My computer’s almost 2 years old. I’d like to run it for several more years but I’ve got some money right now, and could afford to improve its performance a little. My main interests are gaming - WOW, Fallout 3, Supreme Commander, that sort of thing. I don’t play a lot of super intense games but more performance is always good, and the next game or two might be more demanding on my system.
What I have is an Intel e6600 dual core processor, each running 2 ghz, with 2 GB system RAM, and my graphics adapter is an ATI Radeon x1650 /w 256mb RAM. I’m running XP.
Should I
Add more memory? If so, can I have 3 GB RAM, or must I go to 4?
or
Get a better video card? IF so, what card would you recommend that will improve on the performance of the 1650, but preferably NOT break my bank? Under $200 is what I’m thinking.
I’d go with a better video card, and get just one more gigabyte of RAM.
Unless you’re running 64-bit XP, your system won’t be able to take advantage of the whole 4 GB of RAM because 32-bit XP can only have 4 GB of memory addresses in total in the system, and it needs to use parts of that for non-RAM purposes. This admittedly-biased article explains the memory-mapping of I/O in 32-bit systems and why it eats up part of that 4-GB address space.
Also, that Q6600 is idling man, If your mobo allows it at all, overclock that sucker. My last Q6600 could pull 3.2 Ghz on air. 2.8 to 3.0 Ghz is definitely doable and will net you a 10-20% improvement in games/apps performance.
2 GB of RAM for XP 32bit is just fine. The only place where oyu would see improvement there with more RAM is when multi-tasking. Not in games.
Your processor is known as a good overclocker, and here’s a good deal on the 4850 512MB model. You can check out reviews to see whether you think the additional 512MB VRAM in the 1GB version 4850 will affect performance much.
Also make sure that you have a good power supply with the appropriate connectors for the higher spec graphics card.
Yeah, DDR2 RAM is cheap right now, so a bit more wouldn’t hurt, though keep in mind that 32-bit Windows isn’t going to be able to make use of a full 4GB – probably it’ll only be able to “see” a bit more than 3GB. It might still be beneficial to go to a full 4GB if you upgrade at all, so you can take advantage of a dual channel configuration. (Pretty much all new motherboards support dual channel, the upshot of which is basically that a matched pair of identical RAM sticks in the appropriate slots will perform faster than a single stick of double the size.)
Granted, though, you probably won’t see a huge difference going from 2GB to an effective 3GB or 3.2GB, especially for games, so I’d focus on the video card, and maybe toss in another 2GB of RAM if you have $30 or so left over in the budget.
As others have said, video card first, then add more RAM (little reason not to, as 4 GiB kits are only ~$35). I just got this Radeon 4830, and it quite nice for the price. It has no problems playing Fallout 3 at 50-60 FPS with maxium detail settings, and 1680x1050 resolution.
I’m going to second the 4850 1GB. Don’t bother with more RAM unless you have money left over, it’s not really going to help your gaming performance any.