How much ram do i need?

[computernewb]

i have 2 gigs of ddr2 ram as of now.

what is a good amount for playing video games such as sc2 and others?

also what are the numbers behind the ddrs such as 553 800 etc?

also what is the differnce between ddr2 and ddr3?

thanks!

 

[raiyus13]

you can play most of the games with a 2gb of ram. To play almost all games you need a 3gb of ram.

DDR2 Rams are mostly of 533 and 800 MHZ

And the difference between the DDR2 and DDR3 is of the bandwidth and memory frequencies between them.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Which Motherboard and processor do you have?
usually 4Gb is going to be more than enough for gaming, although 2Gb is sufficient for minimum purposes
the numbers refer to the rated speed of the memory, I.e. 800 is faster than 533
DDR3 is a newer standard than DDR2, faster, more efficient etc, but more expensive in general,
if you want a pc thats going to be upgradeable in the future and gives your 'best' performance now, you want a DDR3 compliant Motherboard and processor
Wiki can give you more technical info on the two standards if you need.
Moto

 

[computernewb]

Which Motherboard and processor do you have?
usually 4Gb is going to be more than enough for gaming, although 2Gb is sufficient for minimum purposes
the numbers refer to the rated speed of the memory, I.e. 800 is faster than 533
DDR3 is a newer standard than DDR2, faster, more efficient etc, but more expensive in general,
if you want a pc thats going to be upgradeable in the future and gives your 'best' performance now, you want a DDR3 compliant Motherboard and processor
Wiki can give you more technical info on the two standards if you need.
Moto

i have this mobo. it supports ddr2 ram but can i put dd3 into it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...85G_AM2+_Motherboard_.-_-13-138-155-_-Product

and i have amd phenom2 x4 965 cpu

how important is the rated speed of memory say 553 compared to 1000 when you have the same amount of gigs?

thanks!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

No, it only supports DDR2 I'm afraid, if you want to move onto DDR3 its new Mobo time,
I'm not a memory buff tbh, but 533 is roughly half the performance speed of 1000 so sticks with 1066 would handle a set amount of work easier than 533 sticks with less power and creating less heat in your system,
in memory terms faster=better
Moto

 

[Cs342]

I have 3GB of DDR2-800 and it's perfectly fine, I usually have 1GB or more free when I'm playing games. It's just my processor that slows me down, it's an Intel E7500 which is considered to be quite old already since it's only a Core 2 Duo.

 

[13thmonkey]

anandtech or xbitlabs did a series of tests comparing benchmark perf on ddr vs ddr2 with the asus dual board, and there was not a lot in it between differing speeds of ram. buying new go for mid to high end stuff, but not worth upgrading for speed purposes. any old sticks of ddr2 will do it.

 

[WR2]

2 GB of RAM is good for Windows XP.
For Vista/Win7 2 GB is OK, but you'd probably be better off with 3GB and 4GB is pretty much ideal.

DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 refer to the 'generation' of RAM as improvements have reduced the amount of power the RAM needs. Examples: DDR=2.5V, DDR2=1.8V and DDR3=1.5V. So DDR3 memory has about 30% less power consumption compared to DDR2

The numbers you see most often with RAM are data rate / transfer rate(MB/s) / (IO bus clock MHz) / and Cas Latency timing. Examples:
DDR2-533 / PC2-4200 / (266MHz) / CL4
DDR2-800 / PC2-6400 / (400MHz) / CL6
DDR3-1066 / PC3-8500 / (533Mhz) / CL7
DDR3-1600 / PC3-12800 / (800Mhz) / CL9

 

[computernewb]

Best answer selected by ComputerNewb.