Memory upgrade question

[At Large]

I have a motherboard that supports up to 400 mhz memory. It's an AMD board. I currently have a 3.1 sempron with 512 megs of pc2700 memory (333 mhz).

I was thinking about upgrading the memory. Which would be more beneficial?

Replacing the 512 memory with a 1gig 3200 stick?
Add another 1 gig of 2700stick to bring the 2700 memory up to 1.5 gigs of memory?

Would I even see a jump in performance if I go up to the 3200 stick?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

I have a motherboard that supports up to 400 mhz memory. It's an AMD board. I currently have a 3.1 sempron with 512 megs of pc2700 memory (333 mhz).

I was thinking about upgrading the memory. Which would be more beneficial?

Replacing the 512 memory with a 1gig 3200 stick?
Add another 1 gig of 2700stick to bring the 2700 memory up to 1.5 gigs of memory?

Would I even see a jump in performance if I go up to the 3200 stick?

Get the 3200. Your board may even have some overclocking features, and you may need the extra Front Side Bus headroom in case you decide on an upgrade any time soon.

[At Large]

Let's say I want to see a boost in how my system runs Half Life 2 and GTA SA? Half Life will run it, but it stutters every now and then. GTASA just looks grainy and stutters from time to time.

I'm running a GEForce 5500 128 meg video card.

Would I see better performance with a better video card like a 256 meg ATI X1300 pro or 512 meg ATI x1600 pro? Or would my slower memory of only 512 megs 2700 defeat the purpose of adding a better video card.

I had heard that adding more memory solves the Half Life 2 stutter problem, but since a 1 gig memory stick costs just as much as a new video card, I thought I would ask.

[ElTaco]

I've run both games on my laptop which has a 64mb video card and 1.5 gb of ram. Usually if the problem is processor based, you can improve it with a better video card that has a faster FPU on it so I would say, 512 is ok, but jump up to 1gb.

Your other option is to buy a 512mb memory module to kick up your memory to 1gb and a 256mb video card. You don't have to get the latest of either and you should still see a big improvement.

My guess is that your 128mb video card is probably fine, you just need a little bit more memory.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Okay, I'll ask.
What's yer budget?

[At Large]

I was hoping to not spend more than $150. It's really not a necessary upgrade. I've just become a little annoyed by the stuttering.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Skip the ATI chipset cards.
Let's assume your still using AGP interface for vid cards:

CHAINTECH SA6600-256MB Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

$104.99

...add a stick of...

Patriot 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 333 (PC 2700)

40.99

...throw in $10 or so for shipping. All from Newegg.

It'll do ya'.

[At Large]

Added the 512 megs of ram to bring mine up to 1 gig. What a difference that made with my games. Half Life 2 has no stutter now.

I'm going to wait a little bit to get the card, but probably the one that you mentioned.

[mouse]

I am still using a POS (piece of shit) 533MHZ eMachine with PC-100 motherboard if I tried to put any of that crap in my PC it would start to smoke, I already sizzled my soundcard trying to up grade my memory with a 256 stick I found in the trash. You learn as you go when it comes to putting the wrong stick in the wrong motherboard. My Pc is so old if you tossed out a 2001 4.1 mhz tower I could not use any of the parts.

Funny how all the cool ass 2800 CPU's that are just sitting in my apartment that are burned out have the green AMD chips.

what is up with those chips why they all burn out so fast?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

what is up with those chips why they all burn out so fast?

Until recently, the AMD processors didn't have built in thermal throttling like their Intel counterparts. Unless you had a motherboard that had temp shutdown features, your
XP/Duron/Thoroughbred/Applebred/Barton would go up in a puff of smoke with a poorly installed heatsink.

[mouse]

Thanks for the info.
I touched one the other day and left a layer of skin from my finger tip.
that shit is hotter than coals in the bar BQ

hey you think they should give back cash to all the folks who wasted money on those chips?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Thanks for the info.
I touched one the other day and left a layer of skin from my finger tip.
that shit is hotter than coals in the bar BQ

hey you think they should give back cash to all the folks who wasted money on those chips?

No. They are very good processors, and in their day, outperformed many Intel variants in a
dollar for dollar comparison.
I've always viewed the AMD line as an "enthusiasts" market.

The newer AMD A64 chips actually run a lot cooler than Intel's Prescott based P4 processors. But now it seems that Intel is once more "king of the hill" performance wise, as they roll out their new Conroe Core2Duo dual core processor.
If anyone is seriously interested in building a new machine in the next few months, the Conroe offers affordable dual core technology with higher bus speeds that have the chip
hitting 3.6+ Ghz.