Question Am I to expect much?

[MJR]

For my laptop I have only 3GB DDR2-333 RAM. I bought 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM. It is one more gig that I had before and about 2.5 times the speed of my old RAM. Am I to expect much at all? Any improvement with FPS with games? The processor isn't great either. It is a Athlon 64 X2 1.6 GHz (dual-core). Also, would this help out too? http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Turion-64-X...Pro-/280565195029?pt=CPUs&hash=item4152fd2115

I just don't want to be hyped up only to find that my performance barely improves.

 

[Moach]

ermm...

i heard that RAM memory is only capable of working at the speed of the slowest module you have attached... - you'd have more memory, but i guess it'd be just as fast to access as it was before

but assuming you've replaced all your memory with the new DDR2-800 modules, then it really should be faster, indeed...

but as for games, it really depends.... most games nowadays rely heavily on the GPU (which most laptops have terrible lack of), so that's where you see the most noticeable FPS improvements when upgrading...

by adding more RAM, you basically increase the amount of stuff you can have open at a single time

this gives you lots of additional speed if you were constantly using more memory than what you had physically available, in which case the system starts pushing stuff to the "page file" - which is horribly slow

otherwise, speed is affected mostly by the fact that you have a much shorter access latency - 2.5 times, as you mentioned...

but either way, you get to have more stuff open at once - which nowadays is quite a basic need, since we're always running more and larger programs

 

[MJR]

ermm...

i heard that RAM memory is only capable of working at the speed of the slowest module you have attached... - you'd have more memory, but i guess it'd be just as fast to access as it was before

but assuming you've replaced all your memory with the new DDR2-800 modules, then it really should be faster, indeed...

but as for games, it really depends.... most games nowadays rely heavily on the GPU (which most laptops have terrible lack of), so that's where you see the most noticeable FPS improvements when upgrading...

by adding more RAM, you basically increase the amount of stuff you can have open at a single time

this gives you lots of additional speed if you were constantly using more memory than what you had physically available, in which case the system starts pushing stuff to the "page file" - which is horribly slow

otherwise, speed is affected mostly by the fact that you have a much shorter access latency - 2.5 times, as you mentioned...

but either way, you get to have more stuff open at once - which nowadays is quite a basic need, since we're always running more and larger programs

What about the processor? It is in total 1.6GHz faster. So it is a dual core 2.4GHz. Is that going to help at all?

 

[Keatah]

You will see improvement from a processor or gpu upgrade. Ram?? Probably not. I see little performance difference, if any, on a 1gb machine vs 4gb configuration.

 

[RisingFury]

Laptop for games... yea... :facepalm:

Some experience that must be, when you pay 1.5 times the prices for 70% of the performance, with a 15 inch screen, tiny keyboard and a state-of-the-art in-built sound system.

 

[orb]

If you had 512 MB and you changed it to 3 GB, you'd see much improvement to overall performance, but replacing 3 GB with 4 GB almost won't change anything (if you don't make high resolution planet textures for Orbiter), nor adding those 4 GB to the 3 GB you have now.

Amount of FPS generated in games depends more on GPU and CPU than on the amount of RAM. And like RisingFury said, for games it's better to have a good desktop PC than the best laptop.

 

[garyw]

What Orb said plus many people just throw a stick of RAM in and forget that there are a bunch of other things that will improve performance:

Defrag - It's just amazing what sort of a performance jump you'll get with a simple defrag.

Pagefile - Defrag this too and make sure it's system managed.

Applications -> Do you REALLY need all those services, applications and god knows what else running at start up? turn off as much gunk as you can to claw back CPU cycles

Desktop -> Do you really need Aero or some other fancy display? Do you really need a sexy desktop picture soaking up GPU cycles? Nope. Remove them all. Change the settings to remove all the menu fading and other fluff to get even more CPU cycles back.

Adding RAM is like using premium unleaded fuel in a car when you really need to pump the tyres up and give it a wash.

 

[Hielor]

For my laptop I have only 3GB DDR2-333 RAM. I bought 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM. It is one more gig that I had before and about 2.5 times the speed of my old RAM. Am I to expect much at all? Any improvement with FPS with games? The processor isn't great either. It is a Athlon 64 X2 1.6 GHz (dual-core). Also, would this help out too? http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Turion-64-X...Pro-/280565195029?pt=CPUs&hash=item4152fd2115

I just don't want to be hyped up only to find that my performance barely improves.

What laptop do you have?

And yes, that processor is totally better than what you have. You should totally buy it, and then let us know how the install process goes.

 

[RisingFury]

And yes, that processor is totally better than what you have. You should totally buy it, and then let us know how the install process goes.

Square peg, round hole...

 

[Hielor]

Square peg, round hole...

Worked 40 years ago for Apollo 13, I don't see why it won't work for MJR!

 

[T.Neo]

Worked 40 years ago for Apollo 13, I don't see why it won't work for MJR!

Sure, but he'll need plastic wrap, a checklist, a sock, and some duct tape.

 

[jinglesassy]

Sure, but he'll need plastic wrap, a checklist, a sock, and some duct tape.

Don't forget the waste band from the underwear he was going to wear on the lunar surface!

 

[Zatnikitelman]

...and Ed Smylie...

 

[Krys]

Gary looks after my machines...until i make them so hot they fry the controller, and pagefile defrag and normal defrag does SO much for machines its ridiculous. Also uninstalling all the stuff you havent used in 3 months....