Thread: RAM and Games...

If the other stick is different, it will still work ok, just it is reccomended to have 2 of the same stick of ram, i dunno if dual channel will be available though.

The ram wont increase framerates in games, thats all down to your graphics card, it depends what games your going to be playing, most games coming out now will benefit with 2gb of ram like battlefield 2, 2142, oblivion, f.e.a.r etc..., so 2gb will help in those games.

Originally Posted by Resonance456

ATM I have 1GB Samsung PC3200 RAM (2 x 512MB) and I am looking to buy another 1GB of 3200 RAM - totaling 1.5GB.

You have 1GB at the minute (in 2 x 512MB modules) and you want to buy another 1GB?

1GB + 1GB = 2GB surely?

I'd suggest looking for some similar RAM in terms of timings, voltages etc, it should help your chances of the 2 different types working well together. Try and get the same Samsung RAM if you can. If you motherboard has 4 DIMM slots then getting another 2 x 512MB kit will allow dual channel as dual channel only works with certain configurations.

maybe he only has 2 slots, so has to take 1 512mb out which = 1.5gb.

I never noticed that part :p, i dont think dual channel will work with 1x 512mb and 1x 1gb.

I think you should get 2 1gb sticks if you only have 2 slots.

Depending on what settings you play at, additional RAM won't up your frames per second, but it will make for smoother gameplay.

Yeah. You're less likely to have pauses in the middle of the action while your system catches up.

In my experince ram can help smooth out both hitches and pauses and the frame rate. Half Life 2 used to have a lot of trouble running on high, to the point where is just wasn't playable. Adding 512 really helped bring it up to a playable standard (and Overclocking my cpu more so). Extra ram is also useful if the game requires a ton of video memory, often for games with very high quality textures, as sometimes your video card doesn't have enough vram so it can use some system memory to keep things cranking.