Which RAM should I buy?

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Diamundo

Diamundo

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Dec 3, 2013
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Hi,

I have a laptop (no desktop) which I use for basically everything that needs a PC. Studies, gaming, browsing, everything. Problem is: while I am gaming (the usual shooters: Battlefield, Call of Duty) I'm experiencing heavy amounts of lag...

So I did some research, and I've concluded I need more RAM. These are my specs (or actually, what it says on the sticker beneath the keyboard):

ACER Aspire 5742G
Intel Core i3-370M
15.6" HD LED LCD
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
4GB DDR3 of RAM
500 GB HDD (actually, that one's different, I got a 720 GB HDD after the original one died, but a part of that is for my linux partition, leaving around 550GB for my Windows partition)
DVD-Super Multi DL drive
Acer Nplify 802.11b/g/n
6-cell Li-ion battery

Not sure why I posted the last three here, as I dont think they have much to do with the problem or anything, but whatever.

So, I want to upgrade my RAM. Now here comes the ACTUAL QUESTION:

Which RAM should I choose, think of manufacturer, some sort of number in mhz, all that stuff.
About the budget: I was hoping to spend below 50$. Shipping is no problem, I have a paypal account but no creditcard.

Thanks in advance!
 
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popatim
Connection or Graphics card: it will most definitely be my graphics card, because my connection is indeed worthless: the main reason I solely play Single Player, and hardly ever Multi Player (that, and the fact that I torrent each and every game I play).
Click to expand...

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KingOfTheP4s

KingOfTheP4s

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Aug 28, 2013
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Unfortunately, from what it sounds like you may have a 32 bit operating system. With a 32 bit OS, the maximum amount of RAM that your computer can even use is 4GB, anything more than that would be unused by your computer and would be a waste. Also, for the most part RAM is RAM and what came with your computer is going to be just as fast as anything else you put in it.

Your problem lies in either your internet connection or your graphics card. If you are gaming on a laptop, I'll assume that you are using wireless internet. As convenient as Wi-FI is, it usually sucks for gaming because it tends to limit your download/upload speeds as well as your ping. Other than physically connecting an Ethernet cable to your laptop and/or upgrading your internet plan, there would be nothing you could do.

If that's not the problem, it could be your graphics card. Mobile graphics cards are severely...retarded...compared to their desktop counterparts. In order to save heat and power consumption, their performance is dialed back significantly and as a result, it can have a big impact on performance for high demand applications; like gaming. A good way to see if this is your problem is to turn down your graphics setting in your games. More than likely your lag will reduce or disappear the further you turn down these settings. Unfortunately, you can't exactly change out your graphics card on a laptop, so you will have to stick with whatever settings work best; giving you a good balance between quality and performance. So is the world of laptop gaming.
 
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Diamundo

Diamundo

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Dec 3, 2013
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KingOfTheP4s
Actually, my pc says somewhere in the Control Panel that it's a 64 bit OS. If it would've been 32 then you would be right indeed, I had also read that elsewhere already.

Connection or Graphics card: it will most definitely be my graphics card, because my connection is indeed worthless: the main reason I solely play Single Player, and hardly ever Multi Player (that, and the fact that I torrent each and every game I play).

Graphics card then: I allways standard set all settings to the lowest possible, and usually it's playable then. However, I recently played AC4BF, and while the actual game ran still quite reasonable, the cutscenes where horrible: I would first hear the entire conversation, and when that was finished, the people talking on screen had just finished the first sentence...

Also for Battlefield 4: I turned down some sort of setting from 100 (which was exact balance between graphics and smoothiness, on a scale between 0 and 200 I believe), and turned it down to 75. First half of the first mission it ran quite good, but then the lag kicked in, and I started hearing bits of conversation with stutter for a second. Then it ran quite good again, untill I ran into the next wave of enemies. LAG.
So I tried turning it even further down to 50, but still no real improvement... Plus the graphics were starting to get horrible (it started to look like modded Minecraft, it was that blocky!)

I've also started playing Need for Speed Most Wanted, and that ran reasonably well as long as I kept my speed below 140 km/h (around 85 mph?) Above that and I would lag severely, almost in terms of minutes. Then I found a setting 'LockTo30' which, well, locks the FPS to 30, and that worked quite well...

Yesterday evening I also started playing Black Ops 2, and it ran quite smooth I must say. There were moments that it was a bit slow, like when aiming a weapon, starting a mission, those things... One thing I am glad about, is at the end of every mission, the cutscene is an actual video, instead of halfass gameplay where the actors still move everything like i described above with AC4BF.

My point: there are games that will actually play quite good for a laptop. I dont really care about graphics, as long as it is reasonably nice I can work with it...

Umairs
I will check them out, thanks!
Though, how can I be sure they are compatible?

EDIT
I checked both of them out, and when looking at the shipping, I get very scared. The shipping cost is almost as much as the RAM costs... As I live in the Netherlands, I'd have to go with International Shipping.

Any other sites, with a bit cheaper international shipping? I'll also take a look at what Google has to say, might find something as well.
 
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Umairs

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Oct 30, 2013
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Well i live in US and most of the time i purchase computer components from this site.
and for compatibility issue, if you use same RAM then the chances of compatibility will be very less, sometime 2 different RAM will work but it will create problem in future.
 
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KingOfTheP4s

KingOfTheP4s

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Aug 28, 2013
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Apart form heat, which may be one thing that is causing you to lag over time, you may actually benefit a bit from more RAM, although I'm not sure how much. If you're looking for cheap ram that is still reliable, PNY makes pretty stable RAM. It's not flashy or fancy, but it can get the job done. If you are willing to spend a little more money, I'd go with the Kingston HyperX genesis RAM for your laptop. In my professional experience, Kingston makes the most reliable and highest preforming RAM, with HyperX being their performance line of RAM. However, I do recommend that if you upgrade your RAM in this fashion, either PNY or Kingston, that you replace ALL of your RAM as a mix of brands can lead to mixed performance.
 
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popatim

popatim

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Dec 2, 2009
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Connection or Graphics card: it will most definitely be my graphics card, because my connection is indeed worthless: the main reason I solely play Single Player, and hardly ever Multi Player (that, and the fact that I torrent each and every game I play).
Click to expand...

Locked and bye bye.
We here at Tom's do not support Piracy in any way, shape, or form.
 
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