bottleneck

[Creepingdeath82]

Would there be a bottleneck in my PC is my memory ok


Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Xfx 8800 ultra
Intel Core Duo Quad@2.ghz
Corsair PC 5300 3 gig
150gig WD raptor
650 silverstone SLI PSU

 

[jitpublisher]

A bottleneck is the slowest part of the system.
What part are you worried about?
In the parts you listed, they will all work well together and provide you with about the best performance you can expect from todays hardware.
The drive is the slowest part of what you have listed.

 

[Creepingdeath82]

the memory I was wondering whether to get faster RAM

 

[rgeist554]

Go with PC6400 DDR2 ram. You may as well go with 2x2GB rather that can run in dual-channel instead of 3x single-channel. (Unless you're doing 2x1GB and 2x512MB - in which case 2x2GB will still leave you more slots open for later expansion if you choose to do so)

 

[aevm]

Try adding another Raptor and setting up RAID 0, if you want. If money is a problem replace the Ultra with an overclocked GTX, you won't lose much speed.

 

[Creepingdeath82]

Will memory buying new memory make my games run a lot better or should I just wait for DDR3? I heard raid 0 is unstable and not really worth it

 

[aevm]

DDR3 won't work with P5W DH. Also, it won't bring you much improvement over DDR2.

Is your current memory 3x1GB or 2x1GB+2x512MB? If it's 3x1GB you could add a 4th stick.

Yeah, with RAID 0 when one disk dies you lose all the files. I would only consider it for a gaming PC.

 

[Creepingdeath82]

I have 4 1 gig sticks but I only have vista 32bit so it wont reconise any higher than 3gig?

 

[rgeist554]

Probably closer to 3.5GB. Your video card can take up to 512MB for it's own mapping purposes.

*edit* I should probably add that you may want to go with 2x2GB that way you leave 2 RAM slots open in case you want to go w/ more memory in the future.

 

[aevm]

OK, I'm confused, the original post said 3 gig.

On my PC I see 3.25 GB (2x2GB minus 768MB for the video card). You should see the same because your Ultra has the same amount of RAM as my GTX.

That's a VERY nice PC, actually. Why are we talking about it? Is it not working well enough in some game?

 

[geofelt]

4 1gb sticks does not add up to 3gb. I assume you have 4gb, but your 32-bit OS can only see 3.3gb or so.

If you upgrade to 4gb of ddr2-800, you might see a 1-2% improvement in your application. Not worth it, in my opinion.

Changing to vista-64 bit would let you see all 4gb. To the extent that you avoid just a few demand page faults, it is probably better than 1-2% and a good idea.

The best way to make games run better on your system is to get a faster vga card. Look for something from Nvidia in feb.

DDR3 is very expensive, requires a new mogherboard, and does not improve application performance today. Very much not worth it.

I agree that raid-0 is not much of an improvement except for very specific environments. Games are typically not one of them. I am looking forward to an affordable SSD. I expect we will see one in a year or two.

 

[Creepingdeath82]

Games run fine I just look to ways of improving things and memory is not something I know that much about.


Thanks for all the help

 

[rgeist554]

Memory is the least of your worries when looking for bottlenecks. It does affect performance, but other components are usually the cause of bottlenecks. (Usually CPU's are the cause when using higher end GPU's)

 

[TYNieh]

I think the CPU is the bottleneck,and E6600 or Q6600 will be better,or your can replace the 8800Ultra with an GTX.By the way,U must consider whether your ram can run in dual-channel.