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RAM or Video Card?
psydex
Member Posts: 187
Ok, well...When building my last computer I went with RDram (Who would have thought AMD would have beat out Intel for the future of ram....). For people who don't know why RDram is a pain in the ass is because you need to have the same exact slots slotted with the same exact memory. IE: 4 slots of 128, 4 slots of 256, etc. So for me to upgrade my computers RAM would cost around 4 to 5 hundred dollars to get to 1 gig (from the prices i've seen). Right now I only want to spend the money on either doubling my memory or buying a nice video card. What does everyone suggest? RAM or the video card? And if you suggest the video card, which one? I currently have a 64mb Geforce 4 Ti. Any help would be appreciated.
Comments
The ATI Radeon X700 PRO 256MB is a good budget card to get.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=14-123-148&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Video+Cards
A 6600gt is very nice for the price. Under US$200 at Newegg.
Don't get sucked into buying a mid-range 256MB card. If you get a 9550 card, you might as well save money and get the 128MB version, not the 256MB version. You won't notice any difference between them except the price.
For a video card this is what I recommend:
low range price and low performance: Geforce FX 5700 256MB - I can find this card for 93 dollars if you would like to know here it is http://www.oneclickpc.com/compatibility.aspx?product_ID=2034
low price range and mid performance: Geforce 6600 GT 128MB - I can find this card for 170 dollars if you would like to know here it is http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190327
High Price and High Performance: Geforce 6800 GT 256 Ultra - I can find this card for 377 dollars if you would like to know here it is http://www.pricewatch.com/h/BuyNow.aspx?frmProductID=5498901&frmCategoryID=37&x=57&y=4
I know all my video cars I have shown you are NVIDIA but i like the cards and that is what I would stick with. the ATI line has a little bit more performance but for a couple hundred dollars more. Hope this information was helpful.
P4 2.6 Ghz 800 Mhz FSB 512K L2 cache
PC 2700 Dual Channel DDR 512MB
120 Gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache Western
Apollo Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 256MB
Ramm Ramm Ramm Ramm Ramm Ramm Ramm Ramm
If you playing mmo's you want alot of Ramm. This is because in an MMO the amount of data that needs to be transfered is alot more then other games, considering it has to pass data on how to build several hundred to thousand players at once. I suggest getting 1 GB of ramm. The mmo's coming out later this year excluding Guild Wars will be ram intensive. You should be fine with a 128 mb vid card, as long as it isnt one of those intel internal ones; you would want a Nvidia or ATI, or that one other competitor that I forget the name to. I got my ATI Radeon 9200 for $40 and it works great.
Nvidia is usually better for games because they support a game in order for them to get better support with thier vid card. Like Nvidia runs better on WoW.
RDramm has some useful benefits but its gonna be extremely out of date when nvRAM comes out. RDram gets better bandwidth compared to DDR so when 2 equally sported ramsticks for Rdram and DDRram are put head to head, the RDram usually performs better, especially with the last series of chipsets.
Also for RDramm you only need to buy them in pairs not quads. You can put 2 128 MB in 1 slot and 2 256 MB in another. Depending on the ramm sticks you previously bought, you just might have to get them in quads, like if you got 4-128's
Personally I wouldnt bother upgrading my ramm even though it is essential for mmorpgs. I would wait until they have nvramm or better support on DDR2 since it can get 600 mhz, then get a new motherboard/chipset that supports that type of memory.