DDR?

[mito]

I've got the following specs:
ECS k7s5a
256mb pc133
Athlon 133

I intend the following upgrade:
Athlon XP 1800+
512mb pc133

Should I go for a DDR 512mb pc266 memory?
My video card is a Pine XFX GeForce IV ti4200 64mb DDR.

I believe that it is not worth upgradind to DDR memories, because of its price. I'd like to hear your opinions.

Thanks.

Mito

/\/\ito

 

[HammerBot]

DDR RAM provides much higher bandwidth and you will notice it in almost all applications. So I recommend you go for DDR. However, note that your board does not support DDR and PC133 simultaneously. You will have to get rid of 256MB of PC133 RAM if you go for DDR.

PS: Read the FAQ for the correct notation of DDR and PCxxx speeds.

<i><b>Engineering is the fine art of making what you want from things you can get</b></i>
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[mito]

I agree. I'm mainly interested in games, I already have a GeForce IV ti4200 64mb ddr. I intend upgrading to an Athlon 1800+ XP.

Regarding DDR memory, it's almost double the price. This is quite disappointing. A 512mb pc133 is almost the same price as a 256mb DDR...

thanks.

/\/\ito

 

[knowan]

Because of the chipset in your k7s5a mobo, I would not recommend going above pc2100 DDR. Anything above that will be wasted as it is throttled back by the chipset.

Most users can expect about a 20% increase by switching to DDR. In you case you can expect about a 15% increase due to the chipset. It's up to you whether the increased performance is worth the increased price.

--------------
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[phial]

if your going to spend that much money on 512megs of SDR ram, then you would be much better off going with 256megs of pc2100 DDRram at CL2. you will notice a diff if you ran benchmarks on your comp with and without the DDR. its definately worth it..

and if your concerned about not having enuff ram if you only get 256megs, dont worry about it. I thought the same thing when i upgraded and I bought 384megs of DDR2100. I check very very often and i have yet to see the extra ram being used.... unless your a poweruser its not worth it

for example, right now I have 3 browser windows open, windowsXP pro running, Kazaa, ICQ, Winamp, Norton System works, and quake3 minimized and i only have 220megs used... rofl

 

[mito]

When I run Soldier of Fortune II at max specs (high details), I see through task manager that that memory consumption goes up to 1Gb. So it's all of my 256ram being used, plus 756mb of virtual memory (peak).

With Mafia, memory consumption reaches almost 500Mb (peak).

Any comments?

/\/\ito

 

[mito]

Aren't those the virtual memory settings? If I limit it to 220Mb, the system would crash, because many apps (heavy games at max settigs for instance) will require almost 500mb max peak, right?

Please explain further.

Thanks.



/\/\ito

 

[mito]

Why should MIN and MAX virtual memory be exactly the same?
Thank you.



/\/\ito

 

[eden]

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