VeLocityChaos Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I used to have a top of the line system that I had to sell due to financial reasons. I now own a 3200+ 1gigRam and a 7600GT. I average 40-50 fps (max settings\med texture @ 1280)when there isnt much enemies or action going on. At times though it can drop to as low as 15fps. Im thinking its the CPU because it seems to drop every time a scripted event happens. Like when you get into a certain area that triggers enemies to spawn, I get the lag. No matter what I do, I get the exact same frame rate. If I turn my graphics to the absolute minimum I still only get 50fps. So that makes me think that its the CPU that is limiting my performance. My question is what do you guys think? What would be the best upgrade path for me. CPU,RAM,or Video Card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangokillah Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Sup man!! I dont suppose adding another gig of ram would do the trick?? Im half tempted to add another to mine, as this is hogging 70% of my memory as it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daztrek Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 When I added another gig now having 2 I noticed a huge difference in BF2 giving me more consistant gaming. I wouldnt rush out and start upgrading just because of the game yet, I would wait and see what the patch brings. A extra gig is not much these days so no reason not to get that anyway. Have you overclocked your 3200+ may beable to squeeze a little extra out of it. When I had my 2800+ I got it to 2.4gig. Only do it if you know what your doing though. overclocking is the first thing I do when I get a new chip. The 3700+ thatI have now I got to 3gig but due to memory issues wiht my ocz ram im getting 2.8g stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMike Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I used to have a top of the line system that I had to sell due to financial reasons. I now own a 3200+ 1gigRam and a 7600GT. I average 40-50 fps (max settings\med texture @ 1280)when there isnt much enemies or action going on. At times though it can drop to as low as 15fps. Im thinking its the CPU because it seems to drop every time a scripted event happens. Like when you get into a certain area that triggers enemies to spawn, I get the lag. No matter what I do, I get the exact same frame rate. If I turn my graphics to the absolute minimum I still only get 50fps. So that makes me think that its the CPU that is limiting my performance. My question is what do you guys think? What would be the best upgrade path for me. CPU,RAM,or Video Card? ← I think another gig of RAM would be your best option. When I went from 1 to 2GB I saw major performance gains in just about every game I play (BF2, FEAR, CoD2 etc etc). Your drops in FPS MIGHT be caused by the game having to load new textures from harddisk from time to time. Remember that 1 gig of memory is MINIMUM requirement for the game! You might want to look for harddisk activity (HDD LED blinking) when the FPS drops. This might tell you if you need another gig of RAM or not. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logos Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Velocity, I read an article at Xbitlabs some time back that looked at the difference between 1GB and 2GB of memory with new highend games. Here's a quote: Note that the performance of a system with 1GB of RAM dropped below 20fps in 8% of all cases. The system with 2GB of system memory fell below the 20fps in only 1% of all cases. And in fact, this 1% is almost solely formed by auto-saving option enabled for preset checkpoints, where this discreteness doesn’t irritate at all. In other words, it is really hard to enjoy playing F.E.A.R. with the highest image quality settings if your system has only 1GB of RAM. I can't say from expereience about 1GB to 2GB because I went from 512MB to 2GB (world of difference), but if you're getting stutter and believe them to be unrelated to the GPU, I would say that an extra GB of memory would be an easy, inexpensive way to beef up the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRP 56 Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/13/how...ou_really_need/ This might help you decide. Looks like little difference fom 1gb to 2gb in most cases. I checked mine with 1gb of Corsair XMS then with 2gb Corsair XMS and I couldn't tell any difference in game play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strapt Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 ...When I had my 2800+ I got it to 2.4gig. Only do it if you know what your doing though. overclocking is the first thing I do when I get a new chip. The 3700+ thatI have now I got to 3gig but due to memory issues wiht my ocz ram im getting 2.8g stable. ← How did you do this then? i went into bios and changed it from 2.08 to 2.5. I didn't mess with the any multiplier settings cos they were ghosted out. I selected save and exit and when my PC rebooted it went to a black screen which said something like boot failure insert system disk. I was scared, thought i'd blown something! It wouldnt let me back into bios or reset the PC!! I manged to get it to turn off completely, then managed to start it again and go straight into bios. When I changed it back to 2.08 GHz it booted properly again. I tried the above stuff last night in attempt to get GRAW to run better barton 2800+ 1GB 3200 RAM geforce fx6800 GT soundblaster audigy 2 NX 80GB HD where system and GRAW are installed 20GB HD for messing and downloading stuff thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronson Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 (edited) I would say another gig, as ram is cheap and is the easiest way to gain minor performance. It's mainly used in situations as you described, and with those specs you should not be slowing down. Then again it could may well be the cpu bogging down or both combined. And don't overclock if you don't know what your doing. Lol, i'v seen video's at tom's hardeware where they overclock old CPU's and watch em burst into flames and melt HAHAHA! But these day's CPU's "Should" have auto shutdown safety features when it becomes to hot. In order to overclock you need very cooled system. Put some Artic silver5 on the Cpu. Make sure your ram is stable. Take baby steps, and monitor the heat. It took me a while but I am able take my 64-3000 2.0 ghz to 2.2. That's about a 10% performance gain. Edited April 30, 2006 by Aaronson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strapt Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I would say another gig, as ram is cheap and is the easiest way to gain minor performance. It's mainly used in situations as you described, and with those specs you should not be slowing down. Then again it could may well be the cpu bogging downm or both combined. ← I thought that too, but I swear I can only put 1GB of RAM on my MB :-/ it's 2x 512MB. Sure that's what the manual said. I'm gonna have a look now. its an a7v8x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronson Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asusmotherboard.php this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strapt Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Sorry, my mistake. The manual says: "The motherboard has 3 DDR dimm socket that supports up to 3GB unbuford non-ECC PC3200/2700/1600 DDR dimms." then there's some some more ra ra ra. Then: "PC3200 maximum to 2 banks only and PC2700 maximum to 4 banks only" I'm using 3200 (2 x 512MB) I know that much. There are 3 slots for memory so why does it say 4 banks of 2700? Not to worry, I'm not using 2700 anyway. Can someone expain what it means by banks please? Does it mean sticks of memory? Will I have to take out the ones I have now, then go out and buy 2GB of memory?? Or can I just buy one stick of 1GB DDR 3200? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strapt Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asusmotherboard.php this one? ← Yeah like that, but i bought mine from www.overclockers.co.uk cos i'm in the UK. There's a PC fair on tomorrow and i'm gonna go have a look. Didn't know this section of the forums existed until today, otherwised i'd have been reading it ages ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronson Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Banks represent the number of madules basicly. Duel channel memory wich is double sided are 2 banks per stick, or 1 bank per side. I may be rong but I think the only way for you to get 2 gigs and run full speed would be 2x1 gig. But if the memory is only single sided then you could get 1 more 1 gig stick... But I don't even think they sell single sided ram anymore.... Sometimes I hate Pc's I forget all this crap. Mabye someone else can put thier thots in to help him, I gotta head outside for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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