How much difference in games would 1gb of ram in dual mode make compared to 512?

[McGraw]

I can either get 1gb of Ram and a 3200+ cpu or 512mb and a 3500+.

I can upgrade the Ram next month but I'm thinking that 512mb will cripple my rig.

Any thoughts?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by McGraw

I can either get 1gb of Ram and a 3200+ cpu or 512mb and a 3500+.

I can upgrade the Ram next month but I'm thinking that 512mb will cripple my rig.

Any thoughts?

an extra 512mb will prevent a lot of disk swappage for memory hungry applications but running it in dual mode will not have any noticeable performance increase, you can always overclock the 3200+ anyway so I'd probably go for that.

[McGraw]

Yeah, was just think that that extra 9% performance comes at 50% extra price. That can be gained for free.

Whilst I'm on the subject, if I run 4 sticks, that will drop the memory to 333mhz, will that make much difference?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by McGraw

Yeah, was just think that that extra 9% performance comes at 50% extra price. That can be gained for free.

Whilst I'm on the subject, if I run 4 sticks, that will drop the memory to 333mhz, will that make much difference?

Most A64 motherboards will drop it to 333mhz, you might notice a slight degradation in performance but as you're gaming it'll be more reliant on the video card than the memory bandwidth.

Originally Posted by McGraw

Yeah, was just think that that extra 9% performance comes at 50% extra price. That can be gained for free.

Whilst I'm on the subject, if I run 4 sticks, that will drop the memory to 333mhz, will that make much difference?

Dual channel has to have the same amount of ram of each channel,so if you have 2x 256 on channel a just put 1x 512 on channel 2 giving you dual channel and maintaining bus speed

[bmxbandit]

some mobos only allow you to use two sticks of ram in dual channel, so check before you buy!

i'd say 2x512 in dual channel, and a 3200+ would be your best bet

[jtwn]

Before long, 1gb of ram will become the standard for 'recommended'; i would get the extra ram.

Most high end games right now, are more graphics limited than cpu.

Originally Posted by jtwn

Before long, 1gb of ram will become the standard for 'recommended'; i would get the extra ram.

Most high end games right now, are more graphics limited than cpu.

I would agree they are more limited by gfx core and inadequate memory on the gfx card,most games even high end ones run on machines with less than a 2ghz cpu,where as the high end games need much more graphics ram and a better gpu
Having said that I would rarely recommend any none 64 bit cpu now(unless budget is well tight and an office machine is required) and i would always advise on soc 939 boards

[McGraw]

Sorry, I meant run the 512 as 1 stick with a view to upgrade.

Upped the budget now so having a rethink.