Will more ram help my fps?

schecterplayer

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here are my current specs(will be upgrading soon)

mobo: biostar ta 790gx 128m
cpu:phenom x4 9950 oc to 3ghz
ram: 5 gigs crucial ddr2
gpu: currently hd 4850 ( i bought a 6850 and my psu is too weak for it. will be buying a 750 watt ocz soon)
psu: thermaltake tr2 550 watt

i moniter my cpu and ram usage playing bf3. i usual get between 60 and 70 % cpu and 70 to 75% ram usage.

i want to know if adding more ram will
1. make my cpu usage go down
2. help my fps.
3.help overall system performance. ( at desktop i use about 26% ram and 0 cpu)

Thanks :)
 

schecterplayer

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thanks for the reply!
is 70 % cpu usage bad? what about 70% ram? so ur saying if i add more ram i wont get any better performance than i am now? cuz before i had 2 gigs and things were horrilbly slow, especially bf3. stuttering frames all the time. i added more ram and the frame rate went from like 20 to 40
 

loneninja

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The 2Gb you had before wasn't enough to run it smoothly, adding more helped because the program could use more, but once you have enough RAM adding more won't effect performance because the program won't utilize any more than it needs. I highly doubt adding more RAM will improve performance at this point.

Your CPU usage is fine, BF3 does a good job using multiple cores and will push any quad core to near 100% usage, especially in a 64 player game.

Right now a better video card is your best bet for improved performance.
 

schecterplayer

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ok thanks for all the info! i really want to use my 6850 but my psu is too weak. the card spins up full speed and does nothing else. i have a 550 watt psu and its pretty old and from what people tell me it was never really good
 

schecterplayer

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i know but i cant really get ahold of any matched pairs at the moment. system runs fine wth the mismatched so im good
 

schecterplayer

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k i will thanks for all ur help. when will i need to upgrade my cpu? just a thought. and what is ur take on the 6850 issue? any ideas besides the obvious?
 

schecterplayer

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well thats comforting lol. do u have a psu that u would recomend? i need over 650 watt just to be safe, good quality, fully modular, and quiet
 
RAM:
Yes, you need PAIRS of RAM. If you don't then your RAM operates at half speed which actually might not make a difference for you anyway. Still, I recommend you go with pairs. Be warned though if you mix RAM you may have issues. My advice is get a new 2x2GB kit for about $60 at NCIX and sell/give away your existing RAM.

Always run MEMTEST after adding RAM or modifying the CPU or RAM settings.

RAM and FPS:
4GB is sufficient for gaming with your setup and more will provide you no benefit.

CPU usage:
"I want my CPU usage to go down"
Uh, you can't unless you lower the quality of the game.

The fact that your CPU usage hits 75% also means you can't buy a significantly better graphics card. If you got a slightly better graphics card your CPU would go up as well. If you got a MUCH better graphics card your CPU would simply become a bottleneck and the graphics card couldn't use its full potential.

CPU heatsink:
I'm guessing noise is an issue the way you discuss it. Get a better HSF for your CPU. It has to match your motherboard socket type.

Check out NCIX. http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=41337&vpn=RR-B10-212P-G1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER&promoid=1058

I think this HSF is compatible.
(don't forget fan control in BIOS to vary fan speed. may need to set to VOLTAGE)
 

InvalidError

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When memory configuration is matched on both channels, both channels are paired up to double RAM bandwidth. When the configuration is asymmetrical, both channels are operated independently and end up with only half as much usable bandwidth when reads/writes are occurring within address ranges that tend to hit only one channel at a time.

Asymmetrical configurations work but with degraded memory performance most of the time. How badly this may affect performance depends on how (un)evenly balanced accesses between the two channels end up being and how many extra pipeline stalls the slower bursts might cause.
 

schecterplayer

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ok thanks for ur help. so i have a phenom 9950 at 3 ghz. i have a 4850 gpu now. would a 6850 be really over doing it?