I'm eyeing off these: Corsair 2048MB Value Select 240-pin PC5300 DDR2 Twin-Pack (2x 1024mb sticks) It has been a few years since I had an idea of how my system component interact. Any advice would be very welcome. Below is what I have and I'll be upgrading the graphics card in the next year: Card: Geforce 7600GT Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 2.40Ghz (Conroe 1066mhz) Processor, Dual core LGA775 65w 4mb cache RAM: Corsair 2048MB Value Select (2x 1024mb sticks) Board: Asus P5B LGA775 P965 P4/C2D board Is all that extra RAM goodness going to be choked down by my mediocre motherboard? I am using Vista which likes a solid Gb to itself, although I can alt+tab okay in most games with 2Gb.
Depends on what game/OS you're using. Memory is cheap, and you'll find better performance from upgrading your video card than your memory.
I think you may need the 64 bit version on vista to use the full 4gb. read this. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/710848.html Seems like a lot of insight
Wow, thanks a lot. Vista 64 is rubbish due to a lack of drivers, apparently. If Vista can only see 2.5 to 2.8Gb then there is no point. Big fat graphics card for me, then. Might even wait til the WAR Open Beta to see the difference. To think I could have blown a lot of money on increasing my eWang to no avail
A 32 bit OS can only physically address 4GB worth of memory. This is spread across your RAM, Video Memory, etc. Although Windows may not recognize it as a full 4GB it is there and can be utilized by other programs, However I agree that a new video card would be much more beneficial for your system. and maybe and overclock of your 6600...
i threw my 4gig sticks in my 32bit and noticed MARKED improvement. Vista recently added some funcitonality to better utilize the overage on the RAM.
4GB is < $100 and can be low as ~$50 if you play your cards right. But yeah, a ~$100 8800 will do you better.
With regards to Vist 64 being rubbish, this is completely untrue. I run Vista 64, with 4gb, and a superclocked evga 8800 gt, and I run everything maxxed these days with no problems.
I have 2 x 2GB chips in my system and it shows it as having 3gb or so (XP) Due to the price I would go for it, as it can't hurt
Same here, it was that way at release... but it is in my opinion probably the best windows out right now, unless you have a low end system.
Yeh the 64 bit problems have since been fixed up. Probelm is whenever people search for 64bit info they are bumping into all the old rants and so steer clear. Also 32bit does utilise the full 4gb and its actually optimised to run most efficiently with 4gb. Worth the upgrade in my opinion but like everyones said as far as gaming you'll see a bigger performance boost with a new graphics card.
I like my Vista 64bit Home Premium with 8gigs, runs anything absolutely smooth. And all my stuff works, soundcard, dvd-burner, mp3stick, printer, just plug it in.
Figures as soon as I write this, I run into issues. ASIO Drivers for the M-Audio device I use for recording my guitar is non-existant.
All I have to say is,"your setup is not like everyone else's setup." While you may see zero problems, others may see big problems. I run Vista 32 on my laptop. Zero issues. My friend runs Vista 64 on his desktop. It randomly will drop hardware and he has to reinstall it. My desktops only run WinXP 32. I have yet to see any need for 64 bit or Vista, so I don't bother actually purchasing it for my comp. My laptop came with it and didn't see much need to change it. It works and had no bloatware on purchase. Fyi, I have tried Vista on my desktop. Tried out the Alpha, Beta, Beta 2, and release. I try it out every so often when multiple patches or a large service pack is released. I see zero positives, only negatives atm. Not about it's stability. It's rock solid to me. About any gains over XP. So far, none. I disable Themes service, as I could care less how it looks. 64 bit is worthless. Most programs are still 32 bit. Don't see much point in having more than 3 gigs of memory, unless you have crap programs with memory leaks. Maybe in a year it'll make sense, but in a year Windows 7 will be out or right around the corner. Maybe then Vista might make sense.
My Canon 1D Mark II from 2004 has firewire drivers for 32 bit but not for 64-bit. Gotta blame the manufacturer for this one for being lazy.
Check your manufacturer's website. If they offer Vista x64 drivers for your hardware, then I would definitely recommend upgrading your ram to 4GB. If not, then I would install Windows XP. You will see a pretty good performance jump by switching back to XP. =P
I recently installed XP to use my camera's firewire port. In a 4 gig system, 2.5 gigs showed up in XP. That's 1.5 gigs "lost".
i find that 2-3 gigs really is the most you need unless you are doing a daul channel setup with two 2 gigs channels on 32bits oses for thats about the only way you will get full use out of the 4 gigs but as it is said each person gets their own amount when sticking 4 gigs in a 32os some less then three some more then three but ive yet to see someone with a full 4 gigs without a 64os so as others were saying if you want a performance boost thats highly noticeable get a vid card if you want to up your boot-time and such and to make programs run a little smoother and not have to worry about memory leaks go with ram it will clean most those problems