 · answered by dschoolma 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd probably stop at 2gb. 1gb has pretty much become the standard these days. By the time you need 3gb, you'll probably be looking to by a new PC.
2006-10-24 10:51:14 · answer #5 · answered by panthrosbulge 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
you can upgrade to 2gig ram if you want to if you are handling large files or photos you will see a difference but 3 gig is a bit extreme unless the files are huge
crucial.com will advise you as to what memory you require
2006-10-24 20:00:16 · answer #6 · answered by bbh 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 GB of RAM is very good, however, RAM will get cheaper by the time when u have to really upgrade to 3GB...
2006-10-24 15:47:50 · answer #7 · answered by apvikingz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 GB is enough for the vast majority of things.
These days the trully limiting component is the hard drive. Consider buying a very fast hard drive and put all the system files (non personal data, music, movies etc) on it. You might also be able to get better performance by putting yout hard drives on different controllers.
2006-10-24 11:16:24 · answer #8 · answered by nick 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
You'd be wasting your money. If you're a big time gammer consider updating your video card.
2006-10-24 10:58:03 · answer #9 · answered by Yak Rider 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes, if you are gonne be using Vista when it's released.
I'm using microsoft Vsta with 2gb and it could definatley do with 1gb more.
2006-10-24 16:43:30 · answer #10 · answered by jhol3368 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋